Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - You can chalk one up for old-school football today.
 
In this X-Box, go-for-it-on-fourth-down-in-the-first-quarter-on-your-side-of-the-50 era, it's refreshing to see some order out there on the field every now and again.
 
West Virginia talked this week about matching Texas Tech's prolific offense that ranked among the NCAA leaders in almost every statistical category, but in the end it was defense, hidden yardage on special teams and a power running game that helped West Virginia snap its four-game Big 12 losing streak with today's 31-26 victory over the Red Raiders at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
"Old-school," West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. "We were short-handed, especially in the secondary, but it was extra motivation for our kids with everybody talking about shoot-outs and what they were going to do to our kids."
 
The Mountaineers' win today was the first time this year all three phases – offense, defense and special teams – worked in unison to win a football game, and quite possibly the first time that's happened around here in quite a while.
 
"Heck of a game," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said. "Two evenly matched teams, I think. Coming into it I thought that was the case. It's been a long month and a half, so just to get the victory is obviously very good."
 
The Red Raiders (5-5) have put up video-game-type numbers on everybody, including 52 points against third-ranked TCU earlier this year and 53 last weekend against No. 12 Oklahoma State. Today, Tech got about half what it normally gets.
 
Some of that is probably on them, but a lot of it was also a result of what Gibson's patched-up WVU defense did this afternoon, a kickoff return game that consistently got the football close to midfield and a ground attack that ended the game with the football in its hands.
 
Following Texas Tech's 17-yard touchdown with 6:47 remaining in the game to reduce West Virginia's lead to 31-26 - a Patrick Mahomes pass to DeAndre Washington that replay officials deemed a touchdown after officials on the field ruled he was down at the one - West Virginia embarked upon a ground assault that would have made Gen. George S. Patton smile.
 
Taking over at its own 35, courtesy of another poor kickoff by Clayton Hatfield, Rushel Shell and Wendell Smallwood went to work behind a retooled offensive line featuring Marquis Lucas at left tackle in place of injured Yodny Cajuste, Adam Pankey at left guard, Tyler Orlosky at center, Michigan transfer Kyle Bosch at right guard and Marcell Lazard at right tackle.
 
Shell got five to the 40. Then, a personal foul on Texas Tech's Branden Jackson bailed West Virginia out when Skyler Howard's swing pass to Shell lost two yards, giving the Mountaineers a first down at the Red Raider 47.
 
Three Smallwood runs moved the ball 18 yards to the Texas Tech 29. Another Howard pass, which fell incomplete to Jovon Durante, preceded Smallwood's big third-down run that moved the football 10 yards to the Texas Tech 19 with the clock winding inside of three minutes.
 
Smallwood again came up big on the ground two plays later, following another unsuccessful pass attempt, when he turned the corner for 12 yards to the Red Raider six. The clock was now down to two minutes, forcing Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury to use his remaining two timeouts, the first with 1:56 remaining and the second with 1:49 to go.
 
Howard's third-and-goal run from the one didn't cross the goal line, but Micah Awe was called for a personal foul when he pulled Howard's helmet off, giving the Mountaineers a first and goal at the one.
 
From there, Howard took a knee three times to run out the clock.
 
"That's fun when you can win the game like that," said West Virginia running backs coach JaJuan Seider. "You get to run the best play in football – the victory formation. That's the best feeling in the world."
 
"Finally, we were able to take some pressure off of our defense," said Lucas. "Most of the time we've always got our fingers crossed hoping that they are stopping somebody and that's not a good feeling at all. It definitely felt good having possession of the ball."
 
None of the 54,932 fans here at Milan Puskar Stadium today expected the game to go this way, that is except for the guys wearing the blue jerseys.
 
"Our defense goes against us every day, and when they get into 10-personnel the whole game, it's hard to move the ball on those guys because they re-route you; they've got six men in the box with a one-back set, so what are you going to run to?" said Seider. "You take away their quarterback running around and scrambling, which he does as good as anybody in the country; I believe in what those coaches over there on defense are doing and they've got a bunch of seniors out there."
 
Smallwood ran for a season-high 163 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown, and Shell contributed 111 yards and two short scores as West Virginia's ground game accounted for 300 of West Virginia's 449 yards of offense. 
Lucas knew West Virginia was going to have its way on the ground today on the opening drive of the game.
 
"The first drive me and Pankey we took their d-lineman about six, seven yards down the field and we didn't come off to the linebacker," he said. "We set the tone right there."
 
"Overall, I was happy with those guys – the o-line, the quarterback and the running backs," said Holgorsen.
 
The Red Raiders finished this afternoon with 378 total yards (225 less than their season average heading into today's game), including just 199 through the air from Mahomes.
 
The Red Raiders were most successful when Mahomes tucked the football and ran, the sophomore carrying the pigskin 18 times for 73 yards. His scrambling ability got Texas Tech's first touchdown, a 10-yard pass to Jakeem Grant, and his legs helped the Red Raiders get into position to score a touchdown right before the end of the first half when he found Reginald Davis in the back of the end zone for a nine-yard score.
 
That touchdown tied the game at 14 with only 35 seconds left, but a short Hatfield kickoff and Durante's 26-yard return gave West Virginia the ball at the 37 with 28 seconds left and a timeout still remaining.
 
Howard hit Ka'Ruan White for 17 yards to the Tech 46, and two Shell runs got 24 yards to the Red Raider 22 where Lambert kicked a 39-yard field goal to give the Mountaineers the lead at halftime.
 
"That was big, going into the locker room with the lead and some momentum," said Seider.
 
West Virginia's defense forced Texas Tech to punt on its opening drive of the third quarter, and following a Howard interception that resulted in a Hatfield 34-yard field goal, one of two he made this afternoon, the Mountaineers responded with their best drive of the game by marching 65 yards on 10 plays and eating up 4:03 of the clock.
 
All but 14 of it came on the ground, but the one pass from Howard to White that came on third and four at the WVU 41 was a big completion that kept the drive alive.
 
A Tevin Madison pass interference penalty called by the backside official gave West Virginia a first down at the Red Raider 26, and six more runs – four by Shell – got the ball into the end zone.
 
West Virginia ran the ball 57 times today for 300 yards, and probably could have run it 70 times successfully against a defense that came into today's game allowing 270 yards per game.
 
"We knew we could run the ball against them," said Smallwood. "We knew if we didn't get 300 yards rushing against them that that was on us."
 
Howard completed 12-of-23 passes for 149 yards, five of those going to White for 80 yards. He also threw two interceptions that resulted in both Texas Tech field goals.
 
Howard added 27 yards rushing on 18 carries.
 
Washington led Texas Tech with 102 yards on 21 carries.
 
West Virginia (4-4) remains at home to play Texas next Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium. A game time has yet to be announced for the November 14 tilt against the Longhorns.
 
Texas Tech looks to become bowl eligible next Saturday at Kansas State.