MORGANTOWN - The defense West Virginia has been forced to distance itself from this season first appeared against Texas Tech last season. Charged with keeping the score tied and getting the ball back for the offense one last time, Tony Gibson unleashed hell.
The Mountaineers' defensive coordinator blitzed on six consecutive snaps and used the same blitz five times. The Red Raiders took over at their 30-yard line with 2:03 remaining and punted with 52 seconds to go. WVU won 37-34 on Josh Lambert's 55-yard field goal as time expired.
Those were the Mountaineers the rest of the way, a relentless group who would not listen to lectures they were doing it wrong. Texas Tech allowed just five sacks in 280 pass attempts before that drive. Gibson later blitzed 48 times on 79 snaps against Baylor, and WVU lived to celebrate it.
That personality existed though Gibson's contract extension in the offseason and his preseason proclamation the 2015 defense should be a great one. It was there for the 3-0 start, when the Mountaineers allowed the fewest points in the nation. But it's disappeared lately as players have disappeared from the field and robbed Gibson of the ability to blitz and cover receivers behind the pressure.
Gibson can't afford to wait for players to return to full strength. Not during a four-game losing streak. He has to restore the aggression that's been lost. The Red Raiders (5-4, 2-4 Big 12) ought to remind the Mountaineers (3-4, 0-4) of who they were and who they still might be in time for Saturday's noon Fox Sports 1 game at Mountaineer Field.
"We have to get back to our personality and how we play defense," Gibson said.
That would seem to require the waving of a magic wand. Safety Karl Joseph is out for the season. Cornerback Terrell Chestnut can play up until one blow to his shoulder knocks him out of the game. Safety K.J. Dillon, cornerback Daryl Worley and linebacker Shaq Petteway each ache.
That necessitates reactions, and each limits the defense. Cornerback Nana Kyeremeh and safeties Jarrod Harper and Jeremy Tyler are playing more than ever. Defensive end Isaiah Bruce and safeties Marvin Gross and Khairi Sharif are playing positions they'd never played before last week.
"There's a reason why they were backups," said safeties coach Joe DeForest. "They're not as talented as the ones they were playing behind."
That's harsh, but that's the truth, and that's how the Mountaineers can be remembered. Sunken by circumstances, as good as their limitations. Dropping eight and nine defenders, playing passively and hoping for the best.
Or they can break free of what's holding them back and rise to where they once were, not by getting better at what they're forced to do but by returning to what they once did so very well.
They can let Texas Tech's Pat Mahomes and Jakeem Grant make their mark and join Baylor's Seth Russell and Corey Coleman and TCU's Trevone Boykin and Josh Doctson.
Or they can leave their own mark. It doesn't matter if they know how to. It matters that they have to.
The Mountaineers aren't comfortable rushing three defensive linemen and asking everyone else to defend a zone. They haven't even been very good at it. They're cozy when it's chaotic because they know they created it.
"Are we going to overpower people? Are we going to outplay, out-speed, out-athletic people? No, probably not," WVU linebacker Jared Barber said. "But what we pride ourselves off of is playing so hard, so fast and so physical. That's how we beat people. There are a couple times we might be out of position, but we play so hard and so fast we make up for any mistake.
"I think if we try to sit back and out-technique people, I guess, or out-finesse people or just be very simple, I don't think we can do that."
Whether the Mountaineers can do what they need to do is a matter of concern. The injuries are real. The chain reaction can't be ignored. Mahomes and Grant are dangerous, and there can't be too many times WVU gambles with a safety in the slot covering Grant behind a blitz that might not work.
But Mahomes can't be given all the time he needs to cycle through his options and pick the best or to float around the backfield and wait until one of the options comes uncovered. The Mountaineers can't go on being as good as the backup players and the backup plan unless they want to keep going in reverse.