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For just over three quarters, the West Virginia Mountaineers were in position to knock off No. 7 TCU, move to 7-2 on the season overall, and be included in one of the six big bowl games to be played on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Then, up 30-21 over the Horned Frogs, the Mountaineers got conservative offensively, failed defensively, and saw all those big bowl game dreams destroyed as TCU rallied for a 31-30 victory on Jaden Oberkrom‘s 37-yard field goal as time expired.
West Virginia (6-3, 4-2 Big 12) has been very good this season. Its loss to Alabama early in the season was probably closer than most people expected and losing to Oklahoma doesn’t go down as a bad loss even though it occurred in Morgantown.
At 2-2 with their best win being by a late field goal over Maryland, 40-37, no one thought WVU was anything special. But wins at home over #4 Baylor and at Oklahoma State and Texas Tech moved the Mountaineers into a position where a win today would leave just West Virginia and Kansas State as the real contenders in the Big 12, and the Mountaineers get the Wildcats at home on November 20.
But none of that matters now. Up 27-21 to start the fourth quarter, West Virginia ran just nine offensive plays in the fourth quarter and seven of those were runs. Unable to control the clock and seemingly willing to try and see the game out rather than continue to attack, the Horned Frogs (7-1, 4-1) made the Mountaineers pay, even after a failed fourth-down conversion attempt by TCU gave West Virginia the ball with less than 4 minutes left.
Most of the game, West Virginia had been aggressive, even on defense, hitting hard and making plays and earning the right to have such a glorious destiny in front of them. But on TCU’s last possession, West Virginia played zone defense and promptly got beat for 40 yards on a Trevone Boykin pass to Kolby Listenbee, which, in large part, set up the game-winning field goal.
When it counted, the Mountaineers wilted, and instead of making sure their quality opponent was beaten in front of its own home crowd, WVU now stares down the road at what will at best be a decent season, a pedestrian option compared to what might have been — and what really should’ve been.
Ed Morgans is an ACC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @writered21 and add him to your network on Google.
