Backyard Brawl all about exploiting weaknesses

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, November 16, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

West Virginia Mountaineers
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article!

The Pittsburgh Panthers haven't done a very good job of stopping the run lately, and West Virginia has two of the best rushers in the country in Pat White and Steve Slaton.

The West Virginia Mountaineers have been a little flabby against the pass, and Pitt's Tyler Palko has thrown for 2,223 yards and 22 touchdowns.

That's the story line for the Backyard Brawl set for Thursday night at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

Which also raises the question: If the Georgia-Florida game couldn't be called the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" any more (at least according to various college and city officials) for fear of inspiring overindulgence, wouldn't the term "Backyard Brawl" inspire fighting?

After all, West Virginia fans are known as the closest thing college football has to soccer hooligans. They burn couches, they scream invective at opposing players, and have gotten several opponents in trouble over the past few years by inspiring one-finger salutes.

How about "The Backyard Cultural Interchange and Exercise in Sportsmanship?"

Nah.

Anyway, 6-4 Pitt has lost three games in a row, while 8-1 West Virginia got whacked by Louisville two weeks ago. Moreover, the history of this series -- like all traditional rivalries -- is filled with games in which the team that wasn't supposed to win did.

"You can throw out the record books for this one," said West Virginia LB Boo McLee.

That would seem like a waste of money, though, when they can just be updated a bit. White did some of that updating last year, dashing through and around the Panthers for 220 rushing yards, then a new Big East standard for quarterbacks. Slaton added 179 more.

Meanwhile, after watching hours of film and no doubt consulting with other coaches on how to deal with the turbocharged Mountaineers, Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt emerged with a concise game plan.

"We're going to have to score some points to win this game," he said.

Nobody could argue with that. The best you could hope for otherwise is a 0-0 tie.

What Wannstedt really meant was "we're going to have to score a lot of points." No one has really shut down Slaton or White all season (East Carolina came the closest), so Pitt's only hope is for Palko to get very busy -- that, or get some fortuitous turnovers.

In other words, the Panthers' offense will undoubtedly be of the "fly by night" variety, with Palko throwing primarily to Derek Kinder and Oderick Turner, interspersed with some running plays drawn up for smallish but fastish Rod Stephens-Howling. Their best chance is to somehow jump out to a sizable early lead and force White to pass.

The real problem is on the other side of the ball. West Virginia is second in the nation in rushing at 318 yards a game, Pitt is 90th in stopping the run. Last week in the Panthers' overtime loss to UConn, Huskie QB D.J. Hernandez ran for 139 yards and freshman tailback Donald Brown for 205, a scary precursor of the White/Slaton show.

The question with Slaton is not whether he can burst through the Pitt defense for big gains, but whether he'll bring the football with him. The Mountaineer star may have a cracked bone in his right wrist, and the left one was sprained against Louisville. This obviously makes it difficult to carry a leather object, especially since the Levittown, Pa. product is a natural right-hander, but Slaton somehow managed to have a big game last week against Cincinnati.

If there is, indeed, a brawl on Thursday night, Slaton probably won't be a part of it. Gotta save the hands.
Got something to say?

Sign Up and be the first to comment on this article! (0)

About Darrell Laurant

Sorry, Darrell Laurant's bio is currently not available. Please check back soon!
read more
Article Tools Share!   |  RSS  |  Bleacher Report About Bleacher Report