MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mason Rudolph tossed three touchdowns and backup J.D. King ran for 142 yards, but for the second straight week it was No. 11 Oklahoma State’s ballhawking defense that deserved the game ball.
The Cowboys forced five turnovers during a 50-39 win over No. 22 West Virginia on a rainy Saturday to remain in the thick of the conference race.
Oklahoma State (7-1, 4-1 Big 12) beat the Mountaineers (5-3, 3-2) for the third straight season by frustrating FBS touchdown-pass leader Will Grier into four interceptions, one fewer than the West Virginia quarterback’s season total.
“The secondary played really good,” Gundy said. “I felt this was the best throwing quarterback that we have faced up to the point. It was turnover after turnover after turnover.”
Sophomore cornerback A.J. Green, thought to be the weak spot in the Cowboys’ secondary, made two interceptions as Grier finished 20 of 42 for 285 yards, snapping a string of seven 300-yard games.
“Green is learning to play the ball,” Gundy said. “And we talked in August about those guys needing to get some experience and play better in order for our team to have success.”
Grier’s counterpart Rudolph, after nursing a sore shoulder all week, completed 20 of 34 passes for a season-low 216 yards and was marred by throwing a pick-six himself. But the senior mixed in two scoring passes to James Washington and another to King, whose 41 touches in relief helped OSU keep humming.
Rudolph also had a 1-yard touchdown run in the first half to put the Cowboys up 13-0 in the first quarter. That matched the total output from last week’s overtime escape at Texas.
“We got back to scoring a lot of points this week, which his good,” Rudolph said. “Our defense made an unbelievable amount of plays. Got us the ball back in plus field position and the score zone.”
Oklahoma State lost Big 12 leading rusher Justice Hill to an apparent arm injury on the game’s second play when he fumbled after a crunching hit by Xavier Preston and Kyzir White.
Hill did not return until the fourth quarter when his 5-yard touchdown run made it 37-24 on a drive extended by a 3rd-and-11 pass interference flag.
Hill tacked on an 18-yard score to make it a 19-point cushion with 3:47 left.
The Cowboys, tops in the nation in total offensive yards, outrushed the Mountaineers 246-62. The freshman King carried a season-high 36 times, including a 20-yard score that ballooned the margin to 23-3 in the second quarter.
“They beat us. They whipped us,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “Obviously we couldn’t do anything offensively. It was pretty clear and evident to me that they were more physical than us. That’s kind of the bottom line to the game.”
West Virginia pulled within 30-24 in the third-quarter, finding momentum not from its offense but on a blocked punt recovery by Marvin Gross and pick-six by Kenny Robinson.
“We basically handed them 14 points,” Rudolph said, “but we were really confident in what we could do.”
The Cowboys answered with three consecutive touchdown drives, including Washington’s 19-yarder that helped the All-American candidate finish with 91 yards on seven catches.
The Mountaineers finished 2 of 15 on third downs, and didn’t get the passing attack cranked up until it was too late. A 60-yard touchdown to Marcus Simms and a 9-yarder to Ka’Raun White in the final 8 minutes came after much of the 57,000 fans had departed.
“It was tough to get anything going,” said West Virginia offensive coordinator Jake Spavital. “The run game, you’ve still got to stay true to it, but we struggled with hitting the big run plays to where we were stuck in a lot third-and-long situations.”