The Boulder blues: ; Mountaineers stumble in overtime against Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. - Quinton Andrews emerged from an angry, anguishedlocker room holding a box of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a postgame mealthat's supposed to fill up the players, but must have been uselesson a night that left West Virginia's Mountaineers feeling empty.

On the side of the box was a slogan: Make any gathering great.

This was the exception.

"We feel like the worst team in the world right now," the juniorsafety said calmly behind bloodshot eyes.

No. 25 WVU, which began the season ranked No. 8 and projectedonce again to compete for a national championship, dropped a secondconsecutive game with a 17-14 overtime loss to Colorado (3-0)Thursday. Consecutive defeats for the first time in four years sentthe Mountaineers on another dejected, dubious stroll to their lockerroom as many of the 51,883 in attendance rushed Folsom Field.

Buffaloes kicker Aric Goodman kicked a 25-yard field goal to winthe game only moments after WVU's Pat McAfee hit the left uprightfrom 23 yards out.

"I feel sorry for Pat McAfee," Coach Bill Stewart said. "I don'tknow what happened, if it was the snap, the hold or the kick, but hemissed it. He's made a bunch for us, but he missed that one and Ihate that for him. I really do."

McAfee did not lose the game, though, and offensive coordinatorJeff Mullen was quick to highlight the problem that again plaguedthe Mountaineers.

"The story of the game was all those third-and-shorts," he said."We just didn't get them."

WVU (1-2) finished 3-for-13 on third down and failed in criticalspots when the need for a true blocking fullback was apparent.

"Third downs?" Stewart said when asked for a solution to aproblem that's seen his team go 12 for 34 in three games. "We've gotto make third downs."

Trailing 14-7 in the third quarter, the offense moved to theColorado 19-yard line, but White came up inches short of the firstdown on third-and-2. Stewart decided not to go for a field goal andWhite tried to sneak for the first down, but was stopped.

Colorado punted and White tied the game on a 39-yard run on whichhe dropped back and pump-faked before dashing through the middle.

The defense, which held Colorado scoreless the final 55:10 ofregulation and stopped nine of the final 11 third downs, forced apunt late in the fourth quarter and the Mountaineers had the ball attheir own 20 with 2:09 remaining.

They were at the Colorado 47 with a third-and-1 with 24 secondsto play. Noel Devine lost a yard and the Mountaineers sent the gameto overtime.

Once there, they came up short again. On third-and-1 at theColorado 11, White angrily called a timeout and barked at someonewho was out of position.

"We had a misalignment and Pat saw it and burned the timeout sowe could get it correct," Mullen said.

The Mountaineers returned with tight end Tyler Urban lined upnext to the right tackle, reserve offensive lineman Don Barclaylined up next to the left tackle and Will Johnson at fullback infront of Jock Sanders in an I-formation. Urban motioned left andSanders followed Johnson as he attempted to go off tackle to theleft side.

"We talked about that play-call earlier game and said the nextthird-and-short, we've got to use it," Mullen said. "That's our bestplay there."

Sanders lost a yard.

"I like to get the back's shoulders downhill when you need incheslike that rather than get them going laterally," Mullen said. "Whenwe have short yardage situations, you want to get your linemen toplay forward and your tailback to play forward."

White carried 19 times for 148 yards and scored twice. Devinegained 133 yards on a career-high 26 carries. No opponent had runfor more than 100 yards at Folsom Field since 2004.

The Mountaineers finished with 311 yards on the ground, butpassed for only 43. White was 10-for-14 and Brad Starks was 0-for-1as he came up short on a double-pass to a wide-open Sanders in thefourth quarter.

"We might have scored, maybe could have done some good things,"Stewart said. "But maybes don't get it done. Getting it done gets itdone."

The near-misses loomed as large as they did because the defenseplayed better as the game progressed.

"There were times we looked like a dominant defense," saidAndrews, who had a game-high 15 tackles.

After giving two touchdowns to start the game - one long drive,one short drive after a turnover - the defense allowed almostnothing. It forced two turnovers, pressured quarterback CodyHawkins, made sure tackles and improved immensely on third down.

The Buffaloes punted on their five second-half possessions.

"My hat's off to Coach (Jeff) Casteel," Mullen said. "His defensegave a winning performance. I feel sick to my stomach we didn't dowhat we had to do to get enough points on the board."

Hawkins and receiver Josh Smith picked the secondary apart on thefirst drive, which ended with Smith catching an easy 38-yardtouchdown from Hawkins as defenders chased. Hawkins was 6-for-8 for76 yards on the drive and Smith caught four passes for 70 yards andconverted two third downs with receptions.

The Mountaineers gave it back three plays later when Whitecompleted a short screen to Starks, who danced around as the defensepounced. Brandon Nicolas came all the way over from nose guard toforce the fumble. Defensive end Maurice Lucas recovered at the WVU28 and Colorado took a 14-0 lead with a 13-yard pass from Hawkins toPatrick Devenny - on third down.

Colorado hadn't scored in the first quarter in its first twogames.

White's 44-yard run down the left sideline gave WVU the ball atColorado's 9-yard line and he scored three plays later on a 5-yarddraw.

The teams combined for 240 yards of total offense in the firstquarter. White ran for 67 yards and Hawkins was 10-for-14 for 105yards. He finished 22-for-33 for 179 yards.

Colorado 17, West Virginia 14 (OT)

West Virginia 7 0 7 0 0 -14

Colorado 14 0 0 0 3 -17

First Quarter

Col-Jo.Smith 38 pass from C.Hawkins (Goodman kick), 12:14.

Col-Devenny 13 pass from C.Hawkins (Goodman kick), 10:10.

WVU-P.White 6 run (McAfee kick), 7:33.

Third Quarter

WVU-P.White 39 run (McAfee kick), 4:49.

Overtime

Col-FG Goodman 25.

A-51,883.

WVU Col

First downs 16 24

Rushes-yards 52-311 45-187

Passing 43 179

Comp-Att-Int 10-15-0 22-33-1

Return Yards 75 15

Punts-Avg. 7-44.3 7-47.6

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 2-1

Penalties-Yards 7-91 7-55

Time of Possession 29:21 30:39

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-West Virginia, P.White 19-148, Devine 26-133, Sanders 7-30. Colorado, Stewart 28-166, Scott 10-35, Crawford 1-2, Sumler 1-2, Team 1-0, Jo.Smith 1-(minus 6), C.Hawkins 3-(minus 12).

PASSING-West Virginia, P.White 10-14-0-43, Starks 0-1-0-0.Colorado, C.Hawkins 22-33-1-179.

RECEIVING-West Virginia, Devine 3-11, Jalloh 2-20, Gonzales 1-11, Arnett 1-5, Johnson 1-3, Sanders 1-0, Starks 1-(minus 7).Colorado, Jo.Smith 5-75, McKnight 4-21, Devenny 3-26, Stewart 3-16,Crawford 2-23, Scott 1-15, Cantrell 1-4, J.Behrens 1-1, Williams 1-1, Sumler 1-(minus 3).