Garrett Greene’s passing must be higher in ‘crucial’ conditions

MORGANTOWN — On the floor, West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene’s numbers within the group’s 38-15 loss to Penn State don’t look all that dangerous.

The junior making his third profession begin accomplished 16 of 27 passes for 162 instances and ran 15 instances for 71 yards and a landing. They’re not explosive numbers, however he didn’t flip the soccer over and even helped the group keep away from any pre-snap penalties within the hostile street setting of 110,000 Nittany Lions followers.

“Credit score to him for the sport administration piece,” WVU coach Neal Brown stated. “That’s the quarterback, we didn’t have any 40-second clock points, we didn’t have any 25-second clock points. He dealt with all of that.”

The issue with Greene’s efficiency was that his greatest errors nearly all got here in probably the most essential moments of the sport. The Mountaineers have been simply 4 of 14 on third down and three of 6 on fourth down. WVU truly led Penn State in time of possession — 31 minutes to twenty-eight — however as a result of the Mountaineers stored floundering on third and fourth down, they repeatedly squandered promising drives and scoring possibilities.

“Let’s say you exchange two out of these,” Brown posited. “Now you get three or 4 extra downs however extra importantly, you’re consuming up the clock. You’re taking no less than a minimal of 1 possession away from them and also you’re actually controlling the clock. The failure to transform these end-of-possession downs has penalties all through.” 

Individually on third and fourth downs, Greene accomplished three of six go makes an attempt for 27 yards and ran 9 instances for 50 yards. He solely picked up 5 first downs in 15 possibilities, two of which have been quarterback sneaks.

“The destructive can be not having the ability to execute passes in crucial go conditions and never making the performs most once we wanted the play,” offensive coordinator Chad Scott stated Monday.

Though Greene and the Mountaineers prevented turnovers, they did lose possession on downs thrice and needed to punt the ball away on 4 extra cases.

“We’ve obtained to enhance our go recreation execution,” Brown stated. “What the sport got here right down to was the tip of drives.”

Scott stated Greene must do a greater job of staying within the pocket and retaining his eyes downfield as an alternative of scrambling instantly. Of Greene’s 15 carries, three have been PSU sacks and only a few have been designed runs.

“The largest factor is he’s obtained to belief,” Scott stated. “We’ve obtained the perfect offensive line within the nation, in my view, and people working backs do a fantastic job seeing the blitzes. He’s simply obtained to do a fantastic job of trusting these guys up entrance and trusting these backs that they’re not going to get him hit, they’re going to maintain him clear.”

The turning level of the sport got here in the beginning of the third quarter. WVU’s protection compelled Penn State to go three-and-out on the opening possession, giving the offense an opportunity to drive and doubtlessly tie the sport at 14-14.

After a penalty put the Mountaineers behind the sticks, Greene’s go on second down was incomplete and his throw on third down gained only one yard.

“We knew we have been in it. If I convert that third down, I feel the sport seems to be loads totally different,” Greene stated after the sport. “I simply didn’t make sufficient performs to win the sport.”

Brown additionally famous that WVU obtained into robust third-down spots all through the sport, partially, as a result of Greene missed a handful of throws on early downs.

“He’s obtained to make layups,” Brown stated. “He had two actually dangerous throws on screens, these are layups, he’s obtained to make these. What we discuss to him about is you’ve obtained to make 100% of your layups, and he didn’t.”

Scott thinks leaning extra on WVU’s working recreation might help create these “layup” alternatives for Greene earlier in video games. Changing on these would assist him out later in contests, Scott believes.

“We’ve obtained to ascertain the run early and discover a solution to get him a straightforward completion downfield to eliminate the jitters,” Scott stated. “Depend on the run recreation closely and discover a solution to get him a straightforward completion to get him going.”

Brown expects Greene and backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol to play this week when the Mountaineers host Duquesne on Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN+).