In a Driving Rain, West Virginia Washes Out Oklahoma

The Sooners fell to 5-5 on the season with an ugly performance in ugly conditions in Morgantown.

MORGANTOWN, WV — What else but a stirring finish could come from such an ugly game in ugly conditions between two teams mired in an ugly season?

Saturday’s Oklahoma-West Virginia game wasn’t a classic in the usual sense. Played mostly in a driving rainstorm that kept football fans away from Milan Puskar Stadium, both offenses were predictably dysfunctional, and both coaching staffs were appropriately conservative.

Backup quarterback Garrett Greene led the Mountaineers on a last-minute game-winning drive that included fourth down pass to Bryce Ford-Wheaton and three tackle-breaking runs of his own.

Greene’s last run covered 7 yards on third-and-6 after OU exhausted its timeouts and set up Casey Legg for the go-ahead field goal from 24 yards out as time expired.

"There's just too much bad football there," OU coach Brent Venables said.

OU suffered its first loss to the Mountaineers in Big 12 Conference play. Saturday ended a streak of nine in a row since WVU joined the league in 2012.

Oklahoma is 5-5 overall and 2-5 in Big 12 Conference play, while WVU is 4-6 and 2-5.

That it was another close game with the defense needing to get a stop, and this time against a backup quarterback, was frustrating for the Sooners.

"We did a poor job of tackling," Venables said. "Some of that’s him, I guess. Played inspired, ran through some arm tackles.

The final minutes were entertaining, but the halftime scoreboard was nearly stuck at 3-0 before an unlikely flurry of points in the final seconds of the first half.

The Sooners allowed 205 yards total offense in the first half, but WVU averaged just 3.8 yards per rush and completed just 9-of-16 passes for 106 yards.

OU’s offense, however, was sluggish in the first half despite another fantastic performance from Eric Gray. Gray finished with a career-high 211 rushing yards and two touchdowns and now has 1,113 on the season.

The Sooners, however, converted just 1-of-11 third downs and were 0-for-2 on fourth down. WVU was 7-of-19 and 4-of-5.

"For some reason, opponents are able to execute in those situations," Venables said, "and we're not." 

Dillon Gabriel overthrew Marvin Mims on a potential big gain, but then Mims dropped what would have been a walk-in touchdown on another deep ball. Gabriel completed just 17-of-28 for 190 yards as a steady rain fell on Morgantown.

It was scoreless for much of the first half — Zach Schmit was short on a 54-yard field goal in the first quarter and then made a 32-yard kick in the second quarter — and after WVU pinned the Sooners at their own 4-yard line with a perfect punt, it appeared they would go into halftime at 3-0.

Instead, both teams produced an unexpected outburst of points.

Gray got the Sooners off the goal line with a couple long runs, and then Mims finally hauled in a big ball from Gabriel, a 67-yard gain to the WVU 12. Gray’s touchdown on the next play built the Sooners a 10-0 lead with just 66 seconds on the clock.

But the Mountaineers got a 42-yard kickoff return on Schmit’s short kick, and cashed it in three plays later when Greene ran for 33 yards, then scooted 5 more for the touchdown to make it 10-6.

The extra point, however, was a different story, as the snap misfired and Robert Spears-Jennings crashed into WVU kicker Casey Legg, causing a loose ball, and Billy Bowman scooped it up and took it back for a 2-point conversion runback that pushed the OU lead to 12-6 at halftime.

West Virginia took its first lead on its second possession of the third quarter when Greene hooked up with Bryce Ford-Wheaton on an 8-yard fade route touchdown to make it 13-12. On the previous play, David Ugwoegbu batted down a throw by Greene at the line of scrimmage — a throw that might have been otherwise intercepted by Billy Bowman in the end zone.

The Sooners had opened the quarter with a strong possession — 10 plays, 45 yards, more than four minutes off the clock — but were stopped on downs when Gabriel’s fourth-and-3 throw was batted down at the line.

On Oklahoma’s next possession, Gray took over with runs of 7, 5, 21, 3 and 5 yards, and Gabriel completed passes of 8 and 10 yards to Marvin Mims. Gray’s 5-yard TD put the Sooners back in front, and Gabriel’s rush on the 2-point conversion gave OU a 20-13 lead with 1:22 to play in the third quarter.

West Virginia wasted little time with their answer, though. The Mountaineers converted a fourth-and-15 situation when OU’s Gracen Halton was called for offsides, and Greene followed that up with a 15-yard completion to Kaden Prather on fourth-and-10. After another 5-yard hookup with Prather, Green raced around the right edge for a touchdown that tied it at 20-20.

"If you miss a tackle on a quarterback run," Venables said, "they can divide you quickly." 

The fourth down wasn’t without controversy, as Greene’s throw into the end zone was intercepted by C.J. Coldon, but as Coldon tried to take a knee in the end zone, he was clobbered by a WVU player. The play was originally flagged for unnecessary roughness, which would have been offsetting penalties, but the second flag was picked up and the offsides call against Halton was allowed to stand, giving Greene the Mountaineers second life.

"I don't want to say exactly what they said," Venables said, "but I don't necessarily agree with it."

OU’s next drive was promising as Gray rushed for 5, 5, 6 and 24 yards on four straight handoffs. But the drive bogged down just outside the red zone, and Schmit’s 46-yard field goal banged into the right upright, leaving the score tied at 20.

Venables said he briefly considered going for it on fourth-and-2.

”The lack of execution all day,” he said, ”I didn't think we were going to miraculously come up with this big-time conversion on fourth down offensively.”