Many wondered why No. 4 West Virginia was only a four-point favorite against unranked Texas Tech.

But, the Vegas oddsmakers are apparently smarter than fans thought.

Red Raider quarterback Seth Doege threw for more than 500 yards and Texas Tech (5-1, 2-1) handed the Mountaineers (5-1, 2-1) their worst margin of defeat since 2001.

The 49-14 rout in front of 57,328 at Jones AT&T Stadium ended West Virginia’s nine-game winning streak dating back to last season.

“They outplayed us, they outcoached us and they outplayed us on all three sides of the ball,” said West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen. “There were a lot of problems offensively. We weren’t finishing blocks.”

The Mountaineers found themselves down 14-0 early in the game and were able to cut the deficit in half near the end of first quarter, but then 35 unanswered points by the Red Raiders followed, putting the game out of reach.

West Virginia was unable to establish a run game and senior quarterback Geno Smith just couldn’t seem to find a rhythm.

“Any time you don’t get the run game going, there’s (added) pressure on Geno (Smith),” Holgorsen said. “That’s our jobs coaches to take pressure off him … We just didn’t execute offensively. It was a poor performance offensively.”

Smith, who had 12 touchdown passes in his last two outings entering Saturday’s contest, was held to just one passing touchdown and 295 yards against the stout Texas Tech defense.

“There are no excuses for what happened today. I was off,” Smith said. “I wasn’t hitting my targets. I wasn’t hitting my reads … We’re just going to evaluate the film and get better as we always do.”

The Mountaineer defense, though, surrendered nearly 700 yards of total offense and 30 first downs.

Due to some injuries, West Virginia was forced to use many younger players. But defensive coordinator Joe DeForest isn’t using that as an excuse.

“We used freshmen at the corner spot today, the safety spot and the defensive line spot. That’s not an excuse, though,” DeForest said. “We just have to get better. You can’t blame it on the freshmen. You have to take ownership as a coach.”

Offensively, WVU logged 25 first downs and didn’t commit a turnover. Yet, the offense seemed to stall anytime the Mountaineers began to move the ball.

Smith put that responsibility in his shoulders.

“I didn’t do enough to win the game. I measure myself on wins and losses,” Smith said. “One thing I do know it that we’ll bounce back. That’s really all there is to it. We’re going to put this game behind this.”

Whether the Mountaineers were not focused due to the fact they were coming off an emotional win at Texas last Saturday or because a huge matchup with Kansas State awaits next weekend, it doesn’t seem to matter to Holgorsen.

“The bottom line is this: They played better than us on all three sides of the ball. They played harder than us. They outcoached us,” he said. “We’re never going to use injuries as an excuse. We just got outplayed on all three sides of the ball.”