Baylor vs. West Virginia: Game Grades, Analysis for Bears and Mountaineers
Clint Trickett became the first West Virginia quarterback to throw for 300 passing yards in eight consecutive games, while he and his teammates were the beneficiaries of some inspired play from the Mountaineers defense.
Baylor, despite heading to Morgantown with the nation's most prolific offense, couldn't solve the pass defense of the Mountaineers. West Virginia, with the 41-27 victory, moved to 3-1 in the Big 12, while the Bears fell to 3-1 in conference play.
| Pass Offense | B- | C- |
| Run Offense | D+ | C- |
| Pass Defense | C+ | C |
| Run Offense | B | B |
| Special Teams | B+ | B+ |
| Coaching | C | D+ |
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Baylor Pass Offense
Baylor didn't start out the afternoon so poorly. West Virginia spotted the Bears seven points after turning the ball over inside its own 10. The Bears needed just one play for the first score. Unfortunately, there wouldn't be many more offensive highlights.
Bryce Petty came into the game as a Heisman contender. After a 16-of-36 performance passing the ball (and minus-nine yards on 11 credited carries), his campaign suffered a serious blow. Baylor had just 223 passing yards on the day and added a paltry (for Baylor) two touchdowns through the air.
The good news? No interceptions on the day for Petty.
Baylor Run Offense
Baylor's identity isn't necessarily tied to its running game, even with some impressive talent in the offensive backfield. We didn't expect massive, headline-worthy numbers from the Bears run game. But we certainly didn't expect a paltry 24 yards on 19 carries in the first half.
Things got a little better—just a little—in the second half, and the Bears finished with 95 yards as a team. That was, however, on 42 carries.
Baylor Pass Defense
Everyone raved last week about Baylor's epic comeback and the 61 points the Bears put up. What no one talked about was the 58 points the Bears gave up to TCU.
West Virginia noticed, and Trickett took advantage of that porous Baylor pass defense to the tune of 322 passing yards and three touchdown tosses.
We didn't expect much, and we weren't disappointed. Typically, scoring 41 points isn't enough to beat Baylor. On Saturday, it was. That's more on the offense than the defense.
Still, it's worth noting that Baylor was flagged 18 times in this game, and the vast majority of those penalties were from the defense. The officials were calling a tight game, but still...
Baylor Run Defense
Baylor's run defense gave up two touchdowns to West Virginia but held the Mountaineers and their dynamic running game to 134 yards on 50 carries. Everything else considered, the run defense might have been the only part of Baylor's game that played "to par."
Baylor Special Teams
Spencer Roth rarely punts nine times in a game, but against West Virginia, his 44.8-yard average (with a long of 69) and four punts downed inside the 20 certainly made his performance worthy of note.
Chris Callahan was perfect on the game, going 2-of-2 on field goals and 3-of-3 on extra points.
Baylor Coaching
As previously mentioned, Baylor was flagged for 18 penalties against West Virginia. Typically, coaches are able to get a handle on some early mistakes, and as the game wears on, penalties become less of an issue.
Not so on Saturday.
Baylor (and to a lesser extent West Virginia) was plagued by flags all afternoon, and if anything, it got worse as the day progressed.
Additionally, we're marking the Baylor coaching staff down a bit for its inability to adjust to a 3-3-5 defensive scheme that West Virginia threw its way. Granted, the 3-3-5 isn't the most common defense seen these days, but we would expect a coach like Art Briles to make better adjustments.
| Pass Offense | C+ | B+ |
| Run Offense | B | B |
| Pass Defense | B+ | A |
| Run Defense | A | A- |
| Special Teams | B+ | B- |
| Coaching | B | A- |
West Virginia Pass Offense
We're going to heap praise on Clint Trickett here, and for good reason. He finished the afternoon 23-of-35 for 322 yards and three touchdowns. He hurt his grade just a bit with that interception in the first half, but a solid, game-winning second half gave a nice boost to his final mark.
Quarterbacks can't get numbers like that without big performances from receivers, and Trickett got one. Kevin White finished with eight receptions for 132 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Andrew Buie and Mario Alford had four catches apiece on the day.
West Virginia Run Offense
West Virginia didn't need the running game for much more than keeping Baylor honest, but the guys in the backfield made their own impact on the game. Wendell Smallwood led the way for the Mountaineers with 20 carries for 66 yards.
Dreamius Smith had 60 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown, and Buie added a score to go along with his 24 yards on nine rushes.
West Virginia Pass Defense
To say we're impressed would be an understatement.
Holding Baylor's passing game in check is a must if a team is going to have any shot at winning. But did we expect anyone to limit Petty and the Bears to just 223 passing yards?
No, we didn't, and we weren't alone.
West Virginia's defensive scheming was phenomenal, keeping the Bears off balance all afternoon. Sure, the coaching staff deserves a good deal of credit for designing a scheme that managed to do something not many other teams could do: shut down Baylor. But the players still had to go out and execute the plan.
They did.
West Virginia Run Defense
While West Virginia was busy defending the Baylor deep ball, it might have opened up some holes up front for the Baylor running attack.
You might think that, but you would be wrong.
Baylor isn't really a running team, but with the focus WVU put on Baylor's passing attack, we would have called it a safe bet for the Bears to get at least 100 rushing yards. But the Mountaineers' front seven were amazingly disciplined against the run, and a number of sacks thanks to lockdown pass coverage also helped out the final numbers.
In the end, Baylor averaged just 2.3 yards per carry on 42 attempts (with a single rushing touchdown).
West Virginia Special Teams
If you want to gush about a kicker, take a look at Josh Lambert's performance against Baylor. He was 2-of-2 on field goals (with a long of 54) and a perfect 5-for-5 on extra points.
Lambert's punting counterpart, Nick O'Toole, averaged 42.7 yards per punt on his six punts (three of which were downed inside of the 20).
The return game left a little to be desired (18.0 yards per kick return, 0.5 yards per punt return), but that's getting a little nitpicky in such an important upset win over a team like Baylor.
Note: West Virginia's final special teams grade was initially given an A-. This was an error. We have corrected the final grade to B-.
West Virginia Coaching
Dana Holgorsen came into the 2014 season with a seat that had an increasing temperature. This win over Baylor should have the effect of dumping a little ice water on the situation.
This victory had as much to do with coaching as it did with anything else. Holgorsen and company put into place a defensive scheme that kept Petty and Baylor completely off balance all afternoon. The WVU coaching staff also did a nice job of keeping the Mountaineers in check when it appeared as if the game could devolve into a chippy flag-fest.
Our only complaint on the day was the questionable play-calling in the first half on 3rd-and-intermediate plays. It's fine to run the ball on third down, but on 3rd-and-6 when averaging less than three yards per rush? When you have a quarterback like Trickett, you probably should opt for a pass.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes or references to quotes were obtained firsthand by the writer.
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