Rutherford not at fault for loss

Playing quarterback is not as easy as it looks.

It may look as simple as taking the snap… Playing quarterback is not as easy as it looks.

It may look as simple as taking the snap and throwing the ball to the open wide receiver, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Especially when the opposition can sit back and throw everything at you because of a weakness.

Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford has been a victim of this at times. Unfortunately, not all college football fans understand everything about the position. Last Saturday when Pitt took on West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, Rutherford was connecting with wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald continuously in the first half.

The Panthers have been guilty of one of two things this season on offense – they either have no offense in the first half and the offense wakes up in the second half, or they put a lot of points up in the first half and are silenced by the opposition in the second half, such as when Pitt played at Rutgers and scored 42 first-half points, only to be shut out in the second half.

Against West Virginia, the latter scenario played out. Fitzgerald burned the Mountaineer defense for six receptions, 130 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, and Rutherford already had amassed 220 yards passing and three touchdowns.

But there was one problem – Pitt had only rushed for a mind-boggling 30 yards in the first half, in comparison to the Mountaineers, who had 152 yards rushing, while quarterback Rasheed Marshall threw for 179 yards and two touchdowns.

West Virginia had 330 total yards compared to Pitt’s 250 in the first half. Why? Well, one reason was because the defense couldn’t tackle running back Quincy Wilson if he were in a telephone booth.

But in all seriousness, the Mountaineers had a more balanced attack. Therefore, Pitt could not go into the locker room at the half and say that it only had one facet of West Virginia’s game to stop. The Mountaineers, on the other hand, could say that.

Pitt was one-dimensional on offense against West Virginia and has been ever since running back Brandon Miree went down with an injury. While several people want to blame Rutherford for the loss, you have to look at things realistically.

The running game needs to be established in order for a team to successfully pass the ball. It’s not that teams are taking Fitzgerald out of the game in the second half, it’s that the Panthers have no running game, and the opposition can tee off on them because of that.

All Pitt’s opponents are doing in the second half of games is blitzing as many defenders as they can and the rest of the defense just sits back and waits on Rutherford, which leaves not a lot of places for him to throw the ball.

Over the summer, I called out Walt Harris and challenged him to make this team live up to expectations. Well, I’m doing it again – this time I’m calling you out to fix this problem. Pitt controls its own destiny from here on out. You have other options besides Walker.

Rutherford and fullback Lousaka Polite are capable of running the ball, and wide receiver Terrell Allen has good speed. So if you have to run fullback dives, end-arounds, reverses, bootlegs and quarterback keepers in order to keep the opposition on their heels, then do it. Because finishing a game with 10 yards rushing is unacceptable, and the fans’ expectations are way too high to settle for a trip back to the Insight Bowl or the Tire Bowl.

Kevin Nash is the assistant sports editor for The Pitt News.