West Virginia defense proves a point with strong showing against Pitt – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia’s 17-6 victory over Pitt on Saturday night was largely highlighted by the play of the Mountaineers’ defense, which smothered the Panthers for much of the matchup, save for the Panthers’ opening series.

Pitt rushed 10 times for 67 yards on its first drive, though it was ultimately forced to settle for Ben Sauls’ 21-yard field goal that left the Mountaineers with their only deficit in the 106th edition of the Backyard Brawl.

“We just misfit it,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “They basically ran power all the way down the field. I don’t even know if they threw it. The disappointing thing was they didn’t even catch us off guard. We expected them to run the ball and they did and had some success, but after that, we really played the run well.”

Outside of the opening drive, the Panthers gained 144 yards on their remaining 10 possessions. Fifty-seven of those came on Pitt’s final first-half possession, which ended with a Sauls field goal that produced the Panthers’ only other points.

Playing without starting quarterback Garrett Greene for all but six offensive plays, West Virginia needed every bit of the dominant defensive showing, which included Aubrey Burks’ first-half interception that directly led to the game’s first touchdown — a 7-yard pass from Greene’s replacement, Nicco Marchiol, to tight end Kole Taylor.

That Burks’ pick came two plays after Marchiol lost an unforced fumble while the Mountaineers were on the verge of scoring their first points only added to the importance of Pitt’s first of three turnovers.

“The two drives defensively that were huge were getting the stop in the red zone and they kick a field goal, and right after Nicco’s fumble, we get a pick,” Brown said. “That was a huge momentum swing, because we scored the next play.”

The much-maligned West Virginia secondary stepped up and picked off Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec three times, as cornerbacks Beanie Bishop and Malachi Ruffin came up with interceptions in the second half.

One week after Jurkovec was 10-for-32 in a home loss to Cincinnati, he completed 8-of-20 passes in Morgantown.

The major difference against the Mountaineers was that Jurkovec threw his first three interceptions of the season and did not lead the offense to a touchdown, while he threw for three scores without an interception against the Bearcats.

“Defensively, we’ve been fairly criticized over the last year-and-a-half,” Brown said. “Especially in the secondary, we haven’t played as well. Those guys go out tonight and get three interceptions. 

“Pitt struggled the entire game. They had some success running, but they didn’t do much after that first drive. I’m happy for those guys in the secondary. I’m happy for [safeties coach] Dontae Wright, [cornerbacks coach] Sha’Don Brown and [defensive coordinator] Jordan Lesley. Those guys had a good plan and the players went out and executed.”

While WVU’s secondary displayed noticeable improvement and led the Mountaineers to a win on a night when they equaled the Panthers total yardage output of 211, the front seven was pivotal to forcing Jurkovec into his struggles.

Linebacker Trey Lathan had a pair of quarterback hurries, a pass breakup and a team-high eight tackles.

“He’s really athletic. He’s exactly what we’re looking for in a linebacker,” Brown said.

Fellow linebacker Lee Kpogba followed with seven stops.

Defensive lineman Fatorma Mulbah made his presence felt, as did Sean Martin and Tomiwa Durojaiye off the edge. Nose guard Mike Lockhart stuffed Pitt tailback Rodney Hammond Jr. in the backfield to force a three-and-out on the opening second-half series for Pitt, which was significant in allowing West Virginia to take control of the game.

Tyrin Bradley had WVU’s lone sack, while Asani Redwood made his season debut and an impact in the win. Jared Bartlett, Edward Vesterinen, Jalen Thornton, Hammond Russell IV and Davoan Hawkins also played a part in limiting Pitt’s offensive production.

“We wanted to make it difficult on the quarterback and I thought we got pressure,” Brown said. “People are going to point the blame at him, but it’s hard to throw the ball when you have people in your face. That’s the easy choice a lot of times for fans and critics — it has to be the quarterback. Well there’s a lot stuff going on in front of that quarterback. We were able to get pressure and we gave him some different coverage looks. 

“Some things I told you we were working on that we didn’t necessarily show against Duquesne. We did some things in the Penn State game that Jordan, myself, Sha’Don and Dontae knew we had to get better at or we were going to get picked on in certain areas. We made some swift changes the week of Duquesne and wanted to get through that week and not put it on video and that helped us. We gave up a couple big plays against Duquesne which everybody panicked over, but it really helped us in the long run, because we were able to show those and confuse them a little bit.”