Box Score MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – No. 11 Oklahoma State got two Spencer Sanders touchdown passes to Tay Martin, and the Cowboy defense proved again why they have one of the stingiest defenses in the country in their 24-3 victory over West Virginia at Milan Puskar Stadium this afternoon.
 
OSU came into today's game ranked seventh in the country in total defense, giving up just 295 yards, ninth in rushing defense, allowing 94.9 yards, and 14^th in scoring, allowing 18 points per contest.
 
All of those numbers will improve on Sunday morning.
 
The Mountaineers managed just 133 total yards and scored their fewest points since a 37-0 loss at Maryland in 2013.
 
"They were clearly better than us today," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "Mike (Gundy) and his crew have done a really good job for an extended period of time."
 
OSU's defensive performance today was reminiscent of some of the great defensive performances we've seen put forth here by Pitt and Penn State, in the early 1980s, and Miami in the late 1990s.
 
West Virginia's most productive offensive possession of the afternoon was its first when it marched 64 yards in 11 plays, leading to Casey Legg's 30-yard field goal. A 32-yard Jarret Doege pass to Sam James on the game's second play was the Mountaineers' best play from scrimmage.
 
After that, it was basically a sea of white jerseys in West Virginia's offensive backfield all afternoon long. A young West Virginia offensive line that was showing signs of improvement in consecutive victories over TCU and Iowa State, struggled mightily today against OSU's Bear fronts.
 
"They got our offensive line in some one-on-one matchups and they just consumed us with TFLs, sacks, and I'm not sure we ever had a game with that many," Brown said. "Too many negative plays and they won the line of scrimmage; that was clear."
 
It was a complete 180 degree turn from last Saturday's performance when West Virginia produced 492 total yards in a 38-31 victory over Iowa State, which defeated Oklahoma State 24-21 two weeks ago.
 
Doege and backup Garrett Greene were sacked eight times, the Mountaineers (4-5, 2-4) were 2 of 14 on third down, and the Cowboys capitalized on great field position to score all of their points.
 
Oklahoma State (8-1, 5-1) needed to travel only half of the field to score its first touchdown, a Sanders 6-yard fade pass to Martin in the corner of the end zone with 8:32 left in the second quarter. The Cowboys then needed just 53 yards to get into position for Tanner Brown to kick a 34-yard field goal with 1:10 left in the half. 
 
OSU took control of the game midway through the third quarter after Graeson Malashevich muffed Tom Hutton's punt and Korie Black recovered it at the WVU 26.
 
"The fumble on the punt was big," Brown admitted. "Their punter is really good. (Hutton punts a ball) that's hard to catch and he kicks it all over the field."
 
Four plays later, Sanders lofted another soft pass to the nearside pylon where Martin beat Jackie Matthews for a 12-yard touchdown, putting the Cowboys up 17-3. Jaylen Warren did most of the work getting the Cowboys into position for Martin's TD grab, and he put more distance between the Cowboys and the Mountaineers when he ran 13 yards to pay dirt with 13:20 expired in the fourth quarter.
 
This scoring drive covered 45 yards, with the big play being Sanders' 28-yard third down slant pass to Jaden Bray taking the ball to the WVU 13.
 
West Virginia, with backup Garrett Greene back in the game at quarterback, benefited from a targeting penalty on Trey Rucker to get to the OSU 24 on its final possession of the game. But backup running back Justin Johnson was stopped at the line of scrimmage on his fourth-down run to give the ball back to the Cowboys on downs.
 
"In the last three quarters, we couldn't get enough first downs to flip the field on the other side of the 50," Brown said. 
 
Sanders was an economical 21-of-31 passing for 182 yards, while Warren collected 78 yards rushing on 16 attempts. Martin was the game's top pass catcher with seven catches for 63 yards.
 
"They were able to avoid negative yardage plays and big mistakes offensively," Brown said.
 
WVU's defense limited the Cowboys to just 285 total yards, with senior defensive tackle Dante Stills coming up with an interception and teammate Akheem Mesidor being credited with a sack. Linebacker Josh Chander-Semedo led Mountaineers with nine total tackles.
 
Linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez was credited with nine stops for the Cowboys, while six different players were credited with sacks, led by two each from Brock Martin and Devin Harper.
 
Today's victory was Oklahoma State's seventh straight over West Virginia, and was similar to the prior six with the Mountaineers struggling to contain OSU's defensive front. In those seven losses, the Cowboy defense has generated 26½ sacks, 53 tackles for loss, 10 forced fumbles and eight interceptions against the Mountaineers.
 
Doege's passing numbers revealed 15 completions in 22 attempts for 109 yards and one interception before giving way to Greene in the fourth quarter. James had five catches for 46 yards and backup Tony Mathis Jr. had a team-best 25 yards rushing on five attempts.
 
Leddie Brown was limited to only 24 yards on 10 carries.
 
"It was not good enough. They outplayed us and now we've got to rebound and get it together here for the final three weeks," Brown said.
 
Oklahoma State remains in control of its path to the Big 12 championship game with games remaining against TCU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma.
 
Gundy is seeking his seventh 10-win season at Oklahoma State since 2010.
 
West Virginia returns to the road where it will face Kansas State in a noon game in Manhattan next Saturday. The Wildcats are coming off a 35-10 win over rival Kansas earlier today.