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West Virginia dropped their fourth straight game to move to 3-4 (0-4 Big 12) on the season tonight against the #5 ranked TCU Horned Frogs in Forth Worth, TX.
The Mountaineers continue to be their own worst enemy. Numerous offensive miscues and dropped passes by the West Virginia receiving corps contributed to the insurmountable hole the Mountaineers dug for themselves. Skyler Howard had a better performance than those earlier in the month, but his receivers couldn't make the plays to help him out. Dropped passes erased at least three potential Mountaineer touchdowns that would have made this an entirely different game. West Virginia's red zone offense remains a major concern. The Mountaineers were inside the 20-yard line twice, and came away with zero points to show for it.
On the defensive side of things, a banged up West Virginia secondary let Trevone Boykin and the Horned Frog offense march down the field without much opposition for most of the game. Terrell Chestnut, Dravon Askew-Henry, KJ Dillon and Darryl Worley all sustained injuries throughout the night, some worse than others, and missed chunks of playing time. Things weren't all bad for the Mountaineer defense, however. West Virginia DE Noble Nwachukwu is quietly becoming one of the Mountaineer's best defensive players, and is now officially the only Big 12 player this season to sack TCU QB Trevone Boykin. Most of TCU's big plays were not, in my opinion, because of poor defense but rather Boykin's ridiculous athleticism elusiveness. Boykin may well be the luckiest guy on the planet, because it seems like everything always goes his way.
West Virginia will now look forward to saving their season against the Texas Tech Red Raiders on November 7th at 12:00PM EST at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown. A win there could get things moving in the right direction. A loss could spell disaster for Dana Holgorsen and the Mountaineers.