West Virginia gets rolled by Sooners

West Virginia went into Norman, Oklahoma without their starting quarterback Will Grier and it was evident early that head coach Dana Holgorsen and offensive coordinator Jake Spavital put together a game plan that we have yet to see since Dana set foot in Morgantown.

They installed the wildcat formation with Kennedy Mckoy making the decisions.  The plan was affective, and the Mountaineers accumulated 250 yards rushing on the night.

Baker Mayfield was suspended to start the game, and backup up quarterback Kyler Murray started the game.  On the first play of the game, he tucked the ball and ran for 66 yards down to the WVU 4-yard line.  Rodney Anderson ran it in the end zone on just the second play of the game

The Mountaineers would put a nice drive together, on the ensuing possession, mixing it up with the wildcat formation, but the drive would stall at the 11-yard line and Evan Staley would put 3 on the board.

Baker Mayfield came in on the Sooners second possession and drove right down the field and scored, to put the Sooners up 14-3. Yes, Mayfield served a 2-play suspension.

Following Mayfield’s first touchdown drive, West Virginia drove down the field till a crucial fumble by Justin Crawford at the Oklahoma 11-yard line gave the Sooners the ball back, late in the first quarter.  The Sooners would go right down the field for another Touchdown.

After a West Virginia touchdown to cut the cut the Oklahoma lead, 21-10, Dana Holgorsen rolled the dice on an onside kick, that was recovered, but it didn’t travel the full 10 yards, it went about 9.9 yards.

Oklahoma would score a touchdown on their first 6 possessions and would get a field goal on their 7^th possession with 4 secs left in the first half, after West Virginia fumbled on a kickoff return trying to make a play by lateraling the ball back to make it 45-10 Oklahoma at halftime.

The defense did not stop the Sooner offense until Baker Mayfield was out of the game and they already had 59 points.

Oklahoma had 3 plays over 50 yards, 2 of them were of 60.

It wasn’t much of a surprise that West Virginia lost or by the margin, but it was the lack of defense.  Yes, Oklahoma has the best offense in the country, but they didn’t even have to work to score.  They never challenged the Oklahoma offense, they did whatever they wanted.

Oklahoma averaged 12 yards per play, that set their school record.  That is completely unacceptable, and for the second time this season West Virginia gave up 50 points.

The offense could have played better and there is no doubt that Will Grier would have made a difference, but I did like the game plan the staff put together on offense.

West Virginia falls to 7-5 on the season and 5-4 in conference play.