Late two-point conversion lifts West Virginia past Texas

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — There will be plenty of talk over the next few days that the gutsy, two-point-conversion run by West Virginia quarterback Will Grier at the end of the game was the difference in West Virginia’s wild 42-41 win over Texas Saturday afternoon at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

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But what really decided this game — in every way except on the scoreboard — was the suddenly porous Longhorn defense’s inability to stop the run, especially with the game on the line.

Grier hit Gary Jennings on a 33-yard touchdown pass with 16 seconds to play to bring the No. 13 Mountaineers to within a point. After a timeout, Grier then scooted around the left end on an all-or-nothing two-point conversion run that stunned the home crowd of 100,703 and put West Virginia ahead for good by a mere point.

“We’ve got to make sure that this one stings,” Texas head coach Tom Herman said after the loss. “Obviously to have this happen at home and the way that it happened is a tough pill to swallow. You’ve got to stop the run, or you’re going to bleed a slow death, and for the most part we couldn’t tonight.”

Texas had a real chance to win this one. With the game tied at 34, Longhorn quarterback Sam Ehlinger stepped up to avoid the rush from West Virginia’s David Long, Jr., and hit Devin Duvernay, who got behind Mountaineers’ cornerback Josh Norwood, in stride for a 48-yard score with 2:34 to play.

But that left too much time for Grier, who threw for 346 yards and three touchdowns in the win, and the Mountaineers. WVU drove 75 yards in seven plays to the touchdown pass to Jennings — it had to be a perfect pass, and was. West Virginia (7-1 overall, 4-1 in Big 12 play) then eschewed the sure-thing extra point kick for a do-or-die two-point conversion run and the heart-stopping victory.

“We just didn’t play good, period,” said Texas defensive end Charles Omenihu.

Texas (6-3 overall, 4-2 in Big 12 play) lost for the second straight game after winning six straight to move to as high as No. 6 in the nation.

“We played pretty well offensively but we just didn’t do enough to win,” Ehlinger said afterward.

The Longhorns allowed West Virginia 232 yards on the ground, an average of seven yards per carry — numbers that even a great offensive performance found impossible to overcome.

“We knew we had to run the football,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We did a great job during the week of scheming some things up. We’re just an experienced, mature football team that is able to withstand momentum swings throughout a game … and we did.”

Ehlinger outdueled Grier on the stat sheet, throwing for 356 yards and three touchdowns, but the erstwhile Heisman Trophy candidate had the final say.

“We can’t control the past. We can’t do anything about what’s happened the past two weeks,” Ehlinger said. “We have to focus on the future. That’s the biggest message. When we play well, we are unstoppable. When we don’t, other teams can beat us.”

Omenihu, who was despondent after the game, said he tried to warn his teammates about the impending two-point play before the Mountaineers made the winning score.

“I knew after West Virginia called time out, I knew what they were going to do, and I was screaming it out,” Omenihu saida “and (Grier) did it and walked into the end zone. I don’t know what it was — it just wasn’t defended. The scoreboard says 42-41 West Virginia. We lost.”

Back and forth all the way

West Virginia scored on the game’s opening possession, moving 42 yards in 11 plays to set up Evan Staley’s knuckleball 45-yard field goal into the wind, which resulted in a 3-0 Mountaineer lead with 11:03 to play in the first quarter. It was the seventh time in nine games that the Longhorns have surrendered points on an opponent’s opening drive.

Texas got on the board with 4:36 to play in the first quarter on an Ehlinger 1-yard touchdown run. The score was set up when UT’s signalcaller beat an all-out West Virginia blitz with a lob off his back foot to the front corner of the end zone, where Lil’Jordan Humphrey snagged the ball over cornerback Toyous Avery, Jr. at the WVU 1-yard line.

Grier hit David Sills on a 60-yard touchdown pass to give the Mountaineers a 10-7 lead when freshman safety Caden Sterns let the talented wideout get past him and into open space. Sills motioned “’Horns Down” to the crowd and was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for the gesture.

That 15-yard walk off, combined with another unsportsmanlike conduct flag (and ejection) on West Virginia’s All-America starting left tackle Yodny Cajuste on the extra point, forced the Mountaineers to kick off from their own 10-yard line and Humphrey’s 29-yard return allowed Texas to begin its drive at the WVU 39.

From there it took the Longhorns just three plays to find paydirt, as Ehlinger hit Humphrey for a 21-yard touchdown pass to give Texas a 14-10 advantage with 1:50 to play in the opening quarter.

Grier answered by shrugging off a left leg injury caused by a horsecollar tackle by the Longhorns’ Malcolm Roach to find Sills for another touchdown, this one on an 18-yard connection over UT’s Josh Thompson on the second snap of the second quarter, a play that gave West Virginia a 17-14 lead.

Texas drove from its own 25 to a 5-yard touchdown by Tre Watson in 11 plays to regain the lead, at 21-17, with 10:04 to play in the second quarter. The key play on the drive was a 26-yard fourth-down completion from Ehlinger to Collin Johnson.

The back-and-forth action continued as West Virginia jumped back in front when Martell Pettaway flew through into a big hole off right tackle, shrugged off Sterns’ attempt to slow him down, and sprinted 55 yards for a touchdown and a 24-21 Mountaineers’ lead, with 7:36 still to play before halftime.

That was enough time for the Longhorns, who used nine plays to march 75 yards to a 32-yard touchdown pass from Ehlinger to Watson on Texas’ trusty wheel route out of the backfield that granted UT a 28-24 advantage.

West Virginia still was able to add to the lead before intermission, driving to the Texas 27 before settling for a 44-yard Staley field goal to cut the Longhorns advantage to 28-27.

The Mountaineers outgained Texas, 348-266, in the half, with a 142-77 advantage on the ground. West Virginia had 12 penalties for 95 yards in the first two quarters.

Things slowed down a bit in the third quarter, as Ehlinger was denied on fourth-down-and-one from the WVU 20 on Texas’ opening drive of the second half. After stopping the Mountaineers, Texas drove to 49 yards in nine plays to a Cameron Dicker 22-yard field goal to expand the Longhorns’ lead to 31-27.

The Texas defense stopped West Virginia’s Kennedy McCoy on fourth down and one from the UT 20-yard line on the final play of the third quarter to keep the Mountaineers from closing the margin.

Dicker added a 38-yard field goal with 9:38 to play in the game after a 59-yard, nine-play possession to move the Texas lead to 34-27. West Virginia finally punched back as Pettaway rambled 13 yards for the tying touchdown with 5:40 to play in the fourth quarter.

Texas likely will drop out of the CFP rankings after the loss, and still has plenty of work to do, beginning with next Saturday’s game in Lubbock against resurgent Texas Tech.

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