In a Driving Rain, West Virginia Washes Out Oklahoma

MORGANTOWN, WV — What else however a stirring end might come from such an unpleasant sport in ugly situations between two groups mired in an unpleasant season?

Saturday’s Oklahoma-West Virginia sport wasn’t a traditional within the ordinary sense. Performed largely in a driving rainstorm that stored soccer followers away from Milan Puskar Stadium, each offenses had been predictably dysfunctional, and each teaching staffs had been appropriately conservative.

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

Greene’s final run coated 7 yards on third-and-6 after OU exhausted its timeouts and arrange Casey Legg for the go-ahead discipline objective from 24 yards out as time expired.

OU suffered its first loss to the Mountaineers in Massive 12 Convention play. Saturday ended a streak of 9 in a row since WVU joined the league in 2012.

Oklahoma is 5-5 total and 2-5 in Massive 12 Convention play, whereas WVU is 4-6 and 2-5.

The ultimate minutes had been entertaining, however the halftime scoreboard was almost caught at 3-0 earlier than an unlikely flurry of factors within the ultimate seconds.

The Sooners allowed 205 yards complete offense within the first half, however WVU averaged simply 3.8 yards per rush and accomplished simply 9-of-16 passes for 106 yards.

OU’s offense, nevertheless, was sluggish within the first half regardless of one other incredible efficiency from Eric Grey.

The Sooners transformed simply 1-of-7 third downs and had been 0-for-1 on fourth down within the opening half-hour.

Dillon Gabriel overthrew Marvin Mims on a possible large achieve, however then Mims dropped what would have been a walk-in landing on one other deep ball. Gabriel accomplished simply 11-of-20 for 155 yards within the first half as a gradual rain fell on Morgantown.

It was scoreless for a lot of the primary half — Zach Schmit was quick on a 54-yard discipline objective within the first quarter after which made a 32-yard kick within the second quarter — and after WVU pinned the Sooners at their very own 4-yard line with an ideal punt, it appeared the groups would go into halftime at 3-0.

As a substitute, they produced an surprising outburst of factors.

Grey received the Sooners off the objective line with a pair lengthy runs, after which Mims lastly hauled in an enormous ball from Gabriel, a 67-yard achieve to the WVU 12. Grey’s landing on the following play constructed the Sooners a 10-0 lead with simply 66 seconds on the clock.

However the Mountaineers received a 42-yard kickoff return on Schmit’s quick kick, and cashed it in three performs later when Greene ran for 33 yards, then scooted 5 extra for the landing to make it 10-6.

The additional level, nevertheless, was a distinct story, as Robert Spears-Jennings crashed into WVU holder Kolten McGhee, inflicting a unfastened ball, and Billy Bowman scooped it up and took it again for a 2-point conversion runback that pushed the OU result in 12-6 at halftime.

West Virginia took its first lead on its second possession of the third quarter when Greene connected with Bryce Ford-Wheaton on an 8-yard fade route landing to make it 13-12. On the earlier play, David Ugwoegbu batted down a throw by Greene on the line of scrimmage — a throw which may have been in any other case intercepted by Billy Bowman in the long run zone.

The Sooners opened the quarter with a robust possession — 10 performs, 45 yards, greater than 4 minutes off the clock — however had been stopped on downs when Gabriel’s fourth-and-3 throw was batted down on the line.

On Oklahoma’s subsequent possession, Eric Grey took over with runs of seven, 5, 21, 3 and 5 yards, and Gabriel accomplished passes of 8 and 10 yards to Marvin Mims. Grey’s 5-yard TD put the Sooners again in entrance, and Gabriel’s rush on the 2-point conversion gave OU a 20-13 lead with 1:22 to play within the third quarter.

Grey completed with a career-high 211 speeding yards and now has 1,113 on the season.

West Virginia wasted little time with their reply, although. The Mountaineers transformed a fourth-and-15 state of affairs when OU’s Gracen Halton was referred to as for offsides, and Greene adopted that up with a 15-yard completion to Kaden Prather. After one other 5-yard hookup with Prather, Inexperienced raced round the correct edge for a landing that tied it at 20-20.

The fourth down wasn’t with out controversy, as Greene’s throw into the top zone was intercepted by C.J. Coldon, however as Coldon tried to take a knee in the long run zone, he was clobbered by a WVU participant. The play was initially flagged for pointless roughness, which might have been offsetting penalties, however the second flag was picked up and the offsides name in opposition to Halton was allowed to face, giving Greene the Mountaineers second life.

OU’s subsequent drive was promising as Grey rushed for five, 5, 6 and 24 yards on 4 straight rushes. However the drive slowed down simply outdoors the pink zone, and Schmit’s 46-yard discipline objective banged into the correct upright, leaving the rating tied at 20.