There hasn’t been too much positive to take away through five games of Rich Rodriguez’s first season back at West Virginia. The highlight was obviously the win over Pitt in the Backyard Brawl, but other than that, not much.

The offense looked bad every week, and the special teams had its ups and downs. The defense was consistently pretty good through the first four weeks and kept the Mountaineers in games. However, against Utah, the defense was completely exposed and allowed 48 points and 532 yards.

“I thought, we played pretty consistent,” Rodriguez said. “Played well in a lot of our games. Today, we were leaving guys wide open, missing tackles, and giving up deep balls. I thought there was a couple of times to make a chance of a play on a ball, and we didn’t do it. It was not good.”

Utah’s first three drives were all touchdowns. Then, WVU finally got a stop on a free-be interception from quarterback Devon Dampier. The Utes then scored on eight of nine drives, and just twice it was a field goal.

“They never even had to punt,” Rodriguez said.

The defense already struggled with allowing just a couple of big plays a game, leaving players open, but against Utah, it seemed like every play, Dampier had someone downfield that was open, especially on third down. WVU couldn’t get off the field on third down against Utah. The Utes converted eight third downs.

“I think 100% same thing on mix down, lack of execution,” linebacker Chase Wilson said. “Not doing your job, not doing your one-eleventh. Third down is critical to get off the field. We weren’t able to do that tonight.”

The biggest issue that started to mount against Kansas was the missed tackles. The missed tackles were fully exposed on the kickoff touchdown against Kansas, and then even more against Utah. The defense couldn’t stop a cold.

Calculating the missed tackles is hard, but Utah had 75 yards after catch, meaning either the receiver was wide-open, or they broke a tackle.

“I think we’re trying to do too much,” Wilson said. “Anytime you’re missing tackles, it’s not going to go well for you, no matter how locked in you are in the game plan. You can’t miss tackles and expect to be successful. I think we’re trying to do too much. We’ve got to stay disciplined on doing our own assignments and doing your one-eleventh.”

Fixing the missed tackles will be a focus this week in practice. Wilson said after the game that it was hard to see what went wrong, whether it was pursuit angles or not wrapping up. He’ll find out more on Sunday after the game. Tuesday’s practice will be crucial for patching it up.

“It’s a technique thing as much as it is a film thing,” Wilson said. “You got to point it out in film and then, you fix it in practice with technique the next weekend, really make an emphasis on it every rep should be a tackling rep.”

Utah is a good team and has one of the best offensive lines in the country. Two of the linemen could be picked in the first round of the NFL Draft come April. The Utes have a physical front, making it easy to get exposed. Still, that’s no excuse.

“They deserve all the credit in the world, but I still think that we did not play our best football tonight,” Wilson said.

With heading to BYU this week for a Friday game, WVU has a short week. There’s not a lot of time to fix mistakes. If the mistakes aren’t fixed, BYU is another top Big 12 team and has a high-powered offense; it’ll be another lopsided loss.

“You learn from this, and you flush it,” Wilson said. “We got a great opportunity next week, going to a good environment against a good team. Short week. The best part about whether you win or you lose, you get another one to play next week.”