MORGANTOWN - Anyone who has watched West Virginia's offense for more than a game or two this season knows that what has cost the Mountaineers most is an inability to convert short-yardage situations.

Those failures cost WVU dearly in two of its three losses - both in overtime - against Colorado and Cincinnati.

Ask offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen what the most frustrating part of his play-calling has been this season, though, and third down doesn't come up. Nor does short-yardage.

"Second and long,'' Mullen said. "When we don't have first-down success, that's when we're off the field.''

Indeed, there is logic behind Mullen's assertion that what has frustrated him most is long-yardage situations before those third-and-shorts or fourth-and-shorts ever come up. Like a pitcher who falls behind in the count, everything becomes harder after that.

"We have to do a better job of staying on schedule,'' Mullen said. "If you continually have second-and-10 or even second-and-seven, you're going to wind up with a lot of those third-and-ones. The best way to avoid struggling with short-yardage is to not get into those situations.''

Suffice it to say, though, that when West Virginia (6-3, 3-1 Big East) resumes play after a week off with Saturday's noon game at Louisville (5-5, 1-4) there will be no way to avoid the kind of short-yardage situations that have been such a problem. Like it or not, they will crop up at crucial times and the Mountaineers have to be better at handling them.

"Sure, that's been our biggest issue all year, those third-and-shorts,'' Mullen said. "In the games we've lost that's where it's been crucial, in the Colorado game and the [Cincinnati] game. If we can convert a couple of those third-and-shorts it's a whole different deal. And then all of a sudden the questions about inconsistency probably aren't so prevalent. But I'm OK with that. It is what it is and we know that we've got to get better and we'll continue to try to do that with the personnel we have.''

Mullen has tried just about everything in short-yardage situations this season, from a power set with an unbalanced line and an extra tackle to five-wide receiver empty sets. On a crucial first-and-goal in the fourth quarter against Cincinnati, he tried them all on one series, both throwing and running quarterback Pat White from the spread and running power football. The Mountaineers gained a net zero yards in four plays.

"If you look real close, we kind of went every direction,'' Mullen said. "We got in an empty set and tried to run Pat, we got in a two tight end set and tried to run Pat and Noel [Devine] and we tried to throw the ball and tried misdirection. We tried a few things. It's difficult when there's no one answer to get that thing done.''

Mullen should have one more weapon at his disposal this week when backup quarterback Jarrett Brown returns after missing two games with a bruised shoulder and thigh. West Virginia's most successful short-yardage plays all season came when Brown lined up in the shotgun, took the direct snap, picked his hole and used his 222 pounds to his advantage.

Still, the Mountaineers are going to need more than just Brown to solve their woes and Mullen knows it. With two weeks to prepare for the Cardinals, he knows it is his job to correct not only what has gone wrong on third downs, but to fix every other area in which the offense has failed. West Virginia appeared to be improving in those areas right up until the loss to Cincinnati and Mullen suggested that that very improvement might have been some of the cause for the most recent setback.

"When people pat you on the back and you have your press clippings and you do well and you get ranked, I think sometimes you kind of [cruise],'' Mullen said. "But when people tell you you stink and you're not very good and you've got a long way to go, well, you get a little attitude that's important in this game. It makes you play with a little bit of an edge. ... But at the end of the day that's neither here nor there. We just have to play a little bit better.''

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