PITTSBURGH - Jock Sanders said it would happen nearly four months ago. When the time came to put up or shut up, West Virginia's defense did the heavy lifting and the offense managed to carry its weight, too.
PITTSBURGH - Jock Sanders said it would happen nearly four months ago. When the time came to put up or shut up, West Virginia's defense did the heavy lifting and the offense managed to carry its weight, too.
After surviving a bizarre first half in which the Mountaineers somehow got out of their own way long enough to take a 14-7 lead, West Virginia dominated old rival Pitt in the second half and went on to a convincing 35-10 win in Friday's chilly 103rd Backyard Brawl.
Now for WVU, it's time to root for Cincinnati today - or South Florida in a week - to knock off Connecticut. If that happens West Virginia (8-3 overall, 4-2 Big East) will be in position to earn the Big East's automatic BCS bowl berth with a win next weekend over free-falling Rutgers.
This from a team that less than a month ago was 1-2 in the Big East and all but written off. But Sanders, who in early August was incensed that Pitt was chosen by the league's coaches to win the conference, never wavered.
"We knew we were the best team before the season started,'' said Sanders, who along the way Friday caught four passes for 70 yards and broke David Saunders' school record for career receptions. "We just needed to back it up.
"Hands down, yes [we are the best team in the league]. We had a couple of stumbles, that's all.''
It is those stumbles, of course, that now put the Mountaineers in the precarious position of having to scoreboard-watch to see if they have a chance to earn the BCS bowl berth, almost certainly the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl. If Connecticut (6-4, 3-2) wins out, the Huskies trump both Pitt (6-5, 4-2) and WVU in the BCS tiebreakers because they beat both.
"Oh, I'll be watching every minute of it,'' linebacker J.T. Thomas said of today's noon game between UConn and Cincinnati in East Hartford, Conn. The Huskies also play at South Florida a week from today.
For now, though, the Mountaineers will bask in the glow of a Backyard Brawl that didn't come down to the final seconds for the first time in four years. Pitt had won two of those nail-biters, including the 13-9 win in 2007 that knocked WVU out of the national championship game. West Virginia won last year on Tyler Bitancurt's walk-off field goal.
"It feels even better to really, really beat them,'' said Thomas. "We finally put our foot down on them.''
Indeed, but it took a while, and there were times throughout most of the first half when it appeared that any rout on this day would go in the other direction. In the first half, Pitt was so dominant that the Panthers had almost unfathomable edges in plays (45-16), time of possession (22:34-7:26), total yards (205-75) and rushing yards (76-16). With the exception of one play, the Panthers outgained West Virginia through the air 129-11 before halftime.
None of that mattered, though, because of three Pitt turnovers and that one WVU pass play. The first turnover was Brandon Hogan's first-series interception and return to the Pitt 2, which set up Ryan Clarke's 2-yard run and a 7-0 West Virginia lead.
The second turnover didn't produce and points, but it saved some. Terrence Garvin's fumble return to near midfield came after Pitt had gotten the ball inside the Mountaineer 20 before Dion Lewis coughed it up.
The last turnover, a Ray Graham fumble near midfield that Hogan recovered, set up Noel Devine's 48-yard catch and run of a swing pass that put the ball at the Pitt 2. Smith hit tight end Will Johnson all alone in the end zone on a play-action pass to break a 7-all tie.
PITTSBURGH - Jock Sanders said it would happen nearly four months ago. When the time came to put up or shut up, West Virginia's defense did the heavy lifting and the offense managed to carry its weight, too.
After surviving a bizarre first half in which the Mountaineers somehow got out of their own way long enough to take a 14-7 lead, West Virginia dominated old rival Pitt in the second half and went on to a convincing 35-10 win in Friday's chilly 103rd Backyard Brawl.
Now for WVU, it's time to root for Cincinnati today - or South Florida in a week - to knock off Connecticut. If that happens West Virginia (8-3 overall, 4-2 Big East) will be in position to earn the Big East's automatic BCS bowl berth with a win next weekend over free-falling Rutgers.
This from a team that less than a month ago was 1-2 in the Big East and all but written off. But Sanders, who in early August was incensed that Pitt was chosen by the league's coaches to win the conference, never wavered.
"We knew we were the best team before the season started,'' said Sanders, who along the way Friday caught four passes for 70 yards and broke David Saunders' school record for career receptions. "We just needed to back it up.
"Hands down, yes [we are the best team in the league]. We had a couple of stumbles, that's all.''
