MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia running backs Rushel Shell III and Justin Crawford scored touchdowns and Mike Molina kicked four field goals to power West Virginia to a season-opening 26-11 victory over Missouri here at Milan Puskar Stadium this afternoon.

The Mountaineers got 101 yards on the ground from Crawford, the 2015 national junior college player of the year, and 253 yards through the air from senior quarterback Skyler Howard to win a season-opening game for the fifth time in six tries under veteran coach Dana Holgorsen.

"We've been waiting eight months and five weeks to be able to get out there and play, and finally did," Holgorsen said. "What an atmosphere. I want to thank Mountaineer Nation for getting out there, being loud and supportive."

West Virginia fed off of the electricity produced from the 60,125 fans announced for today's game, and the offensive production was nearly 50-50 against statistically one of the best defenses in the country last year that was returning eight starters from that unit.

"That's a good team that won the SEC two out of the last three years and was giving up an average of 300 yards and about 16 points per game last year,"  Holgorsen noted.

WVU set the tone on its second possession of the game by marching 60 yards in 11 plays, 33 of that coming on a pair of Howard completions to Daikiel Shorts Jr. over the middle, the second one going for 14 yards to the Missouri 10.

But West Virginia's offense couldn't push the ball across the goal line and had to settle for a 19-yard Molina field goal.

Molina also successfully converted his three other field goal tries from 26, 21 and 33 yards as Josh Lambert's replacement.

"Those field goals have to turn into touchdowns if we want to be successful this year," Holgorsen said.

The Mountaineers' second touchdown came as a result of their best offensive drive of the game at the beginning of the third quarter when things were beginning to get a little dicey.

Leading 13-3 with the clocking winding down in the second quarter, a busted play led to Howard getting driven into the turf by Missouri's 240-pound linebacker Donavin Newsom. Howard got up and then went back down to the turf in pain, eventually having to be helped to the locker room with an apparent rib injury.

In came backup quarterback William Crest Jr., whose first pass slipped out of his hands while attempting to throw a long pass down field, and Marcell Frazier recovered Crest's fumble at the seven.

Three plays netted nothing for the Tigers and Tucker McCann, who converted a 24-yard field goal earlier in the period, saw his chip-shot try from the seven hook wide left.

Two plays after that, West Virginia was right back in the soup when backup quarterback No. 2, Chris Chugunov, tried an ill-advised pass deep down the middle of the field from his own 27 that landed right into the arms of strong safety Anthony Sherrils at the Tiger 37 with only nine seconds left in the half.

Missouri (0-1) was able to move the ball close enough for quarterback Drew Lock to try a long pass to the end zone, but his heave was deflected and fell harmlessly to the ground.

At halftime, the No. 1 question for everyone in the stadium - including the locker room - was the health of Howard.

The answer came when the team returned to the field and Howard ran straight from the training room right into the huddle as the offense was about to take the field following Shelton Gibson's kickoff return to the 30.

"He's sore but he played through it," Holgorsen said of his starting quarterback. "I don't think anybody in their right mind would question his toughness. It hurts to breathe but the kid is a competitor and is going to do anything in the world he's got to do to help the team win, and he did."

Shell popped a 20 yard run to get the ball to midfield, and two plays later, Howard flipped a pass to Shell for 22 yards to the Missouri 24; 10 of those yards were trimmed off the end of the play when receiver Gary Jennings was flagged for holding down field.

After missing Shelton Gibson, Howard hit Shorts for 24 yards to the Missouri 10 and three plays after that, Crawford bounced in from the one following left guard Tony Matteo's block.

That drive covered 70 yards and ate just 2:33 off the clock, but it effectively put the game out of reach for a struggling Missouri offense that was still searching for things to do effectively.

The Tigers settled for going with a fast tempo, frequently snapping the football before West Virginia's defense was lined up but rarely having much success with it.

"It was the fastest I've ever been around, and they weren't checking to anything, which really helped us," West Virginia defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. "It was just get a play off and I really don't know what their game plan was - and still can't tell you after watching it for 100 snaps what they were trying to do."

Missouri finished the game with 462 yards, but just 36 of those came in the third quarter when West Virginia took control and most of it came in the fourth period when Gibson was substituting freely.

That's when the Tigers got a late touchdown when Drew Lock fired an eight-yard pass to Chris Black with 1:49 remaining, and then added two more points when Lock hit J'Mon Moore for the two-point conversion, making the score 26-11, West Virginia.

Moore (104) and Black (102) finished with 100 yards receiving, while Lock completed 23-of-51 passes for 282 yards and a touchdown.

Shell added 90 yards on 16 carries for West Virginia, while Shorts finished the afternoon with eight catches for 131 yards, mostly coming in the middle of the field against two-deep coverage that wasn't disguised.

"We knew the middle of the field was going to be open and we just kept attacking it," Shorts explained.

Howard completed 23 of his 35 pass attempts and also ran the ball seven times for 35 yards before Holgorsen shut down that part of his game in the second half.

"He was limited," Holgorsen said. "There's a reason why he's started the last couple of years. He's a seasoned, competitive, smart kid that understands exactly what we are trying to do. Without senior leadership starting, that's a problem.

"And we've got to get better with those backups. Somebody needs to step up, whether it's Chugs (Chugunov) or Will (Crest). They've got to get better because the truth of the matter is that we're going to get that second guy a good bit."

Missouri had a 3-to-1 edge in turnovers, but WVU's defense was able to turn away all three miscues without surrendering scores.

Today's victory was West Virginia's sixth in the last 11 games against Southeastern Conference teams, and the Mountaineers' first in an opening game in Morgantown against an SEC foe since beating Vanderbilt 26-0 to begin the 1962 season.

This was also Missouri's second loss to the Mountaineers in Morgantown, the other coming in 1993.

West Virginia returns to action next weekend to face Youngstown State in a non-conference game that will kick off at 2 p.m. and will be televised locally on Root Sports.