Game tape proves Pitt’s dominance
By Joe Starkey
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Even though West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez failed to mention Pitt during his tortured, postmortem press conference Saturday, make no mistake: The Panthers' defense won the game more than West Virginia's offense lost it.
The tape shows Pitt missing only two tackles.
The tape shows Pitt's front seven winning battle after battle.
The tape doesn't lie.
This wasn't about the Mountaineers choking or "playing our worst offensive game in years," as Rodriguez put it. Rather, it was about Pitt's guys knocking West Virginia's guys on their rear ends and executing a plan as precisely as Don Larsen executed his pitches in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series.
Paul Rhoads, Pitt's defensive coordinator, agreed to break down the game tape Monday and show precisely how Pitt held West Virginia's vaunted spread-option attack to 104 yards rushing and 2.5 yards per carry.
It began up front, with ends Joe Clermond, Greg Romeus and Chris McKillop and tackles Mick Williams, John Malecki, Rashaad Duncan and Tommie Duhart. If West Virginia choked, it was because these guys were standing on their necks.
Williams was a Casey Hampton-like force inside, regularly re-routing running plays.
"The 'D' line played darn near flawlessly," Rhoads said.
With other offenses, a given personnel group will portend run or pass. Not so with WVU. Rodriguez builds multiple options off every grouping. Pitt defenders switched calls on the fly, blitzed regularly and masked their intentions until a split-second before the snap -- knowing one false move could mean seven quick points.
Rhoads reprimanded his players during a walk-through Friday, after a bad blitz.
"I had the kids turn around," he said. "There was nothing back there but turf, and I said, 'Understand everybody's responsibility. If we don't get it done, the back judge isn't going to tackle anybody.' "
Actually, the way the game was officiated, the back judge might have blocked somebody and joined the touchdown celebration.
West Virginia's first series proved critical. It began at the Pitt 27 after an interception. On third-and-goal from the 6, White rolled left. Darius Reynaud broke open in the end zone, but quarterback Pat White followed a path behind 250-pound battering ram Owen Schmitt.
Linebacker Jemeel Brady somehow kept his balance in a collision with Schmitt, who had 40 pounds on him, rode the block to the sidelines and pushed White out of bounds.
Two series later, the Mountaineers stood at Pitt's 15 with a third-and-6. Safety Eric Thatcher broke coverage, blitzed, and blasted White under the chin strap just before he released an errant pass.
Those kinds of hits tend to reverberate.
"A play like that goes a long way in a football game," Rhoads said.
Pitt's game plan didn't lack for creativity. One play showed the 295-pound Duncan dropping 10 yards off the line into pass coverage. His presence there forced White to cut inside on a scramble, allowing Clermond to trip him up.
No play was bigger than middle linebacker Scott McKillop tackling Steve Slaton on fourth-and-3 from Pitt's 26 with 4:10 left.
White's first order of business, after the snap, is to read the defensive end and decide whether to keep the ball and run outside or hand off. Pitt's ends often played upright, instead of with a hand on the ground, and stayed in place, thus forcing inside handoffs.
When he saw Clermond holding his ground, White handed to Slaton, who had a clear path to a first down. But McKillop dropped center Mike Dent with a crushing blow, exploded to his left and chopped Slaton at the knees.
NFL linebackers make plays like that.
On the Mountaineers' final series, they tried a screen pass on second-and-10 from the Pitt 21 -- a double screen, actually, where White has the option to throw left or right. Rhoads anticipated the play. Clermond and Romeus peeled off at the snap and darted toward the intended receivers.
Two years earlier, when a similar scenario developed, White busted up the middle for two huge gains. This time, a safety blitz ruined that option. He threw the ball away.
On each of the final two plays, Rhoads ordered three-man blitzes up the middle. Risky, to be sure, but he wasn't going to afford White the precious luxury of time.
White seemed surprised by the third-down pressure. He fumbled the shotgun snap as Brady charged through Slaton's block like a bowling ball through a pin. Romeus easily corralled the quarterback.
On fourth-and-17 at the 28, Rodriguez sought to exploit the mismatch of tiny cornerback Jovani Chappel against 6-8 Wes Lyons. "Jovani's 5-7 or so," Rhoads said, "and Lyons, as you know, is darn near as tall as Abdul-Jabbar."
Just before the snap, Thatcher yelled to Chappel to back off the line. That way, White wouldn't be inclined to try a quick lob. Instead, he waited and threw high and wide, clear out of the end zone, as he was blasted one last time.
The ball finally stopped rolling right in front of a sign that read, "No Pitt Stops on the Road to New Orleans."
Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com
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