MORGANTOWN — West Virginia true freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. dropped back and immediately had pressure in his face. Fox either took a sack or had to get rid of the ball. WVU’s offensive line was just no match for Texas Tech’s defensive front. The offensive line was getting no push, so Fox and the offense couldn’t get anything going.

The Mountaineers were shut out for the first time all season.

“Best defense, yeah,” wide receiver Jeff Weimer said. “They played sound together.”

Texas Tech’s defense created problems at all three levels.

First, the defensive line completely took away the ground attack for the Mountaineers. The identity of WVU’s offense was gone. The Mountaineers had zero rushing yards at the half. WVU rushed for 37 yards overall with a couple of garbage-time sweeps from Armoni Weaver in the fourth quarter.

Rushing up the middle was out of the question. It was already hard without bruiser running back, Diore Hubbard, who was injured, and it was even harder after getting no push up front.

“It’s disappointing that we didn’t get a few more things going in the run game,” Rich Rodriguez said. “They’re really good up front.”

Without a rushing attack, Fox was forced to throw, and he didn’t find any success. Fox didn’t have a lot of time in the pocket, so his throws were rushed. The only big passing play on the day was a pass from Cam Vaughn on a trick play. Fox then threw an interception on the next play because he was rushed on a throw.

Fox was 13-for-23 for 98 yards and another interception. Texas Tech had four sacks and nine tackles for loss, disrupting the true freshman.

“I think Scotty is a great competitor,” Rodriguez said. “He probably felt a little rushed today on some of his throws. He missed some throws he normally would make. We didn’t do too much drop back, because we couldn’t hold it up there.”

After WVU was down by 30-plus, Rodriguez subbed out Fox for Max Brown. Brown couldn’t do much either. He came in and threw a pick on his first drive. Khalil Wilkins came in for the remainder of the game, and he couldn’t get the offense moving either. He completed one of five passes.

It’s hard to make reads when once you snap the ball, there is a massive defender in your face, so you are forced to make a quick decision, which is usually a mistake. Then, Texas Tech’s secondary pounced, intercepting or knocking down the pass.

Rodriguez thought it was hard to judge each of his passers fairly because they were getting no time in the pocket.

“They competed,” Rodriguez said of his three QBs.

The Red Raiders’ defense was a known strength going into the game. Texas Tech ranked top 5 in the country in scoring defense and had the best in the Big 12. It was hard to believe a struggling WVU offense would have any success. The only hope was that WVU had figured it out over the past month to make it a bit more competitive. That wasn’t the case.

As Rodriguez said, Texas Tech’s defense was just bigger, faster and stronger than WVU’s offense, and it showed in the 49-0 loss.

“We got to get bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic, and then we got to coach them up,” Rodriguez said. “But I would have said that before. Now it’s glaringly showing up that we’ve got to do that.”