Mountaineers Lose Season Finale
November 26, 2004 12:19 AM | General
November 25, 2004
PITTSBURGH – Tyler Palko didn’t have a great passing night, but he came up with the clutch plays when Pitt needed them to defeat No. 21-ranked West Virginia 16-13 Thursday night at Heinz Field.
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| Jason Colson makes his break to the outside for a six-yard touchdown run in the first quarter of Thursday's 16-13 loss to Pitt.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
Palko completed just 14 of 38 passes for 165 yards on a miserable Heinz Field turf, but he made three critical third-down passes on the game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter and scored the go-ahead two-yard touchdown with 4:00 remaining.
"Lack of discipline and stupid penalties," said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez of his team's performance. "Guys are playing hard and slipping all over the place. We give up a stupid penalty here and a stupid penalty there; we get a penalty on a lineman on a first down play .. those just killed us."
West Virginia’s defense played good enough to win the game, but untimely penalties and an offense without one of its best weapons couldn’t get the job done against the Panthers. Wide receiver Chris Henry was suspended for the Pitt game for violating team rules and his absence showed against a Pitt defense geared to stop the run. That forced the Mountaineers to go to the air and quarterback Rasheed Marshall was picked off twice and finished the game passing for 145 yards.
Rodriguez refused to use Henry's suspension as an excuse for Thursday night's loss.
"That was not a factor. You play with what you've got and what we had was good enough to win with and we just didn't do it," he said.
West Virginia (8-3, 4-2) was also flagged 10 times for 89 yards – 79 of those penalty yards coming at key times in the second half.
"Running into the punter twice? Once on punt safe? We tell them before they go onto the field. I've just got to do a better job," Rodriguez said.
At the game’s outset it looked like WVU was in good shape, scoring the first 10 points of the contest.
West Virginia used a seven-play, 80-yard drive to light up the scoreboard first. Marshall began the drive with a 15-yard pass out of the backfield to fullback Hikee Johnson to the Pitt 35. Back to back runs by Jason Colson and Marshall netted 25 yards to the Pitt 38. After another Colson run for six yards and an incomplete pass, Marshall found Eddie Jackson down the seam for 25 yards to the Pitt six.
From there Colson bounced off tackle and took it wide to the end zone for a six-yard TD run. Marshall was two for three passing on the drive for 40 yards and also ran for 19 yards.
A Pitt special teams miscue set up West Virginia’s second score. Panther punter Adam Graessle was forced to field a bad snap to his right and punted the ball into the back of his blocker. The ball eventually settled at the Panther 18 after a West Virginia player appeared to have a chance to scoop it up and return it for a touchdown.
Both of Pitt’s first-half scores came on Josh Cummings field goals from 37 and 35 yards.
West Virginia had two chances to extend its lead but Brad Cooper missed both field goal tries. His first one sailed wide right from 44 yards and his second try right before the half from 31 yards was blocked at the line of scrimmage.
In the third quarter, Pitt was able to turn a roughing the kicker penalty on L.J. Montinar into Cummings’ third field goal of the game from 20 yards. The Mountaineers had Pitt stopped at its own 19 and would have had good field position but Montinar was called for a personal foul instead of a five-yard running-into-the-kicker penalty. That placed the ball at the Panther 34 and gave Pitt new life.
Pitt responded with a Palko 29-yard pass to Greg Lee to the WVU 30. Pitt got all the way down to the West Virginia two but was unable to connect on third and goal when Palko’s short pass was knocked down in the end zone.
West Virginia answered with three of its own on its next possession. Marshall completed passes of 11 and 16 yards to get the ball to the Pitt 24. A 10-yard Harris run and an 11-yard Williams run moved the ball to the Pitt three, but a personal foul penalty on West Virginia at the goal line moved the ball back to the 18. Eventually the Mountaineers were forced to settle for a 31-yard Andy Good field goal, sent into the game as a replacement for Cooper.
On Pitt's next possession West Virginia was able to force the Panthers to punt and had good field position at its own 39, but a Jeremy Sheffey personal foul penalty on a first-down pass from Marshall to Rayshawn Bolden pushed the ball all the way back to the WVU 24. After a Marshall 11-yard run, his next pass was picked off by H.B. Blades at the WVU 40. The Panthers were only able to get three yards and opted to pin West Virginia deep in its own territory instead of going for it on fourth down.
