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EAST HARTFORD, Conn. - The best offense may be, as the saying goes, a good defense. West Virginia, though, has largely ignored the need for one over the course of the past six or seven years.

Oh sure, the Mountaineers have played some terrific defense over that span. But really, who knew? With the offense starting scoring drives on the team bus, who even paid much attention when the other guys had the football?

But now that that offense frequently sputters, the West Virginia defense is saving the day. And never was that more apparent than Saturday's game with Connecticut.

After spotting the Huskies an early 10-0 lead, WVU's defense clamped down, forced five turnovers and set up four scores as the Mountaineers continued their mastery of the Huskies, winning 35-13 at Rentschler Field.

The win snapped the fourth-longest home winning streak in the country (UConn had won 11 straight) and ran WVU's record against the Huskies to 5-0. The five wins in the series have come by an average score of 43-15.

More significantly, the victory keeps West Virginia (6-2, 3-0 Big East) firmly in control of the race for the league championship and a BCS bowl berth as the Big East's only unbeaten. UConn slipped to 6-3 and 2-2.

Despite some reasonably impressive offensive numbers - Pat White rushed for more than 100 yards and two scores, passed for another and became only the second quarterback in history to top 4,000 yards rushing - this was all the West Virginia defense's doing.

"I thought our defense was just tenacious,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said. "I thought our defense was opportunistic. I thought our defense turned the ballgame around.''

He thought right.

After muddling through a first half in which UConn outgained West Virginia 213-111, scored on three of its first four possessions (and may have scored on a fourth but for a fumble) and led 13-7, the second half resembled parts of the Mountaineers' 66-21 win over the Huskies last year in Morgantown. The defense held Connecticut to 72 total yards and three first downs, pitched its fifth second-half shutout in the past six games and stuffed the nation's leading rusher, Donald Brown, whose eight-game streak of 100-yard games was snapped when he was limited to 82 yards. After rushing for 77 in the first half, Brown carried just four times and had 5 yards and a fumble in the second.

"We both feed off each other,'' White said, referring to the offense and defense. "We've been doing it all year.''

 View slide show of game photos  

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. - The best offense may be, as the saying goes, a good defense. West Virginia, though, has largely ignored the need for one over the course of the past six or seven years.

Oh sure, the Mountaineers have played some terrific defense over that span. But really, who knew? With the offense starting scoring drives on the team bus, who even paid much attention when the other guys had the football?

But now that that offense frequently sputters, the West Virginia defense is saving the day. And never was that more apparent than Saturday's game with Connecticut.

After spotting the Huskies an early 10-0 lead, WVU's defense clamped down, forced five turnovers and set up four scores as the Mountaineers continued their mastery of the Huskies, winning 35-13 at Rentschler Field.

The win snapped the fourth-longest home winning streak in the country (UConn had won 11 straight) and ran WVU's record against the Huskies to 5-0. The five wins in the series have come by an average score of 43-15.

More significantly, the victory keeps West Virginia (6-2, 3-0 Big East) firmly in control of the race for the league championship and a BCS bowl berth as the Big East's only unbeaten. UConn slipped to 6-3 and 2-2.

Despite some reasonably impressive offensive numbers - Pat White rushed for more than 100 yards and two scores, passed for another and became only the second quarterback in history to top 4,000 yards rushing - this was all the West Virginia defense's doing.

"I thought our defense was just tenacious,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said. "I thought our defense was opportunistic. I thought our defense turned the ballgame around.''

He thought right.

After muddling through a first half in which UConn outgained West Virginia 213-111, scored on three of its first four possessions (and may have scored on a fourth but for a fumble) and led 13-7, the second half resembled parts of the Mountaineers' 66-21 win over the Huskies last year in Morgantown. The defense held Connecticut to 72 total yards and three first downs, pitched its fifth second-half shutout in the past six games and stuffed the nation's leading rusher, Donald Brown, whose eight-game streak of 100-yard games was snapped when he was limited to 82 yards. After rushing for 77 in the first half, Brown carried just four times and had 5 yards and a fumble in the second.

"We both feed off each other,'' White said, referring to the offense and defense. "We've been doing it all year.''

This time, though, all the credit goes to the defense, which after allowing a touchdown and two field goals in the first four possessions then forced six punts, intercepted three passes and recovered a fumble on UConn's final 10 tries with the ball.

Cornerback Brandon Hogan, enjoying his first monster of a game after coming over from offense this summer, had two interceptions and recovered a first-quarter fumble caused by J.T. Thomas. Linebacker Mortty Ivy also had an interception and defensive end Scooter Berry recovered a fumble caused by Chris Neild.

Three of West Virginia's five touchdown drives came after turnovers and two of them were ridiculously easy, covering 33 and 21 yards following one of Hogan's picks and Berry's rumbling 19-yard runback with a Brown fumble. In fact, the Mountaineers didn't have to go very far for any of their touchdowns, none of which came on drives of more than 60 yards.

"We just executed better and tackled better in the second half,'' said defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, whose team has now surrendered 87 points in the first half and just 28 in the second across eight games (14 of those came in the fourth quarter of the opener against Villanova). "The kids just needed to feel them out a little bit.''

The defense showed up not a moment too soon because the offense, which a week ago exploded in a win over Auburn, perhaps took a step back in this one. In an awful first half, the Mountaineers had five first downs and 111 total yards, Noel Devine had 4 yards rushing and White was 4-of-9 passing for just 31 yards. He missed receivers early and often and the Mountaineers just couldn't get anything going because of that.

"I think that was the worst first half of my career,'' White said succinctly.

He did, though, manage to keep West Virginia right there at 13-7 with one play that was remarkable even by his standards. While UConn was getting a 21-yard TD run from Brown and field goals of 36 and 38 yards from David Teggart, the Mountaineers' lone score came on a drive that began with a 14-yard completion from White to Alric Arnett that was decided - questionably - in the replay booth. It ended when White scrambled for a touchdown on a third-and-goal play.

From the 24-yard line.

White stayed in a tight pocket on the play before finally sneaking out to the left and still looked for a receiver. Finally he went outside a Devine block and then got a push from Arnett downfield against another defender and actually slowed down as he jogged into the end zone all alone.

"I felt like I was in the backfield a long time. But they also did an excellent job of coverage,'' White said. "I just found an alley and took it.''

That kept West Virginia close enough that when the defense clamped down in the second half, all that was required was one more touchdown. That came on White's 6-yard pass to Sanders at the end of a 56-yard drive and gave WVU a lead (14-13) it wouldn't give up. Sanders scored on 3-yard runs after two turnovers and White added a 36-yard scoring run midway through the fourth quarter.

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.