It all came undone so quickly for the Panthers.

Pitt worked so hard to avoid a repeat of… It all came undone so quickly for the Panthers.

Pitt worked so hard to avoid a repeat of last year’s blowout loss to West Virginia. A potent passing game and a phenomenal score on a punt return not only kept the Panthers in the game, but also actually allowed them a halftime lead. As slim as it was at 27-24, it was more than most expected from a Pitt team on a three-game losing streak.

Much like the Panthers’ once-promising season, it was a short-lived euphoria.

West Virginia’s monstrous ground game, ranked second in the nation, got going and the Panthers squandered numerous second-half opportunities as the Mountaineers blew a close game wide open in last night’s 45-27 win.

Star quarterback Pat White led the charge for West Virginia, scoring on touchdown scampers of 67 and 19 yards in a third quarter where Rich Rodriguez’s bunch ran for 201 yards. Pitt, meanwhile, wasted rare Mountaineer punts and a chance at tilting the field position balance as Dave Wannstedt could only watch his team stumble on national television.

“That loss right there was reflective of how our season has gone,” he said afterwards. “We knew we were going to have to score points. The big plays are what killed us. It wasn’t a mater of being fooled. I mean 70 yards on a play, are you kidding me?”

After holding White (11 carries for 57 yards) and stud tailback Steve Slaton (six carries for seven yards) in check for the first half, the Pitt defense let the Mountaineers run wild in the third. It took West Virginia only two plays and 48 seconds to go 77 yards and take a 31-27 lead after White simply outran the Pitt defense 67 yards for a touchdown.

“That hurt,” linebacker H.B. Blades said afterwards. “They’re a great team, and we expect them to make those plays. We had a great game plan, we just didn’t make enough plays.”

Pitt managed to keep West Virginia out of the end zone on the Mountaineers’ next possession, stopping a fourth-and-one from the Pitt 34. The Panthers did nothing with WVU’s only turnover on the night, though. Three ineffective plays led to two yards, a punt and what seemed like a lost possession, until Adam Graessle’s punt took a Pitt bounce and landed on the West Virginia 3-yard line. Maybe the field position battle was still up for grabs.

Like a bullet to the heart, this would be quick but still incredibly painful for the Panther defense.

On the first snap, Slaton sprinted down the left sideline for 37 yards; he would have gone the distance had Pitt corner Darrelle Revis not snatched his facemask to slow him up. That forceful grab, which ripped off Slaton’s helmet, tacked another 15 yards onto the run, setting West Virginia up in Panther territory. White sprinted up the middle for 26 yards on the next play and, on the very next snap, the crafty quarterback faked a pitch, juking out linebacker Clint Session in the process, and darted up the middle for a 19-yard score.

Three plays, 97 yards – what a dagger for a team trying just to keep the score close.

“We try to give up no more than one 20-yard play a game,” Wannstedt said, later adding that he felt the team had a chance to win if the score were in the 30s.

West Virginia got past 30; Pitt never even came close, being forced into “passing mode,” as Wannstedt called it, making the team “one-dimensional.”

The offense stagnated the rest of the game, surrendering sacks, running plays short of first down markers and committing costly penalties. The Panthers’ last promising drive led them all the way to the WVU 37 with 11:48 left in the game. Needing eight yards, Pitt ran a short play, a five-yard pass to Oderick Turner, to turn the ball over on downs.

Three plays later, Slaton burst up the middle for a 55-yard touchdown run, effectively putting the game out of reach for a Pitt team that didn’t come within a Hail Mary of the end zone in the second half.

White finished with 220 yards on the ground, Slaton 215. In all, the WVU rush attack amassed 437 of the team’s gaudy 641 yards of offense.

“I’m on the sidelines,” tackle Mike McGlynn said of dealing with the speedy duo of White and Slaton. “To put it in video game perspective, they are like two create-a-players with ’99 speed.'”

Still, it could have been worse for the Panthers.

In between WVU’s third-quarter score, Slaton had a 60-yard touchdown called back because of penalty. The Mountaineers punted, but what did Pitt do with the ball?

Nothing.