COMMENTARY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — It takes one look at Oklahoma State’s last offensive possession of the game to tell the story of its 27-13 win over WVU on Saturday afternoon at Boone Pickens Stadium.
After grabbing a first down that appeared to end the game, center Ry Schenider snapped the ball high and quarterback Shane Illingworth muffed the ball. Running backward and clanging against running back Chuba Hubbard, Illingworth finally recovered for a loss of 11.
Regardless, Illingworth got the ball back, and a play later, Hubbard ran into the end zone for a touchdown, putting the Cowboys up two touchdowns and officially sealing the win.
If the ball bounced the Mountaineers’ way, it would have given them the ball back down a touchdown with just under two minutes left. That was the fourth — fourth — fumble for Oklahoma State that it was able to recover.
WVU had just one fumble the entire game — a third down sack against Jarret Doege in the third quarter, and sticking with the theme of the night, bounced right into the arm’s of OSU’s Tyren Irby, and he rumbled 60 yards for a touchdown.
“I think you make your own breaks, I really do,” WVU coach Neal Brown said. “We had opportunities to get on all [the fumbles], really, and we just didn’t do it. We have to look back and get hats to the ball, but what was the difference? We put the ball on the ground once on a strip and they pick it up and run it in. They put it on the ground four times and we don’t take advantage of it.”
As the old cliche goes, the Mountaineers were the better team against the Pokes, despite losing by two touchdowns, and beat themselves.
Brown won’t admit it in his postgame, and he didn’t, crediting the Cowboys for making the simple plays while WVU did not. And he was right, which goes back to the original point. OSU did not do anything extraordinary, especially for a team with a Heisman contender in Hubbard and Biletnikoff Award fnalist Tylan Wallace.
Oklahoma State didn’t do anything special, heralded as one of the best and easily the most experienced teams in the Big 12 this season. And look no further than the first half, as WVU dominated nearly all of the first two quarters, yet trailed 20-7.
The Mountaineers outgained the Cowboys in total yards, 270-213, and had the ball for 4 1/2 minutes longer.
Even in the second half, the total yards and time of possession were close enough to keep WVU within striking distance.
However, penalties were a major difference in the final score. Brown said last week he wanted his team to clean up penalties following the Eastern Kentucky game, but it was much worse against Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers finished with 12 infractions for 106 yards, many in key situations that either continued drives defensively, or ended drives prematurely offensively.
“The law of averages work out for you if you’re doing things the right way,” Brown said. “We didn’t take advantage [Saturday]. We’ve gotta get better. This was disappointing. Was this a measuring stick? Absolutely, it was. We didn’t pass this test and a lot of it has to do with Oklahoma State. They’ve been winning games for a long time, and they understand how to win close games and not beat themselves. We’re not at that point.
“That’s the rude awakening of this game is we are not at that point. So how do we handle the next week? How do we come back after not playing and competing like we need to compete against one of the top teams in our league? We have to regroup, handle adversity and gotta get better, because we got a lot of guys who will be here two or three years. So we gotta get better.”
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