Boos rained down on Mountaineer Field as WVU quarterback Jarret Doege’s final pass sailed out of bounds to hand the Mountaineers yet another loss in the waning moments.
Doege’s last pass, though, may have been one of the few negative aspects of his game — at least the second half — on Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium. With 9 seconds remaining at their own 38-yard line, he held the ball far too long and the clock expired.
That costly ending may overshadow what was a great second half for the maligned signal-caller. Doege was 19-25 in the second half for 276 yards and two touchdowns. After weeks of his benching being called by the masses, he played well enough to win.
But where the Mountaineers’ issues arose were in a horrific first half, which put them down 17-0 to the Red Raiders going into the locker room.
Head coach Neal Brown was quick to defend Doege after the game, and pointed the blame in his direction.
“I apologize to our fans. I’m pissed at how we played in the first half,” Brown said. “The energy level was exceeded by theirs. It’s not good enough. Gave ourselves a hole that we struggled to dig out of.
“If people want to get pissed at me, that’s fine. I’m fine with that, but that kid (Doege) played well in the second half. If you want to be upset with all of us in the second half, fair.”
If the head coach opens the door to point fingers … there were several instances Brown made questionable decisions, but it all started pregame before the game even kicked off.
Defensive tackle Dante Stills, wide receiver Isaiah Esdale, safety Sean Mahone and Brown himself said the energy level was dreadful during warmups, and that carried into the start of the game on offense and defense.
WVU had just four first half possessions, resulting in just 104 yards and no points, while Texas Tech scored on three of their five possessions in the first two quarters.
“it caught me off guard. We practiced well Tuesday and Wednesday. That’s usually a good indicator,” Brown said. “We did not play well in the first half. That’s not going to be good enough. I told our team that, I told our staff that. It’s not going to be good enough.”
In-game decisions were also puzzling, especially calling two timeouts on first down in the red zone. On the first drive of the third quarter, the Mountaineers were humming on offense and got to the Texas Tech 4-yard line when backup QB Garrett Greene replaced Doege on 1st down.
Despite just coming in from the sideline, Greene didn’t have the play call and forced Brown to call a timeout. Fortunately, running back Leddie Brown scored on the next play anyway.
Later, on the next to last possession, WVU was again putting together a strong drive to the TTU 12-yard line, but Brown again called a timeout on first down, leaving the Mountaineers with one.
On the Red Raiders’ final possessions where they ultimately kicked the game-winning field goal, WVU didn’t have the timeouts needed to stop the clock, so Tech was able to bleed it down to 18 seconds left
“On the second one, we had the wrong personnel grouping, and that’s on me. You can blame me,” Brown said. “We had good plays, we should have scored a touchdown.”
And for the last error in judgement by Brown, which he later admitted himself, was settling for a field goal to tie the game late rather than going for the touchdown on 4th and 4 from the Texas Tech 6.
Doege appeared to miss Leddie Brown open in the end zone on the play prior on 3rd down.
“I should have (gone for it),” Brown said. “When you look back, you always [question decisions]. That’s the one play.
You’re down by 3, so you’re rolling the dice, but the thought goes through your mind. We kicked a field goal and
tied it. Then they went 80 yards on us. As a coach, you’re thinking that we’ve gotten after them other than the field
goal in the second half. We had a really good kick, pinned them back to start on the 11, but they hit the big play.”
Brown is now 0-3 against Texas Tech, and his counterpart for the Red Raiders Matt Wells has won just 12 games the last three years, coming in the same year as Brown in 2019.
Easy math says 25% of Wells’ wins have come against the Mountaineers.
With two road games next for WVU, the Mountaineers are staring 2-5 in the face. In Year 3, many are starting to doubt the climb, fair or not.
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