Wyoming Post-Game

[BeauFoster]

Also, I don't remember anyone crediting Coach Clark for his use of time-outs in the first half when he set us up for a 50 yard FG.

At the beginning of that drive I wasn’t sure we’d make it work, but it was really well done. We talked about that in the stands at halftime. Definitely deserves credit for that game management

[pop5app]

Also, I don't remember anyone crediting Coach Clark for his use of time-outs in the first half when he set us up for a 50 yard FG.

The one that allowed us to steal 3 points back? And most people are complaining about the FGs and thought we should go for it on one of those... so, if we go for it and get it, that's an extra 4 points...

We got an extra 3. So, not going for it on one of those FGs in the first half only netted them a 1 point difference?

Be careful with all those excuses though! If Clark was any good, he would have been able to score a TD at the end of the first half. FIRE HIM NOW!!!!

My issue was not that we kicked field goals on 4th down. It was the play calling that got us to 4th down. In particular on the next to last drive. It simply looked like we decided to play for the field goal. And yes, what Coach did at the end of the first half was awesome. My biggest problem was the drive that ended in the blocked field goal and having to basically waste 2 time outs. We have to start beating teams with wining records!!!

I’m with you on this point! The plays leading up to the field goals are the issue. 1st and goal twice and we haven’t thrown into the end zone yet, it’s as if we are Playing for the field goal? Team had worked too hard to come away with only three so many times. If We attempt on fourth down and don’t make it, so be it. Wyoming still has 90+ yards to score. Playing for field goals will come back to haunt you. The CBS announcers agreed.

[AppState80]

As someone else said - Gut Wrenching loss for players, coaches and fans. I rarely post, mostly read. This was a well played ball game. From a fan prospective watching on TV I was glued to the game. The drive that set up the field goal before the half was a thing of beauty and the use of time outs. My stomach churned though as I felt to run the clock down with the around 7 minutes left in game was too much to ask for. My thought with the around 17 seconds and not yet 4th down maybe go ahead and kick the field goal with no time outs left, ala the Michigan game. Bad things can happen.

Our team had to have known they may blitz on our last offensive possession as our options were limited. It was a terrible ending for us, a real shame as not even a field goal attempt and our kicker full of confidence. We were not prepared for that moment and that situation, we were not. Why did we not have the quick hitter out of bounds play? Either receiver is open or thrown it out of bounds. Lots of shoulda, coulda, woulda, ifs and buts. Wyoming is really good, it would have been a great win. Our last 4 games of season are brutal, my guess all 4 of those teams will have AP top 25 votes at some time during season, even GS. Beat ULM Saturday. One game at a time.

[app97]

Appears it's time for this again...

https://www.betterhelp.com/

[huskie3]

I was at the game. I noticed that after several bootlegs by Joey, Wyoming had a spy on him who blitzed any roll out.

[AtlAppMan]

Here is another angle/consideration to take into account. We all know and agree that statistically the longer you have to drive the less percentage success you have of scoring or scoring TD vs FG. Its exponentially harder the further you have to go.

App
Drive 1: starting at 25, 67 yrds, FG
Drive 2: starting at 2, 87 yrds, FG
Drive 5: starting at 10, 87 yrds, FG
Drive 6: starting at 50, 18 yrds (18 sec), FG

This was part of the Wyoming game plan to make us work hard to get scores and it worked. Their special teams/punter put us at the 2, 5, 10 and 16 on four of the possessions. You cannot discount that aspect of the game.

[appgrad95&97]

OK - I just don't want to go back through all the gameday posts - I never check-in nor post during a game -
1. Nobody reasonably thought we would playing in the NY6 game - Correct?
2. The realistic goal of conference championship is still 100% in front of us
3. Bowl game opportunities are going to be there
As for the Wyoming game I am sure many will have comments many possibly in the other threads but feel free to add here.
For me - It was a crushing defeat but, please, take my word for it, as a 70+ year fan of WVU, I and all WV fans have witnessed so many games ending like this - "the only way we are going to lose this game is this if ...................................."

