Box Score Double-digit favorite TCU needed a victory today against West Virginia to become bowl-eligible for the 18^thtime under veteran coach Gary Patterson.
 
West Virginia, under first-year coach Neal Brown, was playing out its season.
 
Advantage TCU, right? 
 
Wrong. 
 
TCU couldn't block West Virginia's front four all day long, and the Mountaineer offense made just enough plays to pull off a 20-17 upset victory over the Horned Frogs this afternoon at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas.
 
"I'm proud of our guys," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "It was a huge win to finish the year. It was a long year, but I thought our guys battled. I've talked about it. I thought our guys really played just three poor halves, and we've been in every league game with the exception of Oklahoma in the fourth quarter, and we haven't won enough.
 
"The last three games, winning two of those on the road against two really proud programs, is big for us in this first year of building a program."
 
For the third straight game, Vic Koenning's defense was terrific. It started two weeks ago when the Mountaineers knocked off double-digit favorite Kansas State in Manhattan.
 
It continued last Saturday when 21^st-ranked Oklahoma State needed a fourth-quarter rally to defeat West Virginia in Morgantown, and it was beyond terrific today in soggy Fort Worth.
 
Here's how good it was.
 
TCU finished the game with 17 points, 17 first downs, 144 yards passing, 153 yards rushing and 297 total yards. That's 10 points below its season scoring average, 55 yards below its season rushing average, 65 yards below its season passing average and 120 yards less than its season total yardage average.
 
TCU offensive coordinator and Air Raid expert Sonny Cumbie is probably going to need to watch the tape of this one on an empty stomach because whatever he eats will likely come back up.
 
His offense was that ineffective, and conversely, West Virginia's defense was that good.
 
Brown was so confident in his defense that he rolled the dice on fourth and 8 from the TCU 27 with 51 seconds remaining by allowing Jarret Doege to throw a pass to Sam James in the end zone instead of calling something more conservative.
 
The pass fell incomplete and the Horned Frogs got possession of the football at their own 31 with 46 seconds left and no timeouts.
 
From there, TCU was looking at only about 35-40 yards of field to get into range to try a reasonable game-tying field goal attempt.
 
On first down, quarterback Max Duggan completed an 18-yard pass to speedster Jalen Reagor to the 49.

Quickly, Duggan got his team to the line of scrimmage and spiked the ball to stop the clock.
 
But two more Duggan passes, all under heavy pressure, fell incomplete. 
 
A false start penalty on left tackle Anthony McKinney moved the football back 5 yards before Duggan could try another pass, and when he did, he had Dante Stills and Reuben Jones right in his face as he flung a prayer down field that ended up falling to the ground.
 
West Virginia's offense took over at the 49 with 20 seconds remaining and took a knee to run out the clock.
 
Koenning's defense was also responsible for the game's first touchdown when safety Sean Mahone's perfectly timed hit on Reagor knocked the ball into the arms of freshman safety Tykee Smith, who returned it 39 yards to the TCU 14.
 
Three plays later, Doege hit Leddie Brown out of the backfield for a 3-yard touchdown.
 
Five minutes after that, TCU (5-7) knotted things at seven when Sewo Oluonilua bulled in from the 2. OIluonilua's run was set up by Taye Barber's 64-yard run to the WVU 11 – the Frogs' only explosive play from scrimmage today.
 
Its only other explosive play came on special teams in the third quarter when Reagor took a Josh Growden punt at his own 30, made two Mountaineer defenders miss and turned on the jets toward the far side of the field to easily outrun the only two defenders remaining for a 70-yard touchdown.
 
His score gave the Horned Frogs a 17-10 lead.
 
The game's other points, up to that point, were the result of Jonathan Song's 30-yard field goal for TCU and Evan Staley's 40-yard field goal late in the second quarter for the Mountaineers.
 
Following Reagor's punt return touchdown, TCU appeared to be in pretty good shape with its defense bottling up West Virginia's run game and repusling Doege's downfield pass attempts.
 
But a Mahone pick of Duggan at midfield, and a Kennedy McKoy 36-yard burst down the far sideline, put West Virginia in a position to get more points when Staley punched through a 20-yard field goal with 1:25 remaining in the third quarter.
 
Staley's kick reduced TCU's lead to 17-13.
 
Here it became a field-position battle with TCU trying to preserve its four-point lead and not wanting to make a critical mistake.
 
The offense didn't, but the defense did. 
 
Twice.
 
With 4:47 left and West Virginia taking possession of the ball at its own 39, the Horned Frog defense was called for two huge penalties, one coming on fourth and 1 at the WVU 48 when A'Darius Washington was called for pass interference on James, and two plays later, Ross Blacklock was flagged for targeting on Doege on a third-and-12 pass to Isaiah Esdale that fell incomplete.
 
Blacklock got an early shower and West Virginia got a new set of downs at the Horned Frogs 35. Following an incomplete pass to Sean Ryan, Doege tried once more to push the football downfield and this time he was successful when Esdale made a pretty adjustment on the football near the goal line and got his front leg to brush the pylon just as he fell out of bounds.
 
The play was ruled a touchdown on the field and the replay officials confirmed the score.
 
Esdale's go-ahead tally covered 35 yards and just 2:10 was showing on the game clock.
 
At this point, it was a matter of Koenning's guys taking over the football game - just as they did earlier this month when the Mountaineers stopped two-touchdown favorite Kansas State in Manhattan.
 
Then, the point spread was 14½ and today it was 13½, representing the first time in the modern era of West Virginia football the Mountaineers have produced two upset road victories of this magnitude in the same season.
 
West Virginia's biggest road upset win during the last 50 years happened in College Park, Maryland, on Sept. 17, 1977, when the Mountaineers stunned 11^th-ranked Maryland 24-16.
 
Since then, the other time WVU won a road game as a double-digit underdog was at ninth-ranked Oklahoma to begin the 1982 season.
 
"Vic and his defensive staff have really given us a chance all year," Brown said. "We've been able to get pressure and our defensive front was the difference. We only gave up one touchdown against their offense, and they've been really good running the ball all year long."
 
Statistically, TCU outgained West Virginia 297 to 244 and had a 17-to-13 advantage in first downs.
 
Doege completed 20-of-35 passes for 158 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions, while senior Kennedy McKoy led the Mountaineer rushing attack with 51 yards on only nine attempts.
 
WVU finished the game with 86 yards rushing on 27 attempts.
 
"Offense was a struggle, but offense has been a struggle really all year," Brown said. "We tried to be persistent in the running game today and Leddie Brown had a little bit of success. When we get him to the line of scrimmage, he does a good job. I think we've got to get to a point where we can finish those games and run out the clock."
 
Duggan completed just 15-of-36 passes for 144 yards with two interceptions. Barber had a team-best 69 yards rushing on just two attempts for the Frogs.
 
Today's triumph was only the second-ever at Amon G. Carter Stadium for WVU and its first here since 2013.
 
Now, Brown and his coaching staff will head into the offseason with some momentum as they circle Dec. 18 on the calendar. That's when the Mountaineers will announce their class of early football signees.