West Virginia suffered another loss, but this time, at least, it was a bit more competitive.

TCU bested WVU 23-17 in the Mountaineers’ homecoming Coal Rush game, handing them their fifth-straight loss and fifth Big 12 loss. WVU is now 2-6 on the year and 0-5 in the conference.

The now 6-2 Horned Frogs, who received votes in last week’s AP Top 25 Poll, went wire-to-wire against WVU, scoring on five out of 11 drives.

Despite the score, WVU actually looked better than the poor performance last week against UCF, starting on offense.

“Played harder,” Rich Rodriguez said. “That was good. Didn’t quit.”

With all the injuries in the quarterback room, WVU true freshman Scotty Fox Jr. started for the second-straight game in a row. The only winning starter, Nicco Marchiol, is out for the year, Texas A&M transfer Jaylen Henderson is still banged up, and Khalil Wilkins was ruled out, so Fox was pretty much the last quarterback standing.

Fox’s first three drives mimicked his first three against UCF a week ago, with three three-and-outs. It took WVU until 3:18 left in the first quarter, which came on a fourth-down keeper from Fox, to pick up a first down.

From there, WVU showed a little momentum. Fox drove WVU down the field and completed a 17-yard touchdown pass to tight end Grayson Barnes. It was WVU’s first passing touchdowns in two games, with the last being from Fox in garbage time against BYU.

The few promising drives without points weren’t enough to keep up with the more established TCU offense and program.

Quarterback Josh Hoover threw for 247 yards and a touchdown. He connected with his favorite target, Eric McAlister, nine times for 124 yards. Hoover hit McAlister for a 4-yard catch to put the Horned Frogs up 17-7 in the first half.

WVU’s defense played better than it did against UCF, too. The Mountaineers held TCU to a couple of field goals and forced TCU to punt four times.

There was just one big play allowed, though, which, when the offense can’t really score, hurt in the long run. TCU running back Trent Battle burst off a 46-yard rush just before the half, setting up a field goal to make it 20-7.

That was really it, though. The defense showed major strides and held WVU in the game. Rodriguez thought the defense showed improvement.

“We tackled better,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a hard quarterback to sack because he gets rid of it.”

With the defense holding TCU to field goals, Fox started to show signs of improvement, too. Fox spread the ball out a lot, but later in the second half, he started building chemistry with Cam Vaughn. Fox hit Vaughn on a couple big passes, setting up the Mountaineers with a first-and-goal at the TCU 10.

WVU failed to get into the endzone and settled for a field goal, making it 20-10. Fox hit Jeff Weimer on a 28-yard touchdown pass to make it interesting with 3:15 left.

Fox finished the night 28-for-41 for 301 yards and had two touchdown passes. It was the most passes a WVU quarterback has thrown all season and most yards. He ran the ball 11 times, too, and was the first quarterback to start and end a game this season.

Vaughn led all nine WVU receivers with six grabs for 85 yards.

The true freshman really had to pass because TCU’s defense took away the run game. This was one of the few games this season where WVU relied more on the pass than on the ground.

Diore Hubbard was the go-to back Saturday night, and he only rushed for 32 yards, totaling 41 rushing yards for WVU.

After Fox’s late touchdown pass, WVU went for an onside kick. There was a scuffle on the kick, and TCU ended with the ball on the bottom of the pile, allowing the Horned Frogs to run out the clock and win the game.

“Got a lot of things to clean up,” Rodriguez said.