Click to view photos from the WVU-Colorado game. 

BOULDER, Colo. -- Granted, West Virginia's run-based offense is not the quick-strike kind. This is not a team that will ever be confused with some of the great two-minute clubs in history.

Still, the most-discussed part of the Mountaineers' 17-14 overtime loss to Colorado Thursday night is likely to be what West Virginia did in the final 2:09. That's when they got the ball on their 20-yard line with a chance to drive for the winning field goal or touchdown.

They were close, yet so far away. And a lot of it had to do with the clock.

In short, West Virginia used 78 seconds to get the ball near midfield. With 51 seconds to play they were on their 44. No problem there.

But two more plays gained just nine yards and left the Mountaineers with a third-and-1. Worse, they ate 29 seconds off the clock and now only 22 remained. When Noel Devine lost a yard on the next play, West Virginia just ran the clock down and tried a doomed Hail Mary pass on the last play of regulation.

In the end, it might have been for the best because of the failed third down. But had West Virginia converted, it still would have needed another 15 yards to get into field goal range and only 22 seconds to do it. Yes, they still had the two timeouts, but it was getting close.

"I was on the horn with coach [Bill] Stewart the whole time. We were right on schedule,'' said offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen. "We wanted to get the ball to midfield and still have our two timeouts to get the last 15 or so yards we would need to get into field goal range.''

@boxes:

@bod:Speaking of clock management, apparently coaches never learn. In this case it was both Stewart and Colorado's Dan Hawkins.

At the end of the first half of Thursday's game, the Mountaineers had Colorado backed up inside its 15 after a punt. The Buffaloes had 48 seconds remaining until halftime, ran one play that gained three yards and then gave up, preferring to kneel and take a 14-7 lead into the locker room.

That's when it got silly. Colorado was whistled for an illegal formation on a kneel-down play and was backed up to its own 8. The Buffs kneeled again (another second down) and the clock ran down to six seconds, but West Virginia called time and the officials put 10 seconds on the board. After another running play (third down), Stewart again called time, this time with three seconds to play.

Here's the part about coaches never learning. Rutgers' Greg Schiano did the same thing against West Virginia in 2004, calling a time out with only a few seconds to play and WVU facing a fourth down at its own 20. The idea was to perhaps block a punt.

The trouble with that was that WVU coach Rich Rodriguez had no intention of punting because any play he ran would burn the remaining four seconds. So he lined up Chris Henry wide and Rasheed Marshall threw him an 80-yard touchdown pass.

Well, Hawkins had no intention of punting, either, which Stewart should have known. But neither did Hawkins try to take advantage of the situation. Instead of throwing something on what was essentially a free play, he handed it off and ran out the clock.

West Virginia's defense took a hit early in the game when linebacker J.T. Thomas went out.

Thomas was hurt on the game's second play from scrimmage. Colorado quarterback Cody Hawkins threw a short swing pass to 6-foot, 245-pound fullback Maurice Cantrell on a second-and-15 play. Thomas hit Cantrell helmet-to-helmet and immediately crumbled to the ground.

West Virginia's trainers tended to him on the field for almost five minutes before he jumped up and walked into the locker room. But he never returned, even though he said he felt better.

"The doctors made the right call,'' Stewart said. "They wouldn't let him back in the game.''

It was just another setback for WVU's star-crossed linebacker corps, which played the first two games without senior Reed Williams and suffered because of players playing out of position. Thursday, with Williams in the starting lineup, was the first time this season the Mountaineers had their starters all on the field (Williams, Thomas and Mortty Ivy) and it lasted just two plays.

Williams, by the way, made his presence felt early, helping the defense hold together somewhat even after the loss of Thomas.

Midway through the second quarter, he stepped in front of a Cody Hawkins pass and intercepted it, returning it inside the Colorado 30 and apparently setting the Mountaineers up in great position to score. A personal foul penalty on the return, though, took the ball back into WVU territory and the scoring chance was wasted when Jock Sanders dropped a third-down pass a few plays later.

Late in the game Williams managed to barely push Colorado running back Rodney Stewart out of bounds on a play that could have resulted in a long -- and winning -- touchdown.

Williams was in and out of the game, though, often replaced by Ivy moving to the middle and John Holmes or Ovid Goulbourne coming in for Ivy.

West Virginia's special teams actually played well on the whole, but there were some glaring problems just the same.

Yes, Ellis Lankster was marvelous on punt returns, averaging more than 21 yards. Pat McAfee punted seven times for a 44.3-yard average and put four inside the 20-yard line.

And best of all, CU punt returner Josh Smith gained just 15 yards on punt returns.

But, of course, McAfee missed the 23-yard field goal in overtime and Lankster gambled and lost big on a punt he hoped would go into the end zone, with Colorado downing it at the 1-yard line.

And there were also two inexcusable mistakes in personnel. The Mountaineers had to call time on, of all things, a Colorado PAT early in the game when only nine players were on the field. And later, Lankster fair caught a punt with only 10 men on the field.

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.