Jordan Lesley Takes Ownership of End-of-Half Collapse: 'Throw Darts at Me'

The West Virginia defensive coordinator is sticking up for his players following Saturday's game.

Christopher Hall

West Virginia's Michael Hayes booted through his second field goal of the day to cut into the Penn State lead, making it 13-6 with just 32 seconds remaining in the first half. Although the Mountaineers hadn't played particularly well to that point, there was still some hope from the WVU faithful as they were staring at a one-score game heading into the half.

Or so they thought.

Instead of playing it safe and taking a seven-point lead into the break, Penn State head coach James Franklin was determined to add more points. Quarterback Drew Allar took a deep shot to Omari Evans, who got away with a push-off of safety Aubrey Burks who came into make a play on the ball. The play went for a 55-yard catch, putting the Nittany Lions in field goal range. On the very next play, Allar completed a pass toward the back corner of the end zone to Harrison Wallace III, providing a deflating feeling for WVU just seconds before the half.

On Monday, WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley took responsibility for the end-of-half collapse and explained where he went wrong.

“I think what I did wrong, and I’ll take way more ownership - throw darts at me, don’t throw darts at the players. So the tendency, the personnel, and the formation was what it was. And I played that probably a little more than I played the situation which is what hindsight 20/20, should have did. But I elected for pressure, put our best man cover guy where he was which he is in Garnett (Hollis Jr.) and he makes that play nine out of ten times in practice. And I trust him to do it again if I put him in that situation again. Now again, played the tendency of what they were in and what they were doing more than I played the situation and that’s a mistake on my part.”

Lesley wasn't thrilled with the way they played some things defensively, but it wasn't for a lack of effort.

“We talk about effort, toughness, and aggression and I didn’t see a lack of any of those things. That aggression sometimes can bite you against good football teams when you make those mistakes. They find them. They are mistakes that are very fixable.”

He mentioned that there were too many instances of overshooting/overplaying a run fit by half a yard, resulting in a big play. They also had some guys acting a little too fast on some of their twists and that can be a product of being to giddy or overanxious to make something happen when you're playing in a game of that magnitude.

This week's matchup against Albany presents a perfect opportunity for Lesley's unit to sharpen things up before playing another game that will be filled with high emotions, the Backyard Brawl, next week.

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