For the better part of the season, West Virginia defensive coordinator Zac Alley has been searching for answers.

His unit was gashed left and right through the air and on the ground for the first four weeks of conference play, and finally, they found some answers last week against TCU and ultimately sealed the deal by getting a stop at the end with the strip-sack from David Afogho and a recovery by Ben Cutter.

But really, it goes back to their Week 3 win over Virginia and also the final drive of the win over Cincinnati, where they were able to force a punt and allow Mike Hawkins Jr. and Co. to do their thing to go win the game.

In the win over UVA, they stymied the run game with the exception of a 47-yard rush by Xavier Brown. QB Beau Pribula had eight carries for -1 yard, and as a team, the Cavaliers averaged 3.1 yards per carry if you take out that big run by Brown. They also got after Pribula pretty well, recording 18 pressures and three sacks.

Against TCU, it was the same formula: bottle up the run game and generate pressure. The Frogs may have had a depleted backfield, but you still had to stop them, unlike when they were able to do so against Arizona's passing attack, which was down three of their top four receivers. TCU rushed for 112 yards (3.2 per carry) while QB Jaden Craig was pressured 29 times and sacked on five plays.

Yes, every defense can say that they stop the run and get pressure on the QB, they like their chances of winning the game. That's not truly the identity. That's just part of it.

With this defense, it's going to be about finding ways to get off the field even if you lose some field position, just like they did in the TCU game.

Every single one of the Frogs' drives ended in WVU territory, yet they only managed to score 20 points. Two fumbles, an interception, and a turnover on downs are how that happened.

The one thing that just diminishes all hope? Giving up explosives every time you take the field. If you noticed, those didn't really exist for the Frogs, at least not nearly as often as what WVU had been giving up.

Sure, they had their fair share, but when they did happen, the defense didn't allow it to go 40, 50+ yards or worse, a touchdown. Their three biggest completions (38, 37, and 32 yards) ended in a punt, a turnover on downs, and an interception.

You know what this means, right? Yes, we are going there. Bend, but don't break.

That's not necessarily something you want to cling to as a defense, but stacking multiple stops in plus territory against TCU should give the unit confidence moving forward that if an explosive does happen, they can still limit the damage or perhaps keep them off the board entirely.

As good as the Mountaineers' offense is, you don't need this group to find every single answer during the bye week and morph into a middle-of-the-pack Big 12 defense. They just have to stay engaged on long drives and force those to happen, which gives you a chance.

West Virginia's defense has been pretty good in the red zone all season, holding opponents to 76%, which is 26th nationally, and a 56% touchdown percentage, which is 59th nationally. Cut back on the explosives, make them earn it, and if they do, tip your hat.

Here are the defensive personnels, tendencies, and coverages for WVU's defense against TCU via Sports Info Solutions. They played more of a one-shell look than normal (9% higher usage rate than the average) and didn't blitz nearly as much (-4% avg), yet still generated a bunch of pressure.