WVU football drops home finale to Texas Longhorns

Another disappointing performance by the WVU football team turned into the fourth loss of the season. The Mountaineers fell to Texas, 28-14.

The WVU football team sputtered from the beginning as quarterback Will Grier suffered a horrific finger injury on his throwing hand in the first half. In his place was Chris Chugunov who tried to carry the load on offense.

Chugunov performed ok in this extended role, but nobody else on offense seemed to deliver. The lone offensive touchdown for the WVU football team was a 12-yard pass from Chugunov to Ka’Raun White in the fourth quarter. That made the score 21-14 and the Mountaineers seemed to gain some momentum that had eluded them in previous quarters.

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That momentum wouldn’t last long, though. On the WVU football team’s next possession, Chugunov was sacked and coughed up the football. Texas recovered the fumble and had the ball in prime real estate in its own territory. A one-yard run by Daniel Young capped the scoring late in the game.

West Virginia’s first score came on another big play by true freshman Kenny Robinson. He picked off a pass and took it 94 yards for a touchdown. At that point, the score was 14-7 in the third quarter. Texas led, 14-0, at halftime after quarterback Sam Ehlinger threw two touchdown passes.

Chugunov finished with 189 yards on 14 of 26 passes. The running game couldn’t gain any traction either as Justin Crawford just had 64 yards on 15 carries. Kennedy McKoy added 18 yards. The inability to establish a solid identity on offense doomed the Mountaineers, especially after Grier’s injury. He went down early on a run play that didn’t work out.

On defense, three WVU football players recorded at least 10 tackles: David Long, Al-Rasheed Benton and Kyzir White. These guys are arguably the best defensive players for the Mountaineers and they led a unit that has strengthened each week. The defense did enough for West Virginia to win, but the offense couldn’t come through.

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It appears that Grier will miss the game next week against Oklahoma, according to Yahoo. West Virginia is now 7-4 on the year and Texas became eligible for a bowl with the win.