MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The winner of the 106^th Backyard Brawl to be played this Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium is going to be determined the same way most of the other 105 have been decided through the years – by mistakes. 
 
Which team makes the fewest mistakes is going to win the football game. Last year, a pass that ricocheted off Bryce Ford-Wheaton's shoulder pads right into the arms of Pitt cornerback M.J. Devonshire and was returned for a 56-yard touchdown was the deciding score in last year's 38-31 Panther victory.
 
It was a game West Virginia could have easily won. The Mountaineers, leading 31-24 with the ball at the Panther 48 and facing a fourth and less than a yard with the clock winding inside of seven minutes to play, opted to punt it back to Pitt.
 
The Panthers took over at their own 8, and in no time at all, marched nearly the length of the field and into the end zone. Another mistake, Wesley McCormick's targeting penalty, got Pitt out of a deep hole to give the Panthers room to get their passing game going. Konata Mumpfield made consecutive catches to set up Israel Abanikanda's game-tying touchdown reception coming out of the backfield.
 
Then came Devonshire's game-deciding pick.
 
This year, both teams are 1-1, West Virginia dropping its season-opener at Penn State 38-15 before winning 56-17 last Saturday against Duquesne. Pitt routed Wofford 45-7 in the opener before falling 27-21 to Cincinnati last Saturday.
 
In that game, the Bearcats jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and led 20-7 at halftime before the Panthers rallied. Pitt pulled to within six with 11:53 to play on tight end Gavin Bartholomew's 16-yard touchdown reception, and Marquis Williams' interception gave the Panthers a chance late in the game, but Pitt couldn't convert on its final drive.
 
Quarterback Phil Jurkovec, a Pittsburgh schoolboy star who spent two seasons at Notre Dame and three at Boston College, transferred to Pitt for his final collegiate season to play for his old BC offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr.
 
Jurkovec was good against Wofford, completing 17 of his 23 pass attempts for 214 yards and a touchdown, but he wasn't so good against Cincinnati, misfiring on 22 of his 32 attempts for 179 yards. Not helping matters was Cincinnati outgaining Pitt 216 to 83 on the ground.
 
The Bearcats clearly got the upper hand on the Panthers at the line of scrimmage.
 
"When you get hit 21 times – any NFL quarterback can tell you, when you get hit 21 times in a game and you get hit early when you shouldn't, you're going to struggle," Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said earlier this week. "We've got to clean up our protections. We've got to keep it cleaner, and it wasn't good enough versus better competition.
 
"We're going to see the same front out of West Virginia this week, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of the same blitzes."
 
Perhaps, but if West Virginia chooses to bring a lot of pressure, it better get home because the Mountaineers have struggled mightily in pass coverage. Penn State quarterback Drew Allar completed 21-of-29 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns in the opener, while Duquesne's two quarterbacks accounted for 231 yards and a pair of touchdowns through the air last weekend.
 
After Duquesne's first touchdown, West Virginia used senior Malachi Ruffin at the cornerback position opposite Beanie Bishop. Coach Neal Brown admits tighter pass coverage is a must for his defense on Saturday against Jurkovec, whom he considers "an NFL talent."
 
"We've got to make strides in our pass coverage," he said. "This is a talented group of receivers coming in here with an NFL-type quarterback, and we've got to do a better job. We've got to be better with our eyes and getting our hands on receivers. We've got to be more disciplined with our zone drops, and in man, we've got to be able to stick to guys when the quarterback scrambles."
 
Look for Pitt to come out and try and establish its running game early with junior Rodney Hammond Jr., C'Bo Flemister, Daniel Carter and Derrick Davis. Pitt tried passes on three consecutive plays to begin the game against Cincinnati, something out of character for Narduzzi-coached teams.
 
"I was kind of going, 'Three passes? I want to run the ball,'" Narduzzi said.
 
Brown is particularly wary of Carter, a 5-foot-10, 230-pound senior from Margate, Florida.
 
