WVU blows past Panthers

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford threw two interceptions early in the third… MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Pitt quarterback Rod Rutherford threw two interceptions early in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter to help West Virginia to a 52-31 victory over the Panthers on Saturday.

The loss put the Big East Championship up for grabs and out of Pitt’s control.

“We wanted to control our destiny,” defensive end Claude Harriott said.

“We’re coming down [to Morgantown] undefeated in the Big East, [we] have the opportunity of a lifetime, and we just did not take advantage of it,” Rutherford said.

Both teams went into the locker room at halftime with the score knotted at 24.

West Virginia scored a late first-half touchdown to tie the game. The score came on a bold fourth-and-four play with 37 seconds left. Quarterback Rasheed Marshall took the snap and threw it to wide receiver John Pennington, who worked around a Pitt defender and made a diving catch for the 28-yard touchdown.

Pitt started the second half with the ball. Rutherford started the drive with an 18-yard pass to tight end Kris Wilson. He then hit wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald on two consecutive plays – one for 13 yards and the other for 37 yards – moving Pitt to the West Virginia 5-yard line.

On third down, from the 8-yard line, Rutherford forced a pass to Kris Wilson, who had three West Virginia defenders around him. Linebacker Grant Wiley jumped and pulled down the interception in the end zone.

The Mountaineers did not score as a result of the interception, but it did keep the Panthers off the scoreboard.

They would, however, take advantage of an interception thrown by Rutherford three minutes later.

After multiple infractions committed by the Panther offense, Pitt faced a third-and-18. Rutherford dropped back to pass, searched the field, and forced the ball to Kris Wilson, who was again surrounded by Mountaineers. Safety Lawrence Andean picked off the errant throw and set West Virginia up at its 49-yard line.

West Virginia wasted no time. On second down, Marshall threw the bubble screen to wide receiver Miquelle Henderson, who then ran with several blockers for a gain of 28 yards. Marshall finished the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run, where he had several large holes to choose from, to put the Mountaineers up 31-24.

After stopping the Panthers on the ensuing drive, cornerback Lance Frazier returned an Andy Lee punt 72 yards, to the Pitt 3-yard line. Two plays later, Quincy Wilson powered his way into the end zone for the 38-24 lead.

After Pitt recovered a West Virginia fumble, Rutherford took the offense onto the field to work on cutting the Mountaineer lead in half. On the third play of the drive, Rutherford forced another pass into multiple coverage, and it was again picked off. Frazier returned the interception to the Panther 1-yard line, where Quincy Wilson would run it in for the touchdown.

West Virginia would add one more touchdown when Quincy Wilson ran right through the Panther defense, virtually untouched, for a 36-yard touchdown and a 52-24 lead.

The three interceptions thrown by Rutherford were not the only reasons Pitt lost. There were several missed tackles and blown assignments on defense that allowed West Virginia to run the ball 58 times and gain 307 yards.

“We’ve missed more tackles today than I have ever seen us miss,” head coach Walt Harris said.

Wilson ran over the Panthers all day, just as Kevin Jones did last week at Heinz Field. Wilson ran for 208 yards and four touchdowns – the third time a running back has run for more than 200 yards against Pitt this season.

“[Quincy Wilson] is a tremendous football player,” Harris said.

Despite finishing with 419 yards passing and four touchdowns, Rutherford could not lead Pitt to victory. The lack of a running game put him in a tough situation.

“[No running game] puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback,” Harris said.

“We need to get our running game going,” Rutherford said.

Stopping Pitt’s run attack allowed West Virginia to focus more on the pass. The Mountaineers sent several blitzers in the second half, and disguised many different zone and man coverages in the secondary.

“Our defensive staff did a good job at the half making adjustments with different coverages and blitz packages,” West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez said. “We had to do something against Rutherford, because he was on fire in the first half.”

Also noteworthy were Fitzgerald’s nine catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns. He now has 1,467 receiving yards on the season, and passed Antonio Bryant’s Big East record for receiving yards in a season.