The last few weeks certainly haven’t been what West Virginia and Oklahoma State had in mind in terms of finishing the season strong.
Both have been stumbling to the finish line of the 2022 season, but one at least will have a chance to end Big 12 play on a winning note when the teams meet on Saturday in Stillwater, Okla.
West Virginia (4-7, 2-6 Big 12) enters having lost four of its last five games, including a 48-31 home loss to Kansas State last week.
Defense has been the main problem in that stretch for the Mountaineers, who have given up an average of 37.6 points per game in those contests.
West Virginia has managed to put up more than 31 points a game this season behind quarterback JT Daniels, a transfer from Georgia who completed 61.2 percent of his passes for 2,107 yards, 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
However, Daniels was benched for last week’s game against Kansas State in favor of Garrett Greene. It’s not clear yet who will be starting at QB against Oklahoma State.
West Virginia coach Neal Brown said a big reason for his team’s offensive production has been improvement along the team’s offensive line.
“We’ve gotten to where we are playing pretty well up front,” Brown said. “We blocked (Kansas State) well.”
On the other side, Oklahoma State has lost three of its last four games to see a season that at one time had promise of a Big 12 title and possible berth in the College Football Playoff go to one that’ll result in a mid-tier bowl game.
The Cowboys (7-4, 4-4) are coming off a 28-13 loss at rival Oklahoma in what was the continuation of offensive struggles over the past four games.
A traditionally prolific Oklahoma State offense has averaged just 12.3 points a game in its last four contests.
“There’s times when you watch them on tape (and) they’re playing as good as most teams in this league,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said. “And then there’s times I’m sure that Neal would wish they would play better, (same with) our team.”
–Field Level Media
