It's time for West Virginia to have tough discussion after concerning Iowa State loss

The West Virginia Mountaineers just lost a 45-42 shootout against the Iowa State Cyclones, their second consecutive loss after opening the season with three straight wins, dropping to 0-2 on the season. And just like during last week's loss to Oklahoma State, there was only one thing you can blame for the defeat – West Virginia's defense.

For the second straight week, West Virginia's defense looked absolutely atrocious. They gave up 575 yards to the Cyclones, a team that entered the game ranked 111th in total offense. The Mountaineers looked inept in pass coverage and consistently failed to make tackles from the beginning of the afternoon all the way until the end. Now, it's time the program faces a harsh reality.

It's time that West Virginia football considers the possibility that Zac Alley is not the man for the job

The Mountaineers basically got beat by the type of offense a Class AA high school in football might be expected to run. Iowa State's walk-on running back threw two touchdown passes. That's right. If you didn't see the game, you read that correctly. Aidan Flora was 2-for-2 passing for 48 yards and two touchdowns.

But don't worry – he also torched the Mountaineers on the ground for 212 yards and three touchdowns. So its not like he didn't do his actual job. The Mountaineers got beat by a run-heavy offense and a running back who their defense made look like Taysom Hill or Christian McCaffrey. That's what we mean when we say it was the type of offense a high school might play.

First, it was quarterback contain against Coastal Carolina. Then, it was the communication against UT-Martin. Rich Rodriguez said that the plan failed last week against Oklahoma State, and it was on him to fix it as the head coach.

That's the type of accountability you love to see from a head coach – and if he's serious about it, it's time to gave some tough conversations. Because things got worse today. The offense was not the reason West Virginia lost on Saturday. They scored 42 points, with Mike Hawkins Jr. passing for over 200 yards and rushing for over 100 yards. Cam Cook put up over 100 yards on the ground as well.

Meanwhile, Zac Alley's defense has looked incompetent for most of the season, and were clearly the unit to blame for the team's loss for a second consecutive week in a row. We know it's not West Virginia's style, nor Rich Rodriguez's style, to make these types of moves in the middle of the year.

But if West Virginia wants to prove they're a serious college football program in the modern era, they might need to make a move on Zac Alley now. Something is clearly not working out, and this is an offense that could compete at a high level. But this team will never find success unless they fix their defense.

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