The West Virginia Mountaineers knocked off the TCU Horned Frogs as double-digit road underdogs on Saturday. Now, they'll get to enter their bye week at 5-3, just one win away from bow eligibility.
Let's take a look at this week's winners and losers from the WVU football victory – sort of a 'stocks up, stocks down' assessment we like to do after each game the Mountaineers play. This week, we're going heavy on the 'winners,' because we're feeling optimistic about this win. Let's dive in.
Winner: Zac Alley
The defense still gave up 484 yards and 5.9 yards per play against TCU. Things were far from good. But it felt like they gave up explosive plays less often, and recovered from those explosive plays better than in recent weeks.
The Mountaineers also held TCU to just 20 points, forced three turnovers, and came up with several crucial stops in clutch moments. The defense might not be fixed, but Alley certainly took some heat off his seat and won some bonus points this week.
Loser: DJ Epps
DJ Epps has proven to be wildly inconsistent this season – two recepetions for 39 yards against Oklahoma State and no receptions against Arizona, interspersed between 100-yard performances.
That continued this week as he followed up a standout effort against Cincinnati with another no-reception game, including a dropped wide-open pass that might have went for a touchdown.
Winner: Cam Cook
The offense didn't perform super well – at least, nowhere near what the expectation has come to be in recent games. They were also playing one of the best defenses in the country.
But our big offensive winner of the day was Cam Cook, who hit the road to face his former team, tallying 90 rushing yards and one reception for 13 yards and a touchdown to help West Virginia win. Sweet, sweet revenge.
Winner: West Virginia's bowl hopes
The Mountaineers are now just one win away from bowl eligibility with four games left to play. Kansas is still an extremely winnable game, Texas Tech looks a lot more beatable after Cincinnati embarassed them, and Rich Rodriguez is often good for an upset his team shouldn't win.
It's hard to see West Virginia going winless during that final stretch of the season after the past two weeks, and it's starting to feel like a return to the postseason may be imminent for the Mountaineers.
Losers: Kevin Brown, Carsten Casady
There was a play where Michael Hawkins Jr. got obliterated and fumbled the ball after getting sandwiched between two edge rushers. The replay showed Kevin brown and Carsten Casady each allowing their men to go free off the edge.
Their poor play was a trend, as they were two of the three lowest-graded offensive players from PFF, and each posted abysmal pass blocking grades as well, with Brown coming in at 44.2 and Casaday posting a ghastly 14.1 mark.
Winners: Jason Hall Jr., Kameron Reddic, Miles Khatri, David Afogho
We're lumping some more player together again, as these three as typically back-ups or role players on defense who earned some significant snaps Saturday and performed well.
Hall Jr. and Reddic both started for the first time this season and saw career-high snaps for the Mountaineers. Hall Jr. recorded two tackles and two quarterback hurries, and was the fourth-highest graded defensive player with a 71.0 defensive grade, according to PFF. Reddic graded slightly below-average overall, but had run defense and tackling grades that were both in the 80's.
Khatri doubled his season-high snap total with 31 snaps, and graded out above-average in run defense and tackling. Afogho earned his third-most snaps of the season (his season-high came last week) and was one of just six West Virginia players with an above-average defensive grade.
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