"I really like the big kid, No. 4. He's a load to tackle," Brown said.
 
Mumpfield, a former Akron transfer, caught five passes for 71 yards in last year's Backyard Brawl and has caught two touchdown passes so far this season. Bub Means, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound senior, was named to Bruce Feldman's "Freaks List", but has managed just four catches for 52 yards so far. Florida transfer Daejon Reynolds is another receiver with size (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) that has Brown concerned.
 
"Their receivers are talented, big and strong," Brown said. "Means is back. Mumpfield is a really consistent guy, and they've got a transfer from Florida that's a good player as well."
 
Bartholomew has probably been Pitt's most consistent weapon in the passing game with five catches for 118 yards and a touchdown and is one of three tight ends the Panthers will likely use against West Virginia.
 
Up front, Brown is high on Pitt's left tackle Matt Goncalves, a 6-foot-6, 330-pound senior from Manorville, New York. He earned All-ACC Third Team honors in 2022 and is on the Outland Trophy Watch List.
 
Defensively, the guys to keep an eye on for the Panthers are No. 50, defensive end Dayon Hayes, No. 23, star linebacker Solomon DeShields and No. 11, money linebacker Bangally Kamara.
 
First and foremost, Narduzzi wants to stop the run.
 
"They rushed for 190 yards a year ago against us in the opener, and had a couple big plays," he explained. "We can't let what happened (versus Cincinnati) happen again defensively. We've got to come out, and we've got to react right away."
 
"They're attacking," Brown added. "I think that's been kind of the DNA of their program is what they've done on defense. They've had a lot of NFL players, and they like to pressure. A lot of players roll in and roll out, but the defense looks the same."
 
Marquis Williams and A.J. Woods started last year's game in the secondary and are back, as are Devonshire, Ryland Gandy, Javon McIntyre and Phillip O'Brien.
 
"In the secondary, a lot of those guys have returned, and they are going to come up and challenge us," Brown predicted. "This is a team that's going to challenge you, especially on the perimeter. They are going to play in your face, and we've got to be ready for that."
 
Brown said Pitt's special teams are typically sound under Narduzzi. Junior Ben Sauls puts a high percentage of his kickoffs into the end zone, and the return game has been traditionally solid for the Panthers. Brown also indicated his punt return unit must be observant of Carter, a running back who lines up as a protector and could potentially take a direct snap.
 
A big concern for Narduzzi is West Virginia's RPO game with quarterback Garrett Greene, which he says the Mountaineers use about 60% of the time. Green has passed for 402 yards and four touchdowns and added 104 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
 

"That's really high," he noted. "We've been working a lot on that, and that's something we haven't seen a ton of this year, so it's a whole new thing.
 
"Every run they have will have a run-pass option off it, whether it's a screen out there, whether it's vertical routes. They've run some quarterback zone-read and he'll keep it. They've got vertical routes running off the edge by two receivers, so there's all kinds of different ones they have," Narduzzi said.
 
The veteran Pitt coach said his defensive staff will be preparing for a completely different West Virginia offense now that Neal Brown is calling the plays.
 
Last year, Graham Harrell handled play calling duties.
 
"Brown does a great job scheming you up with formation of boundary and some different things that got us (last year) and hopefully be more prepared for," Narduzzi said. 
 
"We've got to continue to be more efficient in the pass game, we've got to continue to get the ball downfield and be explosive, but our success is going to hinge on our ability to run the football," Brown mentioned.
 
So, there you have it. Both teams want to establish the run, and both want to play clean, mistake-free football. Whichever one does it better is likely to end up on the right side of the scoreboard.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ABC (Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath). 
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 4:30 p.m. leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 6:30 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the popular apps WVU Gameday and the Varsity Network.
 
"It's an exciting week. We won't have any problems getting our guys ready," Brown said. "ABC prime time is what it's all about. We are looking to redeem ourselves from the last time we had a prime-time opportunity."
 
No tickets remain for the game.