MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Bryson Washington ran for three touchdowns and caught another in Baylor's 49-35 victory over West Virginia today at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
Washington ran 18 times for 123 yards, while quarterback Sawyer Robertson completed 26 of 36 passes for 329 yards and three scores.
 
Today's victory was Baylor's first in Morgantown in seven visits here and extended its winning streak to four after a 43-21 loss at Iowa State on Oct. 5.
 
The Bears (6-4 overall and 4-3 in the Big 12) generated 516 yards of total offense and limited the Mountaineers to one meaningless touchdown after intermission.
 
"We played really poorly offensively in the second half," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. "The defense played poorly in the first half but gave us some chances in the second half, and we didn't take advantage of it."
 
Baylor, coming off an open week and looking fresh, remains in contention for the Big 12 Championship in Arlington, Texas, and becomes bowl eligible, while West Virginia is knocked out of the title race and drops to 5-5 overall with games remaining against UCF here next Saturday and at Texas Tech to conclude the regular season.
 
Neither defense provided much resistance in the first half, reminiscent of the West Virginia- Baylor game here in 2012 that the Mountaineers won 70-63.
 
This afternoon, Baylor scored on five of its six first-half offensive possessions with four of those coming on explosive plays of 22, 43, 40 and 51 yards.
 
West Virginia, meanwhile, had an extra possession and three of its four first-half scores came on drives of eight plays or longer. 
 
The Mountaineers took the opening kickoff and marched 79 yards in 12 plays, the scoring play coming on Garrett Greene's 3-yard run.
 
It took Baylor just 2:24 to match it with Washington's 22-yard touchdown catch coming out of the backfield.
 
After forcing a West Virginia punt, Baylor needed four minutes to return to the end zone when Josh Cameron caught a Robertson pass along the far sideline and outran the defense for a 43-yard touchdown.
 
WVU tied the game at the beginning of the second quarter when Greene found Traylon Ray in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown. Baylor aided the touchdown with two third-down penalties, and Bear safety Devyn Bobby saw an interception go through his hands right into Ray's arms for the touchdown.
 
Baylor scored the next two touchdowns on explosive plays, a 40-yard Monaray Baldwin touchdown catch, and a Washington 51-yard touchdown run down the middle of the field.
 
Isaiah Hankins' conversion kick made the score 28-14, Baylor, with 4:22 left in the second quarter.
 
On the ensuing kickoff, the Bears gambled and tried on onside kick that went out of bounds, giving the Mountaineers the ball at the Baylor 41. Greene ran 12 yards to the 29, and two plays later, CJ Donaldson Jr. found open field to the near side of the field and jogged into the end zone from the 23.
 
Unfortunately, it took just 26 seconds for WVU to score, giving Baylor 1:47 left in the half and all three timeouts remaining.
 
Baylor used just :52 of it to cover 51 yards, thanks to Jamaal Bell's 41-yard kickoff return to midfield. Two Robertson short passes preceded a 21-yard hookup to Cameron to the Mountaineer 23. Three plays later, Washington scooted into the end zone from the 8 for his second rushing touchdown of the half and third of the game.
 
WVU, with two timeouts available, took over at its 25 with 47 seconds remaining. A Greene 17-yard keeper got the Mountaineers to the 42, and a 44-yard pass on third and 17 to Hudson Clement got the ball to the Baylor 21 with the clock winding inside of 30 seconds. 
 
Greene misfired on a pass into the end zone before taking off for 20 yards to the 1 with seven seconds left. His first pass into the end zone to tight end Kole Taylor fell incomplete, but he just crossed the goal line on his second-down carry with no time showing on the clock. 
 
Replay review let the call on the field stand.
 
The two teams played a scoreless third quarter with West Virginia stopping Baylor twice and the Bears returning the favor. The second Baylor stop came at its 9 when Greene's fourth-down pass to Taylor came up a yard short of the first-down marker.
 
The Bears began the second half marching to the WVU 38 before the drive stalled. Hankins' 55-yard field goal landed well short of the goal post. Defensive end Sean Martin repelled another Baylor drive when he sacked Robertson on third and 15.
 
But Baylor rallied in the fourth quarter with a 10-play, 65-yard scoring march that included two third-down conversions and Washington's 9-yard touchdown run, taking multiple WVU defenders with him into the end zone.
 
A critical pass interference penalty on WVU's Dontez Fagan during Robertson's incomplete pass to Hal Presley gave Baylor a new set of downs at WVU's 34.
 
Hankins' conversion kick put the Bears ahead 42-28 with 8:07 remaining.
 
Baylor got the ball right back on Corey Gordon Jr.'s interception at WVU's 46 and turned the game's only turnover into more points when Dawson Pendergrass scored a 15-yard touchdown on fourth-and-2 run.
 
Taylor's 11-yard touchdown reception with :55 seconds left concluded the scoring.
 
Baylor recovered the onside kick and took a knee to run out the clock.
 
WVU's 499 yards of total offense included 129 on the ground from Greene, returning after missing the last two road wins at Arizona and Cincinnati because of an upper body injury.
 
Greene completed 19 of his 39 pass attempts for 237 yards and two touchdowns, five of them going to Taylor for 56 yards.
 
Ray appeared to suffer a serious lower body injury in the second half and was taken off the field on a cart.
 
The Mountaineers drop to 2-4 overall at Milan Puskar Stadium this year.
 
West Virginia wraps up the home portion of its schedule next Saturday against UCF. A game time is forthcoming.