It is those stumbles, of course, that now put the Mountaineers in the precarious position of having to scoreboard-watch to see if they have a chance to earn the BCS bowl berth, almost certainly the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl. If Connecticut (6-4, 3-2) wins out, the Huskies trump both Pitt (6-5, 4-2) and WVU in the BCS tiebreakers because they beat both.
"Oh, I'll be watching every minute of it,'' linebacker J.T. Thomas said of today's noon game between UConn and Cincinnati in East Hartford, Conn. The Huskies also play at South Florida a week from today.
For now, though, the Mountaineers will bask in the glow of a Backyard Brawl that didn't come down to the final seconds for the first time in four years. Pitt had won two of those nail-biters, including the 13-9 win in 2007 that knocked WVU out of the national championship game. West Virginia won last year on Tyler Bitancurt's walk-off field goal.
"It feels even better to really, really beat them,'' said Thomas. "We finally put our foot down on them.''
Indeed, but it took a while, and there were times throughout most of the first half when it appeared that any rout on this day would go in the other direction. In the first half, Pitt was so dominant that the Panthers had almost unfathomable edges in plays (45-16), time of possession (22:34-7:26), total yards (205-75) and rushing yards (76-16). With the exception of one play, the Panthers outgained West Virginia through the air 129-11 before halftime.
None of that mattered, though, because of three Pitt turnovers and that one WVU pass play. The first turnover was Brandon Hogan's first-series interception and return to the Pitt 2, which set up Ryan Clarke's 2-yard run and a 7-0 West Virginia lead.
The second turnover didn't produce and points, but it saved some. Terrence Garvin's fumble return to near midfield came after Pitt had gotten the ball inside the Mountaineer 20 before Dion Lewis coughed it up.
The last turnover, a Ray Graham fumble near midfield that Hogan recovered, set up Noel Devine's 48-yard catch and run of a swing pass that put the ball at the Pitt 2. Smith hit tight end Will Johnson all alone in the end zone on a play-action pass to break a 7-all tie.
Somehow, West Virginia escaped with that 14-7 halftime lead, even though Pitt had dominated not only the statistics but also the No. 4 defense in the country. A team that had given up two third-down conversions this month allowed Pitt to convert eight of its first 11 chances.
"I just didn't see our defense in sync,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said. "I know we made some big plays [the three turnovers], but I was in a non-easy manner. I told them at halftime, [if this doesn't change] we don't have a chance.''
Those Pitt numbers were inflated by some very uncharacteristic plays by Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri, who had rushed for a net 17 yards through 10 games but had 18- and 22-yard scrambles in the first half.
"He was wiggling out of stuff all day,'' Thomas said of Sunseri, who was also throwing 46 times and completing 28 for 284 of Pitt's 362 total yards. "That was really uncharacteristic of what we'd seen on film.''
In the end, though, Sunseri didn't have enough magic. He threw the interception to Hogan on the game's sixth play to set up an easy WVU score, then early in the fourth quarter, with the Panthers at the WVU 9 and ready to cut into a 28-10 deficit, he couldn't handle a bad snap and then tried to pick it up instead of falling on it. Scooter Berry beat him to the ball and that was really the end of any drama at all.
Meanwhile, the West Virginia offense, which was just awful in the first half with the exception of the 48-yard swing pass to Devine - first-half numbers otherwise: 15 plays, 27 yards - came alive with big plays in the second. On the third play of the third quarter, quarterback Geno Smith had two open options on a double post by Tavon Austin and Brad Starks. He chose Austin and connected with him for a 71-yard score.
After that the Mountaineers mounted 67- and 76-yard scoring marches. The first had just one pass - Smith's 12-yarder to Austin for a touchdown after Austin extended a short curl route into the end zone while Smith scrambled. The second included Sanders' 38-yard catch and run and was capped by Clarke's second 2-yard scoring run of the day.
The final score could have been even more lopsided but WVU ran out of downs inside the Pitt 5 in the final minutes without trying anything but simple runs.
Smith finished the day just 9-of-12 passing, but for 212 yards and three touchdowns. Shawne Alston, getting the bulk of the carries in place of a still-hobbled Devine, carried 16 times for 71 yards.
Now it's time for the Mountaineers to just sit back and watch for a while, at least at noon today when Connecticut plays host to Cincinnati and former WVU assistant coach Butch Jones.
"I'd be rooting for Cincinnati anyway. I love Coach Jones,'' Sanders said. "But we know we're the best team.''
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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