MORGANTOWN — Words and even the names of teammates slipped the mind of West Virginia offensive lineman Zach Frazier, as he tried to explain what happened in the Mountaineers’ 48-10 loss against Texas Tech on Saturday.
It was hard to blame him.
Injuries forced new guys into the rotation on the offensive line, while the Mountaineers (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) finished the game with C.J. Donaldson as the only healthy running back.
The end result was just 10 points and 282 yards, the fewest in both categories since last season’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl loss against Minnesota.
“We never got going on offense,” Frazier said. “That’s very disappointing. We put one drive together. Other than that, we just couldn’t finish. It was little things, little mistakes and you just can’t have that. You’ve got to have all 11 guys on the same page.”
WVU quarterback J.T. Daniels threw three interceptions and Donaldson fumbled once — four turnovers that turned into 17 points for the Red Raiders (4-3, 2-2).
Jordan White and Tomas Rimac were called into action on the line.
James Gmiter was injured during the week leading up to the game and didn’t travel with the team to Lubbock, while Wyatt Milum was injured in the first half.
Frazier said the new faces were no excuse for the poor offensive play.
“I’ve worked with them throughout fall camp and throughout the season,” he said. “That really wasn’t an issue, I don’t think. We’ve just got to … I don’t know … I don’t know.”
The answers did not come easy for the Mountaineers, who will now face three AP Top 25 teams over their final five games — beginning with undefeated and No. 7 TCU — needing three wins just to become bowl eligible.
That is not a pretty picture considering now we don’t know how long running back Tony Mathis Jr. and Justin Johnson Jr. will be out.
Tight end Mike O’Laughlin is already out for the rest of the season with a knee injury.
Daniels is showing signs of struggle, too. He’s thrown four interceptions in the last two games and Texas Tech jumped all over WVU’s quick screens on Saturday and then wrestled the ball away from WVU receivers when the Mountaineers tried to go downfield.
“Offensively, we were just bad. We didn’t play well at any position,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “We had four turnovers, two of them on balls that got taken away from us. Our receivers were a non-factor in the game.”
WVU’s offensive line may need some patching up if Gmiter is unable to return against the Horned Frogs.
“It sucks. I feel like we’ve had a lot of trouble with injuries,” Frazier said.
Whatever WVU is able to throw together on offense, it will have to be geared to getting some type of points on nearly every possession against TCU.
The Horned Frogs come in as the highest-scoring team in the Big 12 (44.7 points per game) and is also the only team in the conference averaging more than 500 yards of offense per outing.
“We’ve got to be better,” Brown said. “We ran the ball at time O.K. The turnovers should not happen. Those are not forced turnovers and they just kicked out tail in man coverage. It is what it is.”
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