West Virginia Report Card: Defense vs Texas

Grading out how the Mountaineer defense performed in the loss to Texas

West Virginia almost came away with their second straight win over a ranked opponent but in the end fell 17-13 vs Texas on the road. Earlier, we looked at how the offense graded out, now it's time to look at the defensive side of the ball.

Pass Defense: B

The Mountaineers' defensive backs have played well all season long and hung in against arguably the top receiving corps in the Big 12. Sure, they had a couple of 30-yard plays but for the most part they were able to hold ground. Ehlinger only completed 15 of his 31 passing attempts and finished with just 184 yards through the air. Dreshun Miller certainly didn't have his best day but even at his worst, he's still good enough to not get beat play after play.

Run Defense: C+

I know this may seem a little high considering that Bijan Robinson had 113 yards on the ground himself and at times was just manhandling defenders, but if you take away his 52 yard scamper right out of the gate he only had 60 yards on 11 carries. Sam Ehlinger picked up a few key first downs on the ground in short yardage situations but never gashed West Virginia for big plays. This wasn't the best they've done against the run, but it wasn't awful either.

Pressure: D

Zero QB hurries and one sack is not ideal - that's for sure. The Stills brothers were never really a factor against the big and physical Texas offensive line and the only sack of the day came from linebacker Dylan Tonkery. This group has to be much better moving forward, especially in big games.

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Schuyler Callihan
SCHUYLER CALLIHAN

Publisher of Mountaineers Now on FanNation/Sports Illustrated. Lead recruiting expert and co-host of Between the Eers, Walk Thru GameDay Show, Mountaineers Now Postgame Show, and In the Gun Podcast.