ORLANDO, Fla. – All season long, the West Virginia football team came into a contest with the mindset that its defensive unit was going to be the star of the game.

After all, they had held all of their opponents to 21 points or less – a feat that no other team in the football bowl subdivision could match.

That all changed, however, in the team’s loss to North Carolina State in the Champs Sports Bowl, 23-7.

“We let up the most points we did all year, and I am not happy with that,” said nose tackle Chris Neild. “I am not going to question whether we played hard, but it all comes down to executing and the turnovers.”

Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson, who was the game’s MVP, was the key cog behind the attack that broke the Mountaineers stellar defensive scoring streak.

“He is a great player and that was a great performance,” said Mountaineers’ head coach Bill Stewart. “He is a gamer and he did nice job moving the chains for them.”

Wilson completed 28 of 45 passes in the contest for a total of 275 yards and two touchdowns along with 14 carries for 41 yards.

“He was one of their main players and we couldn’t get him on the ground,” said linebacker J.T. Thomas. “We prepared for him, but sometimes, a guy just makes play.”

Some of WVU’s defense players admitted after the game that they were surprised at the speed that Wilson possessed.

“He definitely was a little bit faster than I thought,” Thomas said. “He used his speed to find his way out of trouble.”

Neild agreed with Thomas about Wilson’s athletic ability and likened the quarterback to a running back.

“Their quarterback was a real good athlete, and he was quick on his feet” Neild said. “When you have to account for basically another running back in the backfield that can throw, it makes it tough to defend.”

Neild, though, didn’t completely attribute the defenses’ failures to Wilson’s ability.

“We didn’t follow through on defense,” Nield said. “We didn’t see anything we didn’t expect. We just had trouble executing on defense.”

To further compound the Mountaineers defensive issues in the game, the offense turned the ball over four times in the fourth quarter and five times in total.

By way of the turnovers, the Wolfpack found itself with a short field to work with on numerous occasions.

NC State had four drives that started inside of Mountaineer territory.

“It is very frustrating,” Neild said. “Whoever wins the turnover battle is most likely going to win the game. They caused fumbles and we didn’t. They took advantage of what they got.”

Despite the offensive failures, Neild stopped short of blaming that half of the team for the loss.

“It gets a little frustrating when the offense doesn’t execute – I can’t lie about that,” Neild said. “(NC State) made us turnover the ball over, and we didn’t have any takeovers, so that is all she wrote.”