​MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff have been on a season-long search for answers to fix a defense whose terrible performances have overshadowed one of the nation’s top offensive tandems.The Mountaineers have played four consecutive games in which the teams have combined for 1,000 yards of offense. They’ve gone 1-3 in that stretch, with the win coming on a last-second field goal Saturday against Cincinnati.For all the offense that West Virginia is piling up, the defense has been exposed much worse by missed tackles, blown assignments and gaping holes in the secondary.“I don’t think our guys aren’t playing hard, but we give up some big plays that are just head-scratching,” Rodriguez said.The four-game streak of 1,000-yard games is the longest by a Bowl Subdivision team in one season since Mississippi was involved in four in a row in 2020, according to Sportradar. East Carolina had five straight over the 2019 and 2020 seasons.The Mountaineers have been in three of the eight highest-yardage games in the FBS this season, with the 1,220 yards amassed by West Virginia and Cincinnati being the most, according to Sportradar. Other big-yardage games were against Iowa State (1,095), Oklahoma State (1,076) and Arizona (1,004).For now, West Virginia fans are trying to stay patient and hope what’s happening defensively under Rich Rod 2.0 can be fixed. Besides, they prefer the breakneck pace of his games over predecessor Neal Brown, whose teams struggled for the better part of six seasons on both sides of the ball before Brown was fired in 2024.Bad defense brings the stars outOpposing offenses have put up multiple season- and career-high efforts against the Mountaineers, who have allowed 40 points or more in four straight games.“It is really frustrating,” Rodriguez said. “We’re not going to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.”Consider what’s happened in games against:— Oklahoma State. Drew Mestemaker threw for 389 yards with three touchdowns. Caleb Hawkins ran for 180 yards and Wyatt Young had eight catches for 192 yards.— Iowa State. Aiden Flora, a former walk-on, ran 22 times for 212 yards and threw two TDs on halfback passes.— Arizona. Noah Fifita threw for 341 yards and three TDs. Isaiah Mizell had six catches for 183 yards, more than he had all season.— Cincinnati. JC French IV threw for 389 yards and three TDs and ran for a fourth score. A solid QB-RB tandem West Virginia’s duo of quarterback Mike Hawkins Jr. and running back Cam Cook have become two of the best statistically at their positions.Hawkins, a transfer from Oklahoma, leads the nation with 14 rushing TDs and is third in total offense at 324 yards per game. He threw for a career-high 464 yards and ran for 77 more against Cincinnati. He’s the top rushing quarterback in the country at 749 yards.Cook is fifth nationally with 833 rushing yards and leads all running backs with 168 carries. He was the nation’s to