The West Virginia University football team improved to 3-0 on Saturday, defeating BYU 35-32 at Fed Ex Field in Landover but the Mountaineers have a lot of room for improvement heading forward. For the second straight game mental miscues plagued WVU. The defense struggled with the pass rush, surrendering 280 yards and they struggled in the pocket. The cornerbacks missed tackles and third down coverage was under par. The Cougars were 10-for-15 on third downs. BYU picked up 521 total yards of offense and went 5-for-5 in the red zone. Special teams struggled to return kickoffs and missed coverages. Wide receivers dropped passes and a fumble almost turned costly. "Our field position continues to be a huge issue," head coach Dana Holgorsen said. …show more content…
Momentum shifted back to WVU with 4:23 remaining when Jeremy Tyler picked off Taysom Hill’s pass. When it looked as if the Mountaineers would finally put the game away, a miscommunication between senior center Tyler Orlosky and quarterback Skyler Howard caused a fumble, which BYU recovered at its 6-yard line. "It 's something we do a lot. We froze them. They were starting to blitz our motions. I figured we could freeze them and they would jump. But obviously they didn 't blitz on that one. Skyler forgot to get a play called. TO thought that they jumped so he snapped it. It was a miscommunication that can 't happen. It 's an easy fix. They 've done it 100 times." The Cougars drove 66 yards on six plays and were on the verge of scoring the go-ahead touch down when Hill 's pass deflected off Nana Kyeremeh 's hand and landed in the hands of senior corner Maurice Fleming, selling the win for WVU. "We been talking about that all week in practice" Fleming said. "We see a lot of tipped balls, we got to get our hands on them. And we did." The Mountaineers did do some things nicely on the defensive side of the ball. The defense forced two fumbles and had three interceptions. Redshirt senior cornerback Rasul Douglas ' had a pick six, which he returned 54 yards to give