Well Mountaineers, what started out to be a great game and another step forward for the West Virginia football team died in a 2nd half collapse sending the 57,756 Mountaineer faithful home disappointed.

WVU was outscored 28-10 in the 2nd half with the Cowboys pulling away late turning a 28-24 game early in the 4th quarter into a 41-24 rout. Unfortunately, the OK State coaching staff made some halftime adjustments that the WVU coaches could not. The Cowboy coaches made adjustment to at least contain the Mountaineers 3 dynamic playmakers Michael Hawkins Jr, Cam Cook and D.J. Epps while also adjusting their offense to exploit or at least surprise the WVU defense to the tune of 28 2nd half points turning a 14-13 WVU halftime lead into a late rout.

I must say I'm a bit confused about the Oklahoma State Cowboys contiuned domanence of West Virginia football. The Cowboys are 8-2 against WVU in the last 10 contests and 9-4 overall. Even when WVU had high powered offenses with Will Grier and Gene Smith at quarterback the Mountaineers had trouble handling the Cowboys who for most of those seasons were coached by Mike Gundy.

As for this game it started out like West Virginia was going to give the OK State Cowboys all they could handle. I was concerned about the Mountaineer defense being able to handle the Cowboys sophomore quarterback Drew Mestemaker. He is a very talented quarterback that had already lead the cowboys to a major upset victory over #6 Oregon just 2 weeks ago. Despite this the game started out like WVU had come to play jumping out to a 7-0 lead on a 5 play 95 yard drive highlighted by a 75 yard scamper by Mountaineer star tailback Cam Cook and finished off with a 5 yard Michael Hawkins Jr touchdown run. The Cowboys would comeback with an 11 ply 63 yard drive that stalled on the Mountaineer 12 yard line and OSU settled for a 30 yard Sam Keltner field goal and with 3:12 to go in the 1st quarter it was 7-3 EERs. On the ensuing possession the Mountaineer offense would mount another impressive drive marching 75 yards on 16 plays and taking a 14-3 lead on another Michael Hawkins Jr. TD run this time from 3 yards out. At this point it certainly appeared that the Oklahoma State Cowboys defense had no answers for the Mountaineer attack.

The Cowboys offense would come right back with a 9 play 74 yard drive that stalled with 4th and goal at the Mountaineer 1 yard line and they settled for a 19 yard field goal Sam Keltner and with 7:56 to go in the 1st half it was a one score game at 14-6. On the ensuing drive we have what I believe was a turning point in the game. With the Mountaineer offense again moving the football going 46 yards on 11 plays to Cowboys 18 yard line but on 2nd and 4 from the 18 Michael Hawkins Jr was intercepted on a tipped pass at the OK State 15 yard line y Mose Phillips III who returned the pick 30 yards to the OK State 45 with 3:47 to go in the half. The cowboys would proceed to drive 55 yards on just 6 plays ending with a 21 yard TD pass from Drew Mestemaker to wideout Justin Bowick and just like that it was a 14-13 game heading into Halftime with the Cowboys believing that the could and would be able to move the football in the 2nd half. If not for the ill-fated interception The halftime score of this game could have very easily been 21-6 West Virginia and the Mountaineers would have had all the momentum going into the 2nd half.

The Cowboys would take the 2nd half kick and drive 9 yards on just 4 plays highlighted by a 52 yard bomb from Mestemaker to sophomore wideout Chris Barnes to the Mountaineer 29 yard line and it looked like the Cowboys would take the lead but 3 plays later Mestemaker was picked off at the WVU 13 yard line by Mountaineer senior safety Kamari Wilson to end the threat. The EERs would come right back on the ensuing possession and drive 82 yards on 7 plays ending with Michael Hawkins Jr bolting 9 yards for his 3rd rushing touchdown of the game and with 11:06 to go in the 3rd quarter it was 21-13 WVU. Unfortunately the Cowboys would come right back on the ensuing possession and go 55 yards on just 4 plays highlighted by a 40 and 27 yard completions by Mestemaker before capping the drive with a 4 yard TD pass to sophomore receiver Terrence Lewis and with the 2 point conversion we were all tied up at 21-21 with 9:33 to go in the 3rd quarter. At this point I am starting to think that Mestemaker was getting way to comfortable in the pocket and the Mountaineer defense was simply not putting adequate pressure on him to hurry his decisions and disturb his pocket presence.

The Mountaineer offense to their credit would come back on their next possession and drive 66 yards on 14 plays before the drive to the OSU 4 where it was 3rd and goal from the Cowboy 4 and I was hoping for a 4th Michael Hawkins Jr touchdown run but a delay of game penalty suddenly pushed the ball back to the 9 and WVU would settle for a 27 yard field goal by the Irishman Jack Cassidy and with 3:55 to go in the 3rd it was 24-21 West Virginia.

Unfortunately, this is where the story gets sad. On the ensuing possession the Cowboys would go 75 yards on just 3 plays once again shredding the Mountaineer secondary with a 48 yard completion setting up a 22 yard touchdown pass from Mestemaker to sophomore tailback Caleb Hawkins and 2:40 to go in the 3rd quarter it was 28-24 Cowboys and they never looked back adding another TD and 2 more field goals on route to a 41-24 victory scoring on their final 5 possessions. On their final 4 possessions the Mountaineer offense would punt once and turn the ball over on downs 3 times. For the game Drew Mestemaker would complete 20 of 27 for 389 yards and 3 touchdowns. OK State junior receiver Wyatt Young would gather in 8 receptions for 192 yards and a TD and sophomore tailback Caleb Hawkins would pick up 180 yards on 31 carries and a touchdown. So while I expected the West Virginia 3 headed offensive monster on Michael Hawkins, Cam Cook and DJ Epps to dominate this game it turns out the Cowboys had a 3 headed monster of their own on offense. For the EERs Michael Hawkins Jr completed just 10 of 22 passes for 132 yards no TDs and a very costly 1st half interception. Hawkins did rush for 103 yards on 28 carries and 3 touchdowns and senior tailback Cam Cook had a great game rushing 29 times for 193 yards with a long of 75 yards.

The simple truth is that the Oklahoma State coaches were able to adjust their defense in the 2nd half of this game and stop the Mountaineer offense while the West Virginia coaches had no answers for Drew Mestemaker and the Cowboy passing attack.

So now its off to Ames Iowa to battle the 2-2 Iowa State Cyclones and their first year coach Jimmy Rogers.