ATHENS, Ohio -- In Greek mythology, Achilles suffered his demise as Paris killed him during the Trojan War by shooting him in the heel.
The West Virginia Mountaineers wrote their own story arc Saturday that showed parallels to the killing of Achilles.
Now, what died in the 2025 story were WVU's chances of capitalizing on mistakes. The current version of the Greek warrior Paris was in the form of a Bobcat from Ohio.
Paris took down Achilles again, as the Bobcats took down the Mountaineers, 17-10, inside Peden Stadium in front of a stadium record attendance of 26,740.
The Mountaineers intercepted Ohio quarterback Parker Navarro three times.
Navarro had multi-interception games twice last season.
However, despite the turnovers, the Mountaineers didn't capitalize on the prime chances.
Navarro threw interceptions on three straight Ohio possessions. Yet, WVU saw nine plays but netted negative-7 yards, with one possession seeing negative-14 yards.
"This [is] very disappointing," WVU coach Rich Rodriguez said. "[It] starts with me. I told the guys [that] I failed them this week. I thought we had a good week of practice [and] thought we were ready to play, and we weren't. We didn't execute. A lot of things to work on.
"I knew there were going to be some growing pains. I'm going to do a better job, and we will get better from this."
WVU's Darrian Lewis, Chase Wilson and Ben Cutter all got interceptions on the three straight Ohio possessions.
The WVU defense got a quick breather after each takeaway.
However, the Mountaineer offense went three-and-out in all of their possessions, allowing not much time for a break for the defense.
"It's a team game, right?" WVU safety Kekoura Tarnue said. "We don't go out there and point fingers at anybody. We also [have to] keep doing our job. At the end of the day, it is what it is."
Another big mistake was allowing Navarro to be comfortable.
The Ohio quarterback, despite throwing three interceptions, still totaled 334 yards of offense, with 247 coming through the air. It's the eighth time in his Ohio career that he's passed for more than 200 yards.
Navarro rushed for 87 yards in the seven-point victory.
WVU's defense left many tackles in either the open field or behind the line of scrimmage out there.
Ohio amassed 429 yards of offense and took advantage of eight Mountaineer penalties for 86 yards.
"We let [Navarro] get out so many times in critical situations," WVU linebacker Ben Cutter said. "We got to work on tackling this week for sure. We're going to be fired up when we go into practice knowing our opponent next week. We got to get better because of this loss."
Rodriguez knew what Navarro was capable of coming into Saturday's contest in Athens.
"He's phenomenal," Rodriguez said. "[That] was a big worry coming in. There were times we kept them from going outside, but he duck inside and scrambled. He's a phenomenal playmaker. He's pretty dynamic."
WVU nickel Fred Perry finished with a game-high 10 tackles, while also posting one sack and two tackles for loss.
Lewis, an Akron, Ohio, native, recorded nine tackles in the loss to complement his interception in the second half.
"We weren't wrapping up like we should, and our feet weren't moving on contact," Cutter said.
Rodriguez felt WVU's defense left some things on the table with the missed tackles and allowing open space for big plays.
"[The defense] forced turnovers. [We] got plenty of opportunities," Rodriguez said. "We missed a couple of tackles here and there. I gave up a couple of things [on] third down. They battled. They played hard and played well enough for us to win. But, when you lose, everybody loses.
"We're going to take this and learn as much as we can from it."
The path moving forward doesn't get any easier for the Mountaineers.
West Virginia will welcome the Pitt Panthers to Morgantown for another edition of the Backyard Brawl.
The Panthers are coming off a 45-17 home victory over Central Michigan on Saturday.
Pitt has outscored its first two opponents 106-26, and won its first two games by an average of 40 points.
