Dana Takes the Blame In Loss to Iowa State

The West Virginia Mountaineers dropped their first game of the season Saturday night. Iowa State put it to the Mountaineers 30-14 in dominating fashion. WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen praise the Cyclones in their win. “Hats off to Iowa State they played a heck of a game. Shut us down for four quarters. Played to win.”

He might have commended Iowa State, but quickly turned his attention over to his to himself and his team. More specifically the offense that only managed 152 total yards.

“It’s the worst offensive performance I’ve seen in my 30 years of coaching.” said Holgorsen.

“We didn’t make plays. We didn’t keep our eyes where they needed to be. We didn’t run fast. We didn’t get off coverage. We didn’t make good decisions. We didn’t call good plays. We didn’t play with effort. We didn’t block. We didn’t do everything.” Explained Dana.

He didn’t see this type of performance in practice leading up to the game. “I thought we practiced alright. We’re either the hottest/best offense in the country. Or we’re the slowest/worst offense in the country. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. Whatever it is I gotta fix it. Whatever I’m doing is not good enough. I gotta fix it.”

Iowa State didn’t do anything special defensively. They were dropping eight defenders most of the game and letting the guys up front do the work.

“They dropped 8 the whole time. And then when they blitzed they blitzed with two extra guys. They didn’t come up with the magical defense to be able to stop what we do. We didn’t do anything right.” Described Holgorsen.

Cyclones Freshman quarterback Brock Purdy made some big plays throughout the game. He ended the night with 254 yards on 18-25 passing and three touchdowns. He also made some plays with his legs tallying 39 yards on the ground.

“He (Purdy) does a great job of extending plays. Keeps his eyes down field.  He does a little pump fake thing. Which is something you teach in junior high and you can’t leave your feet. It’s tempting. We took the bait. It’s not like we didn’t have film of him doing that last week. But he’s a good player. He runs around and makes plays. Throws an accurate ball. (He) Does a good job in the quarterback run game.” Said Dana.

Preseason All-Big 12 selection running back David Montgomery was back in the lineup Saturday night, after missing last week with an upper arm injury, and he ran through the Mountaineer defense for 189 yards and a touchdown.

“Obviously Iowa State is a different team with 32 (Montgomery) in there. 32 is a heck of player. Different team with him in there.” Explained Holgorsen.

The defense held their own after giving up 20 points in the first half then only giving up eight in the second. However, they did give up 498 yards of offense and 25 first downs.

“Couldn’t tackle in the first half. Was leaving our feet way too much. Thought we settled in and played decent. I don’t think our critical downs were very good.” Recounted Dana.

“There’s enough blame to go around for everybody. If that’s the case. The one you need to look at is right here. That’s the bottom line, I didn’t get our guys ready to play.” Emphasized Dana.

Holgorsen isn’t going to coddle his team. They might have thought they were going to have a nice bye week coming up, but it’s going to be awhile before they get another opportunity to get in the win column.

“We’ll stay on schedule. Go back in there and practice and get rid of this game. I know we’re about to have a bye week which we can use right now. They ain’t getting any time off I can assure you of that.”

West Virginia will host Baylor on Thursday night October 25^th.