- I thought we had a perfect game plan - beating them at their own game controlling the ball, working the clock, everything but we settled for FGs
- I'm sure some will have comments about coaching so go to it - personally, only a couple of play calls confused me
- The Defense was the best I have seen in some time - swarming to the ball, great coverage and solid tackling - Minus the 75 yd run (which we can't erase) they we held to 125 Total Yards - this team that the announcers continually reminded us could absolutely win the MW title ---

Sorry why was NY6 not a reasonable stretch goal? Yes losing to unc in double OT was a big blow but the G5 race is wide open this year. Beating WYO was mandatory for that. But it’s ok to set lofty goals and not make them. I wish he would say that.

Personally I thought and think Clark has good game plans and prepares the team generally well(outside of UL 2021 and TXST). It’s his in game coaching that is atrocious. Burning the timeouts was inexcusable.

You can overlook the 4 fg despite questionable play calling in the red zone because we knew points were at a premium and our D was playing lights out but the TOs are 100% on clark

I would, personally, add Marshall in 2020 to those two.

[mike87]

The thing I cannot get past is the complete domination. If the game was statistically even and had been evenly matched on the field then yeah, I can see saying a couple of fluke plays turned the tide. But you absolutely cannot lose a game where you were so completely dominant on both sides of the ball. We should have never been in a place where a fluke could decide that game.

It's not the domination of stats that matters in a game like this - It's the score - In a low scoring game - a defensive battle - one or two plays can absolutely make the difference. Their punter kept us in the hole most of the game - when you have to go 98 yards to score instead of 60, stats can be accumulated but the extra yardage makes it substantially harder to score.

It shouldn't have been low scoring. There are no excuses for this game being a loss. A fluke play should have been irrelevant to the outcome.

Take our last drive out of the stats and they even up considerably. We played really well but we didn't dominate the entire game. That last drive was a lot of time and a lot of made 3rd downs. Taking the points on field goals was a good decision at the time as were each of the timeouts. If all you look at are stats and aren't at the game and in the moment it's easier to be critical. Even just watching on TV, it isn't the same. Wyoming has a good team and a good gameday environment.

[BambooRdApp]

Just re-watched the game. That last play did not appear to be a screen. Noel was in full block mode and all linemen were blocking and backing up. On a screen, you normally see a lineman appear to block and then slide to set up screen. If it was a screen, it was poorly executed by the linemen and the RB. Just my opinion on viewing the replay.

[WASU 93]

Just re-watched the game. That last play did not appear to be a screen. Noel was in full block mode and all linemen were blocking and backing up. On a screen, you normally see a lineman appear to block and then slide to set up screen. If it was a screen, it was poorly executed by the linemen and the RB. Just my opinion on viewing the replay.

Maybe it was designed to be a dump pass, but Nate went to the line of scrimmage, (he did throw a block) didn’t run a pass pattern and turned around towards the QB as the pass was released.

They rushed 7 (against 6 in protection, if you include Noel) and three guys game free up the middle. One would think that would indicate a screen, unless we just totally blew the blocking assignment.

[GSUwasGump’sFallbackSchool]

Just re-watched the game. That last play did not appear to be a screen. Noel was in full block mode and all linemen were blocking and backing up. On a screen, you normally see a lineman appear to block and then slide to set up screen. If it was a screen, it was poorly executed by the linemen and the RB. Just my opinion on viewing the replay.

Maybe it was designed to be a dump pass, but Nate went to the line of scrimmage, (he did throw a block) didn’t run a pass pattern and turned around towards the QB as the pass was released.

They rushed 7 (against 6 in protection, if you include Noel) and three guys game free up the middle. One would think that would indicate a screen, unless we just totally blew the blocking assignment.

It looked more like the latter. They brought more than we could block. Nate turned around cause he didn’t get enough of his block and looked for a dump off. Watching several times I saw nothing from the line that convinced me it was a screen. Plus where Joey threw the ball with the corresponding routes it really just looked like a blown up protection on crossing routes. Wouldn’t he just ground it at the feet of the line if it was a screen?

[Bigdaddyg1]

Seems like a play was in place but it got blown up. We had wasted timeouts and Joey knew he could not take a sack. Very unfortunate ending.

