The West Virginia Mountaineers defense dominated the TCU Horned Frogs. It could be the difference for them to win the Big 12 over the Oklahoma Sooners.
Depending on what happens in the Bedlam Series, it looks like the Big 12 will come down to the Oklahoma Sooners and the West Virginia Mountaineers. While the Iowa State Cyclones and the Texas Longhorns still feel like they are in it, the Big 12 Championship in Arlington will almost certainly be between Oklahoma and West Virginia.
Both of these top-10 teams have a Heisman Trophy contender at quarterback. Kyler Murray has been sensational for Oklahoma, but will probably end up playing baseball professionally, as he was a top-10 pick by the Oakland Athletics last spring.
Former Florida Gators quarterback Will Grier has been magnificent in the Dan Holgorsen Air Raid since transferring to West Virginia a few years back. He may very well be a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft after his senior season in Morgantown.
Yes, we can expect both signal callers to inevitably lead their teams to a title bout at AT&T Stadium in early December. However, there might be a separating factor that aids West Virginia over Oklahoma in the potential neutral-site affair: the Mountaineers have the defense that gives them balance to compete for a conference championship.
After looking lethargic offensively in the first quarter at home on Saturday versus a struggling TCU Horned Frogs team, West Virginia leaned on its defense to win this one in a rout, 47-10. Though West Virginia only forced two turnovers in the game, two stats really jump out in this dominating victory over TCU.
West Virginia crushed TCU against the run, as the Horned Frogs had an atrocious -7 rushing yards on the day. Perhaps even more impressive, West Virginia held TCU to 2 of 15 on third downs.
Grier and the Mountaineers offense would come alive late in the second quarter and would continue to put it on in the second half. However, it wasn’t their best day on third down offense either, as West Virginia converted only 3 of 12 third-down conversions.
The big swing in this game was TCU fumbling a kickoff return after a West Virginia touchdown that saw the Mountaineers go up 10-3 late in the first half. TCU wide receiver Taye Barber’s fumble was recovered by West Virginia safety Exree Loe, which set up a one-yard touchdown run by tailback Martell Pettaway to put the Mountaineers up 17-3. Another West Virginia touchdown had the Mountaineers up 24-3 at the half.
In the second half, West Virginia would get a safety very early in the third quarter. The Mountaineers would also recover another fumble in the second half. Of course, Loe was there to gather the football for his second recovery of the ball game.
As West Virginia improves to 8-1 on the season, this is the fifth time the Mountaineers have held the opposition under 20 points in a game. Of course, the Mountaineers have given up over 30 points in a game three times. This is the Big 12.
However, they were victorious in two of those games. Those were road games against ranked opponents versus the then-No. 25 Texas Tech Red Raiders and then-No. 17 Texas in overtime. Their only loss this season was on the road to Iowa State, a team now ranked in the Top 25.
Now if we look at West Virginia’s most likely matchup in the Big 12 title game in Oklahoma, we’d see that the Sooners have only held their opponents under 20 points twice. They’ve also allowed their opponent to score more than 30 points three times, including a neutral-site loss to Texas in the Red River Rivalry in Dallas.
Overall, Oklahoma has both the pedigree and the slightly better offense over West Virginia. However, West Virginia will host Oklahoma at regular season’s end and does seem to have the better defense of the two Big 12 title contenders.
Though TCU isn’t the least bit good, West Virginia stands more than a puncher’s chance in presumably back-to-back games vs. Oklahoma thanks to its dominating defense.