Putting the D where it belongs
1 year 1 week ago - 1 year 1 week ago #423
by wvu4u2
Putting the D where it belongs was created by wvu4u2
MORGANTOWN — Nothing captured the mayhem of the final moments of Saturday night’s Hail Mary loss suffered by West Virginia at the hands of Houston than a couple of text messages defensive tackle Eddie Vesterinen was greeted with when he entered the silent locker room.
“Congrats on the win,” the first one said.
It was from his mother, back home in Finland, where the nuances of American football are still being learned.
“My mom she thought the game ended when there was zero on the clock,” Vesterinen explained.
She didn’t understand that since the ball had been snapped before the clock showed 00:00 the play could be completed.
“I said ‘No, they snapped the ball. The ball was still live even though the clock said zero,’ Vesterinen remembered on Monday.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she texted back.
If only …
Americans who spent their lives wrapped up in the game of football had trouble understanding how such a turn of events could occur in the final 13 seconds of the game, a WVU touchdown pass seemingly winning the game followed by a game-winning play that had as much of a chance of being successful as finding a needle in a haystack that sewed up the defeat.
Everyone from Neal Brown to Vesterinen saw that the last play was only the ribbon around the victory that WVU had wrapped up and packaged for Houston; the bow on top was what everyone saw and talked about but that was not the cause of the defeat.
Neal Brown noted that it was a game-long failure to be the football team that had won the previous four games, that had won two Big 12 games without defeat going in.
“We lost our way,” Brown said. “The reason we were successful during that four-game winning streak was because we played disciplined football, didn’t beat ourselves, didn’t have a lot of penalties, didn’t turn it over, played hard and were tough on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“A lot of those are the same reasons we didn’t win this game. We weren’t disciplined, probably had 8 penalties called and 12 or 14 could have been called. I thought Houston was hungrier and I thought they won both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“If that’s going to be the case, we’re going to struggle to win any games.”
He pointed to the defense, not surprisingly considering that the offense presented the defense with 39 points to work with, and to the special teams.
He also pointed toward the team’s special players.
“Defense, our best players did not play very well. Any time, regardless of the sport, when your best players don’t play very well you are going to struggle. The best players didn’t play good enough, by far our worst performance of the year,” he said.
Vesterinen admitted this was the case.
“We didn’t play up to the standards. As a whole defense we didn’t play as we used to,” he said.
Asked why, he groped for an answer but could not really put a defining finger on it.
“I think mentally we were still in a bye week. We were maybe mentally still in a vacation mode. A lot factors into it,” he said. “We were not playing as intensively as before. There can be several reasons. It can be personal. It’s hard to say why.”
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley echoed all of those sentiments for both the head coach and the nose tackle.
“I’m more disappointed than mad, considering how we had played up to that point,” Lesley said.
The final play, while the snapshot of defeat, did not show what went into posing for that picture.
“One highlight is usually what everyone talks about. That or officials,” he said, but coaches see it differently.
“It’s our responsibility not to put a game in the hands of one play or the officials,” Lesley went on. “We had 27 plays (defensively). There was a dropped interception, three third-down conversions, basic fundamental things. Whether it was down and distance awareness or other things, there were 27 of them.
“I’m not going to go through all of them because that would take all day, but I’m just making the point that we didn’t lose the game on the last play of that game. There were tons of things that led up to that.”
And, like Brown, Lesley looked toward the team’s best players, the leaders.
“You have those type of games where not everyone may show up, but if and when that happens, your best players have to pull you through whatever your funk is, and we just didn’t play well,” he said.
Now, one could point out that two of the team’s top tacklers — Aubrey Burks, who may be back this week for Oklahoma State, and Trey Lantham, who is out for the season — were missing, but Lesley says that’s just part of the hurdles life sets up in front of you.
“Yeah, it hurt, but I’m not going to sit here and use it as an excuse,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and complain. That’s football. That’s part of the Big 12 schedule and that’s going to happen. The next guy has to be ready.”
The good thing for West Virginia is that the 00:00 has not yet appeared on its season-long clock and there is time to regain the momentum it had starting with Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game against Oklahoma State.
“We have a great opportunity now to show we can bounce back from the last game. We cannot let that loss define our season,” Vesterinen said.
