MORGANTOWN — Midway through the fourth quarter, fans at Mountaineer Field began batting a large, inflated beach ball through the air, only to discover after a short while that the air was slowly escaping.

If you believed in symbolism, so it was down on the sunbathed field below. The game had been a lot of fun as West Virginia and the seventh-ranked Horned Frogs batted each other around, neither team taking control of the game.

But in the end, the air began escaping out of the game and West Virginia’s season as TCU, armed with a barrage of big plays, including an incomprehensible fourth-and-1 touchdown pass of 26 yards with 20 seconds left, punctured any hope WVU had for a miracle finish.

Certainly, on fourth-and-1, TCU could have run in an attempt to get the first down. WVU was out of timeouts, and even if the Mountaineers stopped the Horned Frogs, they would have had to cover three quarters of the field in 20 seconds, a rather daunting task.

In fact, the most likely way for TCU to have any chance to suffer its first loss of the year would be to throw the ball, risking a sack and a fumble, an interception or some other freak sent by the football gods.

But they chose to throw for the end zone, finish the day with a 41-31 victory and add one more big play to a day that saw them take advantage of WVU’s wounded secondary with TDs of 71 yards and 55 yards through the air along with 51 yards on the ground to go with that final 23-yard scoring play.

There have been some games played by West Virginia this year that, when they ended, you didn’t know for sure just how involved they were in them … sometimes close games and, of course, the dreadful effort in Lubbock against Texas Tech.

But this game was tough to swallow; not because the best team didn’t win, but because WVU had answered the bell with enthusiasm despite long odds against it. It was beat up in the secondary, was without both starting offensive guards and was shorthanded at running back going against a top-10 team.

The Mountaineers had every reason to make excuses, every reason to give up as TCU took advantage of their shortcomings, but each time the Horned Frogs dropped an atomic bomb of a play on them, they came back with a strong artillery barrage.

Brown had questioned their effort at Texas Tech, but this time, their on-field effort gave him something to take pride in.

“These guys played their tails off, and they played the game the right way. I think some people question that, like late in the game last week,” he said. “There’s no question in that today [about] competing until the final play. We’re beat up. We were beat up pretty good coming in. A lot of guys didn’t play, and we lost several more during the course of the game.

“It was next man up. I’m proud of how they played. We’re based on outcomes, and I get that. The outcome wasn’t what we wanted, but I’m proud of how they played. People can be upset with me, but they can’t question how those guys played today. People can be frustrated with me, and it’s fine, but there shouldn’t be any ill will with those kids today.”

Rest assured; people will question Brown. At 3-5 in his fourth season, the natives are frustrated, and there were some calls he made that they will question, just as he questioned the officials’ failure to throw a flag for pass interference in the end zone on a fourth-down, third-quarter pass to Kaden Prather.

That they went for the TD there with 5:21 left in third trailing 28-24 and needing four yards for a score was open to second guessing. A field goal puts you only one point down with lots and lots of time to play.

There was contact on the play, and Brown wasn’t caring what he heard from the league for criticizing their officials.

“If someone can tell me what that is, then let me know. If that’s not pass interference, then I don’t know what that is. If our kid doesn’t have a chance to make a play, then it has to be pass interference,” he said.

But it wasn’t. True, it wouldn’t have hurt if the defense had held, but TCU came out of that and put together an 84-yard drive in 14 plays, taking 7:07 off the clock. It ended with a field goal that left WVU still alive down a touchdown, but it probably is what took the air out of the game just like it went out of the beach ball in the stands.

And that wasn’t deflating enough. Down 10 points with 4:11 to go, WVU scored on a great pass and catch by Reese Smith to cut it to a field goal.

This time, Brown tried an onside kick. That’s always a gamble with the odds against you, and kicking deep and trying to hold the seemed to be the more prudent play, but Brown believed in Legg’s ability to pull it off.

“Casey Legg is one of the best onside kickers. If you came to practice, you’d know that is the least successful I’ve ever seen from him, but he’s the best I’ve ever seen. We had three timeouts, and we felt really good about that. We ran the counter off the one we ran against Texas. It just wasn’t a good kick, but I would play that the same way again,” Brown said.

Trouble was, WVU never got a real chance again, and TCU escaped with its perfect season intact.