Bucked by the Buckskins — Texas’ mistakes are too much to overcome in 38-20 loss to West Virginia

By Steve Habel/Senior Editor

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia – If the fat lady isn’t singing about the Texas football team’s bowl chances after a 38-20 loss to West Virginia Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium, she’s dressed in her oversize gown and waiting in the wings to take the stage.

There were times when the Longhorns looked like the best team on the field in the cool and blustery afternoon in the West Virginia foothills but they were doomed by five turnovers and a handful of untimely penalties. Combine those mistakes with indecisive playcalling and a rapidly improving Mountaineer team and the Longhorns find themselves on the cusp of missing a postseason game for the second time since 2010.

“We played hard today [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]but we didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball and that cost us,” Texas coach Charlie Strong said. “We’ve got two more to play, so we’ve got to learn from this and get better.”

Texas (4-6, 3-4 in Big 12 play) outgained West Virginia 439-379 and in every offensive category. But it also allowed the Mountaineers 257 rushing yards and, again, couldn’t make the plays when it needed to the most.

“We moved the ball well –we had almost 300 yards rushing – and they never stopped us, we just stopped ourselves,” Strong said. “You can’t make mistakes like we did and expect to beat a good football team.”

The Longhorns continued their year-long struggle on the road, dropping their fourth “true” road game of the season. Texas has now been outscored 150-30 in games away from home or at a neutral site and has been outgained by an average of 204 yards in those four games.

Texas got on the board first, using a 30-yard pass from quarterback Jerrod Heard to tight end Caleb Bluiett to set the table for 31-yard field goal by Nick Rose and a 3-0 Longhorns’ lead at the 7:31 mark of the first quarter.

The Longhorns then all but handed West Virginia (5-4, 2-4 in Big 12) seven points and the momentum when D’Onta Foreman dribbled a handoff from Heard on a sweep left. The fumble was scooped up by Mountaineers’ linebacker Jared Barber, who rumbled untouched 42 yards for a touchdown and a 7-3 lead with 3:39 left in the opening quarter.

Foreman immediately atoned for his mistake, streaking away on a 65-yard TD run on the ensuing offensive snap and a 10-7 Texas lead. At that point, it looked like the Longhorns were the best team and could have their way with West Virginia.

But the second quarter belonged to the Mountaineers, with a heaping of help from mistakes by Texas.

After a punt pinned the Longhorns back at their own 1-yard line and 19 yards of offense in six snaps, Texas punter Michael Dickson could not kick the team out of trouble and West Virginia took charge at its own 44-yard line. It took the Mountaineers eight plays to march the 56 yards to a 1-yard scoring plunge by fullback Elijah Wellman that handed West Virginia a 14-10 lead with 8:17 to play until halftime.

Texas responded with a good drive as marshaled by Tyrone Swoopes, driving from its own 21 to the WVU 25 before the Longhorns’ short-yardage quarterback fumbled while being tackled in the backfield. The Mountaineers took advantage of the turnover, as quarterback Skyler Howard hit Jovan Durante with a perfectly executed 53-yard bomb to push the West Virginia lead to 21-10 at the half.

“That play really hurt us because we had a chance to go to the half with the game 14-10 or even closer if we score like it looked like we would do,” Texas defensive coordinator Vance Bedford said. “The West Virginia defense just made a few more plays than we did.”

The Longhorns needed some life and showed some on the opening drive of the third quarter, moving 80 yards in 15 plays to a 5-yard TD pass from Heard to Daje Johnson that cut the West Virginia advantage to 21-17.

But the drive used 6:21 of the clock, a scenario that would have been advantageous if the Longhorns were ahead rather than behind. With Texas’ style of run-first offense, it’s hard for it to come from behind – that means it’s imperative to be able to switch the field with great punting or force turnovers to create short-field chances.

The clock worked even more against Texas when West Virginia added a touchdown on a 8-yard pass by Howard to Daikiel Shorts and a 19-yard field goal by Josh Lambert on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Longhorns took advantage of a short field after a bad punt to march into the red zone but had to settle for a 34-yard Rose field goal with 9:24 to play. Points are points, but the kick left Texas two scores behind with the time ticking away.

Any Texas comeback chance was extinguished by West Virginia on the following possession. The Mountaineers took over after Heard threw his second interception of the game and drove eight plays in 48 yards to Howard’s 2-yard TD run to boost their lead to 38-20.

The Longhorns will have 12 days to nurse their wounds before returning to the fray at home against Texas Tech on Thanksgiving night. There’s no margin for error for Texas now – it must win its final two games (versus the Red Raiders and on the road at Baylor on Dec. 5) to earn a spot in a bowl game.

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