“Our guys will respond. They understand what we put on tape wasn’t good enough,” Brown added.
see more at: Parkersburn News and Sentinel
“Congrats on the win,” the first one said.
It was from his mother, back home in Finland, where the nuances of American football are still being learned.
“My mom she thought the game ended when there was zero on the clock,” Vesterinen explained.
She didn’t understand that since the ball had been snapped before the clock showed 00:00 the play could be completed.
“I said ‘No, they snapped the ball. The ball was still live even though the clock said zero,’ Vesterinen remembered on Monday.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she texted back.
If only …
Americans who spent their lives wrapped up in the game of football had trouble understanding how such a turn of events could occur in the final 13 seconds of the game, a WVU touchdown pass seemingly winning the game followed by a game-winning play that had as much of a chance of being successful as finding a needle in a haystack that sewed up the defeat.
Everyone from Neal Brown to Vesterinen saw that the last play was only the ribbon around the victory that WVU had wrapped up and packaged for Houston; the bow on top was what everyone saw and talked about but that was not the cause of the defeat.
Neal Brown noted that it was a game-long failure to be the football team that had won the previous four games, that had won two Big 12 games without defeat going in.
“We lost our way,” Brown said. “The reason we were successful during that four-game winning streak was because we played disciplined football, didn’t beat ourselves, didn’t have a lot of penalties, didn’t turn it over, played hard and were tough on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“A lot of those are the same reasons we didn’t win this game. We weren’t disciplined, probably had 8 penalties called and 12 or 14 could have been called. I thought Houston was hungrier and I thought they won both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“If that’s going to be the case, we’re going to struggle to win any games.”
He pointed to the defense, not surprisingly considering that the offense presented the defense with 39 points to work with, and to the special teams.
He also pointed toward the team’s special players.
“Defense, our best players did not play very well. Any time, regardless of the sport, when your best players don’t play very well you are going to struggle. The best players didn’t play good enough, by far our worst performance of the year,” he said.
Vesterinen admitted this was the case.
“We didn’t play up to the standards. As a whole defense we didn’t play as we used to,” he said.
Asked why, he groped for an answer but could not really put a defining finger on it.
“I think mentally we were still in a bye week. We were maybe mentally still in a vacation mode. A lot factors into it,” he said. “We were not playing as intensively as before. There can be several reasons. It can be personal. It’s hard to say why.”
Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley echoed all of those sentiments for both the head coach and the nose tackle.
“I’m more disappointed than mad, considering how we had played up to that point,” Lesley said.
The final play, while the snapshot of defeat, did not show what went into posing for that picture.
“One highlight is usually what everyone talks about. That or officials,” he said, but coaches see it differently.
“It’s our responsibility not to put a game in the hands of one play or the officials,” Lesley went on. “We had 27 plays (defensively). There was a dropped interception, three third-down conversions, basic fundamental things. Whether it was down and distance awareness or other things, there were 27 of them.
“I’m not going to go through all of them because that would take all day, but I’m just making the point that we didn’t lose the game on the last play of that game. There were tons of things that led up to that.”
And, like Brown, Lesley looked toward the team’s best players, the leaders.
“You have those type of games where not everyone may show up, but if and when that happens, your best players have to pull you through whatever your funk is, and we just didn’t play well,” he said.
Now, one could point out that two of the team’s top tacklers — Aubrey Burks, who may be back this week for Oklahoma State, and Trey Lantham, who is out for the season — were missing, but Lesley says that’s just part of the hurdles life sets up in front of you.
“Yeah, it hurt, but I’m not going to sit here and use it as an excuse,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and complain. That’s football. That’s part of the Big 12 schedule and that’s going to happen. The next guy has to be ready.”
The good thing for West Virginia is that the 00:00 has not yet appeared on its season-long clock and there is time to regain the momentum it had starting with Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game against Oklahoma State.
“We have a great opportunity now to show we can bounce back from the last game. We cannot let that loss define our season,” Vesterinen said.
“Our guys will respond. They understand what we put on tape wasn’t good enough,” Brown added.
see more at: Parkersburn News and Sentinel
Last edit: 1 year 1 week ago by wvu4u2.
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