#18 West Virginia Plows Through the Texas Tech Defense to Beat the Red Raiders

Other than a little bit of a spark at the end of the first quarter, the Texas Tech Red Raiders played with a lackluster effort Saturday at Jones AT&T Stadium against West Virginia. The Mountaineers (5-0, 2-0) beat the Red Raiders (3-3, 1-2) 48-17.

Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury after the game called Saturday's effort against West Virginia "the worst game he's been associated with as a Red Raider." Kingsbury also said the Red Raiders played "flat" and that there are six games left to get the team to play better.

Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked four times. He threw just one touchdown, along with one interception in three-plus quarters of playing time.

Sloppy play was present throughout the game for Texas Tech, racking up 10 penalties for 103 yards. Two of the penalties were for offensive pass interference for illegally blocking downfield, and another was a personal four for targeting by an offensive lineman. More on that penalty in a moment.

After Texas Tech tied the game at 7-7 with a 46-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Jonathan Giles, late in the first quarter; the Mountaineers rattled off 17 consecutive points to take a 24-7 lead. Seven of those points came after a Patrick Mahomes red zone interception early in the second quarter.

Linebacker Sean Walters was able to literally steal a ball off the body of a Texas Tech receiver to kill a drive inside the 15 yard line. The score at halftime was 24-7. The teams then exchanged field goals in the third quarter and the score became 27-10.

West Virginia kept the ball on the ground during their next two drives as they added two more touchdowns within the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. At this point, West Virginia had a 41-10 lead and both teams started to put in the backups.

Three Mountaineers rushed for over 75 yards in their win. Rushel Shell led West Virginia with 104 yards rushing on 21 carries and two touchdowns. Kennedy McKoy rushed for 99 yards on four carries, and QB Skyler Howard rushed for 89 yards on 12 carries. Howard also scored two touchdowns.

Nic Shimonek took over at quarterback for Texas Tech with 10:24 left in the game. He led the Red Raiders on an 8-play, 48-yard scoring drive, which ended with a touchdown pass thrown to Jonathan Giles.

During the drive, two players were ejected for targeting. The first was Texas Tech RG Justin Murphy. Then, one play later, West Virginia DB Zayvion Lawson was also ejected for targeting for a cheap shot against Cameron Batson on an incomplete pass.

West Virginia, offensively, just about did everything right, including ball control. The Mountaineers generated 650 yards of offense, 332 of them rushing.

Next Saturday, Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Jones AT&T Stadium. Countdown to Kickoff airs from 4 -6 p.m. on SportsRadio 1340 The Fan with Rob Breaux.