[nomadb]

The thing is, he could have taken a sack and we could have kicked a field goal to tie the game

[AtlAppMan]

I have rewatched that last play several times now and Noel was anything but clear of line even as ball went over his head and certainly did not appear to be an option when JA had to make a decision. Remember we lined up with no time outs and JA had to make a split second decision and all of these factors had to be processed.

[Saint3333]

Went back through texts to friends during game. At 9:06 I said we are going to give them a chance to win this game, putting too much pressure on our defense.

It just felt bad from mid 2nd on. Play calling on third down felt like setting up going for it on 4th and then kicking FGs.

[AppState80]

No time outs, if take the sack clock keeps running. We still would have been in field goal range though to send to OT. Cutting it close with 17 seconds. We had the downs to stop clock. Joe Burrow held ball last night and got sacked before half, instead of 38 yard field goal, a 48 yarder, swish. Also cutting it close if screen was called and don't pick up first down to stop clock. If it was a screen and was blown up easily could have clocked it.

I think of Tennessee game where we were in field goal range before overtime. Quarterback scrambled on busted pass play to pick up a few extra yards as time expired. Never a chance to kick the field goal. We know the rest. At least give yourself a chance to put points on the board. Just did not execute at crunch time.

[311neers]

No time outs, if take the sack clock keeps running. We still would have been in field goal range though to send to OT. Cutting it close with 17 seconds. We had the downs to stop clock. Joe Burrow held ball last night and got sacked before half, instead of 38 yard field goal, a 48 yarder, swish. Also cutting it close if screen was called and don't pick up first down to stop clock. If it was a screen and was blown up easily could have clocked it.

I think of Tennessee game where we were in field goal range before overtime. Quarterback scrambled on busted pass play to pick up a few extra yards as time expired. Never a chance to kick the field goal. We know the rest. At least give yourself a chance to put points on the board. Just did not execute at crunch time.

There's no way we actually ran a screen there with no timeouts. Way too risky plus we run about 5 RB screens a year haha.

4 verts maybe, and we should have had a hot route checkdown over the middle or to the sideline. If you see blitz, snap the route off turn around and live another day. We didnt give Joey an out.

[mike87]

No time outs, if take the sack clock keeps running. We still would have been in field goal range though to send to OT. Cutting it close with 17 seconds. We had the downs to stop clock. Joe Burrow held ball last night and got sacked before half, instead of 38 yard field goal, a 48 yarder, swish. Also cutting it close if screen was called and don't pick up first down to stop clock. If it was a screen and was blown up easily could have clocked it.

I think of Tennessee game where we were in field goal range before overtime. Quarterback scrambled on busted pass play to pick up a few extra yards as time expired. Never a chance to kick the field goal. We know the rest. At least give yourself a chance to put points on the board. Just did not execute at crunch time.

There's no way we actually ran a screen there with no timeouts. Way too risky plus we run about 5 RB screens a year haha.

4 verts maybe, and we should have had a hot route checkdown over the middle or to the sideline. If you see blitz, snap the route off turn around and live another day. We didnt give Joey an out.

Agree, I don't think we ran a screen, looked like a corner of the endzone route. A screen would have beaten the blitz but with no timeouts they sent a Dale Jones on us gambling that the screen was out of play.

[AtlAppMan]

I think we are all proving the point that we are sitting around thinking and thinking about what could have been in that moment but we all have the luxury of time and analysis of what actually did happen vs what may happen. On the last drive and at that moment decisions had to be made quickly without all this process. That is what makes the games interesting. And players make plays or make mistakes, sometimes they all muddle together between two opposing teams.

The Pete Carroll and the Seattle Seahawks blew a Super Bowl when down on 3 yard line.

The Atlanta Falcons only needed a field goal from the best kicker in NFL and Dan Quinn/Kyle Shanahan decided to run a play that blew up.

Some of the best coaches and players can get caught up when a game is on the line. We are not immune to that either. We won several in FCS playoffs (i.e. JMU) and lost some (i.e. Montana) .

[WVAPPeer]

Again, it makes no difference now, but I want to point out again if that pass had been a foot higher and a yard longer Wilson could have caught it and everyone would say what a great play it was by Joey - To me, to get it that far down the field under those circumstances was a hell of a throw - it could have been epic - It wasn't, their defender elevated and pulled it in - that's it, end of story---