Dec. 28—CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The West Virginia Mountaineers didn’t play quite like themselves, but found a way to win Wednesday night, defeating North Carolina 30-20 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in front of what was essentially a home crowd at Bank of American Stadium.
The Mountaineers (9-4, 6-3 Big 12) did not run the ball as effectively as they usually do, nor did they control the clock like they usually do.
“This was not our typical game but we found a way to win, ” WVU coach Neal Brown said following a mayo bath. “This isn’t the way we won all year.”
Instead, the Mountaineers played punishing defense, won the turnover and field position battles and hit big plays through the air.
For North Carolina (8-5, 4-4 ACC) the story of the game was who wasn’t playing as several top players opted out in preparation for the NFL Draft, including star quarterback Drake Maye. Conner Harrell made his first career start in place of Maye and found some success, but struggled with consistency and was sacked seven times.
“I thought Conner completed, I didn’t think we helped him enough, ” UNC coach Mack Brown said. “We didn’t give him enough protection.”
While Maye sat out of the game and his replacement struggled, West Virginia’s Beanie Bishop, a consensus All-American cornerback, elected to play in the game and came up big as an injury replacement.
With regular punt returner Preston Fox out with an injury, Bishop’s first-ever punt return was a 78-yard touchdown that put WVU up 14-3 in the second quarter.
“We worked special teams every day, a lot, ” Bishop said. “The blocks were set up well, they over-pursued to the left side and I had a lot of blockers for however many guys they had and I just outran a lot of people.”
Bishop never even considered opting out of the game and said it felt great to be able to come through with a big play.
“It means…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/defense-special-teams-lead-wvu-121700650.html
Author : The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
Publish date : 2023-12-28 12:17:00
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