In Stillwater on Saturday, West Virginia football got its groove back with a big 38-14 win. In large part, it was due to the team executing what are described as "chunk plays" in football nomenclature.
You'll often also here the term "explosive play" used in the same context -- it often refers to rushing plays that gain 10-15+ yards, and passing plays that gain 15-20+ yards. But to simplify things, we're going to look at any play that gained 10 or more yards from scrimmage for WVU.
The Mountaineers managed 22 such gains against Oklahoma State -- it's second-most of the year so far, only beaten by a 23 chunk play performance against FCS foe Albany. In those two games, WVU won by a combined score 87-28.
In a come-from-behind win against Kansas, WVU managed 18 such plays -- but 7 came in the last 5:39 of action as the Mountaineers engineered back-to-back scoring drives to climb from an 11-point deficit. But in the team's two losses to Penn State and Pitt, they managed just 12 and 13 such gains respectively.
Garrett Greene found his legs without doing too much on the ground against Oklahoma State, while Jaheim White's vision was better. Both Greene and White averaged over eight yards per carry on the day.
The Mountaineers' third-down efficiency was better; they dominated in total yards and won both the turnover battle and the time of possession battle, showing how crucial such chunk plays can be to maintaining a top-tier offensive performance.
A win like this gives WVU hope in the battle of the Big 12. A lot can happen down the stretch, and some questions will be answered this Saturday against undefeated No. 11 Iowa State about how good this team can really be, and how far they can make the jump to making a Big 12 Championship run. The game, dubbed a "Coal Rush" theme, will take place at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown and will be broadcast on Fox, with the kickoff set for 8 pm EST.