Well folks, today is truly the Monday morning hangover, as I attended the Steelers Bungals game at Heinz field last night. Waking up sucked this morning so forgive me if my writing is a little uninspiring, I didn’t get too much sleep last night. Enough crying from me though lets get into this weekend's sports action in the Burgh.
This was a big sports weekend for college football; there were conference championships, BCS implications, and of course the 100th anniversary of the Backyard Brawl. There were some pretty good games on during the day, but the highlight of the day was obviously the rivalry game for Pitt with our hated, cousin-loving neighbors, West Virginia. The table was set for WV, all they had to do was beat a lowly Pitt team and they were off to play in the national championship, in the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friends.
Pitt was ready for this game, they were fired up on defense, and they were geared up to play in a hostile environment in Morgantown. Pitt played like they had a chip on their shoulder, and with good reason. Pitt was 28.5 point underdogs Saturday night, they used this as incentive to get fired up for the game. The doubters were evident and no one was giving Pitt a chance to win this one, but that is why they play the game folks.
Even though they started out slow, Pitt’s game plan proved to work well against the Mountaineers; limit Pat White and make him throw, play stout defense, convert on third downs and give Shady the damn ball. Pat White went down in the second quarter with a thumb injury on his non-throwing hand, but he was still a non-factor when he was actually in the game. Panthers defense silenced the rowdy crowd of nearly 60,000 by holding White to only 40 yards rushing and 50 passing in an impressive effort by their front seven. (not to mention they held Steve Slaton to 11 yards on 9 carries) Although QB Pat Bostick threw a couple INT’s the defense held strong and WV was forced to attempt a couple early field goal’s that they missed (that kicker should be put on suicide watch) In all, the defense did a good job of staying in their lanes and containing WV high powered offense all night long. It was also big that they had some sacks and that they forced a couple of turnovers, which ended up leading to points on the scoreboard.
As for the offense, lets just say they are what we thought they were… Bostick made some bad decisions early and the ‘stache decided to go conservative so Bostick wouldn’t blow the game by committing turnovers. This meant it was time for the Shady show, and man was this kid entertaining carrying the ball a whopping 38 times for 148 yards. (why wasn’t he getting the ball this many times every game) On one play he gave a WV linebacker the uh oh’s on one the nastiest dick moves I’ve seen in some time, but unfortunately the TD run was called back on a phantom holding call on Oderrick Turner. There was an interesting story about Shady circulating through Pittsburgh this weekend. He was confused as to why Pitt hates WV so bad. That is, up until the bus carrying the team rolled into Morgantown and proceeded to be pelted with rocks, bricks, and other objects. Word on the street is that this fired up Shady so much that he gave the team a pep talk right there on the bus, and judging by his play and the play of the rest of the team it must have worked. This kid is only a freshman, but its pretty clear that he doesn’t play or act like one, as he has stepped up to be one of the leader’s of this young team.
Pitt’s offense was by no means a juggernaut on Saturday night, but they were relatively efficient. Six for eighteen on third downs is nothing to write home about, but they were an impressive 2 for 3 on 4th down conversions. The biggest one coming on Pitt’s TD drive where the stache called a fake punt, lining up former Central Catholic QB and Pitt outside linebacker (and Hazelwood native) Shane Murray under center to sneak for 3 yards on 4th and 1. Bostick also converted a third down, later in the drive. Keeping the WV offense off the field was essential to Pitt getting this upset win.
All in all this has got to be one of, if not the, biggest win in the history of Pitt football history. I mean the look on the faces of the WV fans was probably the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…. Priceless simply priceless and the camera kept showing them I loved it. I bet WV campus was a ghost town that night as the hands of their most bitter rival crushed their dreams of a national championship on their home field. While WV fans cried themselves to sleep, we partied like rock stars on Pitt’s campus in Oakland. (link the video of the Pitt couch burning) Pitt couldn’t be stopped that Saturday night not by rocks and bricks, not by horrendous penalty calls, and certainly not by a half-assed effort by a team who has never won the national championship.
I am so happy it happened especially cuz I hate that scumbag coach Rich Rodriguez. That d-bag didn’t even give Pitt any credit during his press conference (where he looked like he was about to cry also) all he did was talk about how WV didn’t execute and stick to the game plan. Listen up Rich you got outplayed, out-coached, and beaten by a team you were supposed to roll over. Have fun in the Fiesta bowl you jagoff. GO PITT!
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