Graessle executed the punt perfectly and backed West Virginia up at its own three. WVU was unable to move the chains and Phil Brady’s line-drive 27-yard punt was fielded by Darrell Revis on a dead run and he returned it 19 yards to the Mountaineer 20.
West Virginia’s defense dug in and forced Pitt to try a 35-yard field goal that Cummings missed wide right.
The Mountaineers were their own worst enemy on their next possession, committing two procedure penalties that negated a gambling fake punt for a first down by Phil Brady that moved the ball to midfield.
"That was a punt-run option," said Rodriguez of Brady's fourth-down gamble. "If they don't bring anybody up then he can go ahead and run it and if they bring somebody up he kicks it. The way we were punting we had to try something."
Pitt’s Darrelle Revis eventually picked off a Marshall pass intended downfield for Eddie Jackson at the Panther 27.
Pitt then made its best drive of the game mainly on the shoulders of Palko, who completed three huge third-down passes. The biggest was a 15-yard pass to Lee on third and eight to the West Virginia 43 that TV replays showed Lee clearly dropped.
Palko also found Lee for 13 yards on third and four at the WVU 36 and for eight yards on third and five at the WVU 18. An interference call on West Virginia when Pitt tried a halfback pass placed the ball at the two, and two plays later Palko called his own number to reach the end zone.
West Virginia wound up having one last opportunity to at least tie the game, taking over at its own 25 with 4:06 remaining. Two short Marshall runs and an incomplete pass left WVU with a fourth and six at its own 30.
Rodriguez decided to go for it and Marshall hit a streaking Joe Hunter for 16 yards to the WVU 46 for a big first down. After a Pitt offsides penalty on third and six made it third and one at the Pitt 45, Marshall was able to slip off tackle for eight yards to give WVU a new set of downs at the Pitt 37. Good Panther coverage on two consecutive passes forced Marshall to tuck the ball down and gain just five yards.
On third and five at the Pitt 35, instead of trying to get first down yardage, Rodriguez gambled with a double-reverse pass. Marshall handed the ball off to Joe Hunter, who flipped the ball to backup quarterback Dwayne Thompson. Marshall then took off down the nearside of the field where he was closely covered. Thompson’s pass fell short of the mark giving West Virginia a tough fourth-down try at the 35.
"We were just reaching," said Rodriguez. "I think the ball hit his hands but we just didn't make the play."
After a timeout, Marshall dropped back and was flushed out of the pocket. He tried a long pass downfield to Joe Hunter who appeared to have stopped on the pattern as the ball fell harmlessly to the ground.
Pitt (7-3, 4-2) took over on downs and ran out the clock.
"They played hard and I thought our guys gave great effort but you can't beat yourself," said Rodriguez.
Lee led Pitt with six catches for 124 yards and backup running back Tim Murphy carried 20 times for 106 yards. Pitt finished the game with 19 first downs and 308 yards of offense. Pitt’s victory snapped a two-game win streak for the Mountaineers.
Marshall finished the game running 18 times for 104 yards.
West Virginia’s loss could remove it from contention for the Gator Bowl meaning the Mountaineers could be headed for either the Insight.com or the Continental Tire Bowl.
Pitt still has a chance to win a share of the Big East title and go to the BCS bowl if Syracuse defeats Boston College Saturday night. The Panthers have one game remaining against South Florida next Saturday that was rescheduled as a makeup date.
Scoring Summary
WV – Colson 6 run (Cooper kick)
WV – Cooper 26 FG
PITT – Cummings 37 FG
PITT – Cummings 35 FG
PITT – Cummings 20 FG
WV – Good 31 FG
PITT – Palko 2 run (Cumming kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: WV – Marshall 18-104, Williams 12-58, Colson 14-43, Brady 1-5, Harris 3-5, Team 1-minus 2, Total 49-213; PITT – Murphy 20-106, Palko 9-26, Kirkley 3-16, Strong 1-minus 2, Team 2-minus 3, Total 35-143.
Passing: WV – Marshall 14-26-2-145-0, Thompson 0-1-0-0-0, Total 14-27-2-145-0; PITT – Palko 14-38-1-165-0.
Receiving: WV – Harris 4-28, Jackson 2-37, Colson 2-22, Henderson 2-4, Hunter 1-16, Hales 1-16, Johnson 1-15, Pennington 1-7, Total 14-145; Pitt – Lee 6-124, Murphy 2-8, Furman 1-16, Gill 1-10, Campbell 1-5, Kirkley 1-2, Total 14-165.
Attendance: 52,641
