West Virginia Football: 3 takeaways from tough loss to Texas in Week 10

West Virginia football was hoping to steal a win on the road against a ranked Texas team but the Mountaineers came up just short.

Neal Brown and West Virginia were hoping to march into Austin and steal a win from a ranked Texas team and the Mountaineers nearly did that.

Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, a poor run game and Sam Ehlinger were the difference. They played well enough to win, but the low-scoring affair favored Texas as the Longhorns improved to 5-2 on the season and moved up the Big 12 standings again.

What’d we learn from the Mountaineers’ tough loss to Texas?

3. West Virginia lost the battle in the trenches

If you’re going to win in the Big 12 — or really just at the collegiate level — you must win the battle in the trenches and the Mountaineers were unable to handle business there.

Leddie Brown is one of the best running backs in the conference but he had a long day trying to find running lanes and he was hit early and often. He didn’t gain any momentum as West Virginia’s run game was non-existent all afternoon long.

Luckily Jarret Doege was in a rhythm for the latter stages of the game which kept the Mountaineers in the game.

On the other side of the field, the Mountaineers’ usually-stout defensive line was giving up big runs and getting gashed by Bijan Robinson as he rushed for over 100 yards.