WVU football suffers stinging loss on road at No. 8 TCU

The WVU football team shot itself in the foot in the first half against TCU. Those early miscues, plus a few iffy calls by the referees in the second half caused the Mountaineers to lose to the Horned Frogs.

The WVU football team allowed the Horned Frogs to score 14 points off turnovers on Saturday as the hosts wound up with a 31-24 victory. West Virginia snapped out of its early funk in the second half but couldn’t pull out a road win.

The Mountaineers are now 3-2 on the year, having just suffered its first loss in the Big 12 Conference. TCU remains unbeaten at 5-0 and is now sitting atop the conference standings.

This game could have gone either way, but the Mountaineers ran out of time and luck against a solid TCU team. However, the Mountaineers did outgain the Horned Frogs, 508-406. Will Grier struggled in a few aspects, but he still managed to finish with 366 yards and three touchdown passes.

Grier was 25 of 45 through the air, but overthrew and underthrew his receivers multiple times on the day. The TCU secondary locked in on the Mountaineers’ top two receivers, Gary Jennings and David Sills. Jennings still finished with 10 catches for 80 yards, while Sills caught seven passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

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Ka’Raun White was the leading receiver for the WVU football team with six catches for 138 yards and a 76-yard touchdown reception. West Virginia trailed, 7-3, at halftime after scoring first. Both the Mountaineers and Horned Frogs kicked their offense into high gear in the second half.

Speaking of kicking, the WVU football team hurt itself early when Mike Molina missed a 29-yard field goal in the first half. The Mountaineers also fumbled on a punt return, which the Horned Frogs recovered and scored a touchdown off of it. The Mountaineers also allowed TCU to score off a turnover in the second half when Grier threw an interception.

For TCU, Kenny Hill was 15 of 28 passing for 188 yards and a touchdown. He was also on the receiving end of a touchdown in the second half when KaVontae Turpin hit him for a 48-yard gain.

It was a weird game, like most other TCU-WVU football games have been. The ball bounced the home team’s way in more than one occasion and that made the difference.

Next: 30 best games in WVU football history

The Mountaineers will hope to have luck back on their side next week by hosting Texas Tech at Milan Puskar Stadium.