Photo courtesy of Steve Chamberlain WVU quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. stiff arms a TCU defender Saturday night at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium.

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia lost to TCU 23-17 on Saturday night, handing the Mountaineers their fifth-straight loss. WVU is now 2-6 on the season. A loss is never something to celebrate, but in WVU’s case, it looked its best it had in any Big 12 game, and it was much improved after last week’s beatdown by UCF.

Rodriguez isn’t a fan of morale victories, but he agreed, WVU showed improvement against TCU.

“The last game was embarrassing,” Rodriguez said. “We were loafing, not hitting, wasn’t physical. I do think we were physical today. I think our defense was physical, tackled physical.”

There were a lot of positives to take away from the loss.

The offense actually had a passing game, which had been nonexistent all season. True freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. received his second start of the season and didn’t make any costly mistakes. Rodriguez said there were some plays he’d like to have back, but Fox didn’t turn the ball over at all, which was a problem the previous couple of times he had the ball in his hands.

The offense had a season-high 301 yards in the air and two receiving touchdowns. Fox also threw the ball 41 times, which was a season-high for any quarterback, too.

The defense also looked much different from the previous couple of weeks. WVU struggled with giving up the big play, and the defense just allowed one the whole game, which was a big TCU rush before the end of the first half.

Zac Alley’s defense had a sack, which it hadn’t had since the Pitt game, forced TCU to punt four times, and turned the Horned Frogs over on downs once.

“I think we collectively played better together as far as offense, defense, special teams,” wide receiver Jeff Weimer said. “I think that’s the most promising thing about tonight. We were in it, and should have pulled away with it, in my opinion. It’s promising. We were playing on all three sides of the game. I think we just need to build on that so we can finish the game the right way.”

WVU linebacker Reid Carrico said the team did some soul-searching after the UCF loss, because like Rodriguez said after the game in Florida, they were at rock bottom. The team didn’t practice any differently because Rodriguez always said he doesn’t want to make drastic changes, but the team changed their mentality.

“I think everybody on this team looked themselves in the mirror and made a decision this week,” Carrico said. “There’s gonna be missed plays, there’s gonna be some mental errors, but effort can make up for a lot of that. It’s our goal to be the hardest-playing team in the Big 12, and if not, the country. I think we took some steps tonight.”

Like Carrico said, there were some missed plays and opportunities against TCU. WVU still lost the game at the end of the day, but there are definitely positives to take away.

When the season wasn’t going WVU’s way, at least, the team hadn’t rolled over and given up, which could’ve easily happened after the UCF game.

“The tone is to get better each week and win each week,” Weimer said. “You got to take it one week at a time and continue to get better in all phases of the game. I think that’s the priority right now. But the confidence to win each game, why play if you don’t have that? I think we all have that in the locker room. Win every game and each opportunity.”