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By BOB HERTZEL
WV News
MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia spent its homecoming afternoon shooting itself in the foot and, eventually, one of the bullets wound up hitting the Mountaineers in the heart, leaving them on the short end of a 48-34 loss to Oklahoma State.
The Mountaineers have now lost two straight games — despite scoring 73 points in those two contests — after running off four wins in a row to get their fan base juiced up that something unexpectedly wonderful might be emerging.
And in this game, one in which they showed great heart and courage after losing at Houston nine days earlier on a devastating Hail Mary pass, showed courage and character but could not overcome their own ineptitude.
This was especially true in a fourth quarter when they gave up 21 points while scoring just 7.
"It was really the fourth quarter," Neal Brown said. "We ran into the punt returner; a really bad play, and it kind of snowballed from there."
Indeed, rain started falling in the fourth quarter but WVU somehow managed to turn them into a snowball that wound up melting away any chance they had to win.
They had forced a punt that Preston Fox was about to make a fair catch on when Andrew Wilson, who may have been shoved from behind, wound up running into him, the ball bounced free and the Cowboys corralled it.
That allowed them to turn the ball over to Ollie Gordon II, who already was dominating it. He laid claim to the end zone twice in the closing minutes on runs of 36 and 53 yards.
"On defense, we just couldn't tackle. We missed tackle, after tackle, after tackle." Neal Brown said.
He knew that could be the case coming in, talking all week about what havoc he had been creating on opponents, but he wasn't ready for what Gordon did to his team.
He rushed for 287 yards on 29 carries, which is just a tick under 10 yards a try and the fourth quarter was, well, let Neal Brown tell you.
"It was the Ollie Gordon Show," Brown said. "He got 150 yards in the fourth quarter. I don't know if I've ever been part of anything like that. I don't know if we ever tackled him in the fourth quarter."
One-hundred-and-fifty yards in a quarter equates to 600 rushing yards over an entire game.
Let that sink in.
WVU spent most of the day overcoming its own mistakes, fumbles, interceptions, missed tackles and, finally penalties.
Imagine this if you can, and Brown can't.
"It gets to 27-27, they have the ball at their 29, 2nd and 7," Brown said, laying out the situation.
They gave the ball to Gordon and he went for five yards around left end before being knocked out of bounds … with flags flying. Beanie Bishop Jr. was hit with a face mask penalty, Ben Cutter with a late hit out of bounds after the play was over.
Thirty yards in penalties, plus a five-yard gain, on one play … and Brown was livid, but not about that.
"I thought our guy, Marcis Floyd, was clearly held at the point of attack," he said.
Maybe they just didn't have any flags left to throw.
Anyway, from there, Brown noted that things snowballed out of control and Oklahoma State ran away.
It was a matter of it started raining in the fourth quarter but WVU found a way to turn it into a snowball that wound up melting away any chance they had to win.
The Mountaineers wore down. This wasn't a case of a lack of emotion or heart. They responded to every misplay through three quarters and were in position at home, on homecoming, to win the game.
They even, in the final minutes, got into a position to rally, in the red zone, some time left, fourth and 2. They had a hot quarterback in Garrett Greene, who threw for 249 yards and two touchdowns and was the leading rusher with 117 yards.
But on this play he made a bad read, took the ball himself and was thrown for a four-yard loss.
"We went for it, we should have handed it off," Brown said. "Sometimes he thinks he's Superman. I'm not faulting him. He was the only reason we had a chance."