Talk about a game we ALL deserved. Peanut butter and jelly. Milk and cookies. WVU and Pitt in a nail-biter Backyard Brawl. Some things are just meant to go together.
West Virginia found a way today. Down late, they clawed back, forced overtime, and came through with a gritty OT winning drive to take the Backyard Brawl from Pitt, 31-24.
As a WVU fan at heart, this game had a double-digit win for Pitt written all over it. The Rich Rod return parade was short-lived after a disappointing showing against Ohio last week, and then Pitt comes to Morgantown after two dominant wins against Duquesne & Central Michigan. But a hot start defensively gave the ‘Eers some juice, and we were off and running towards one hell of a Brawl.
The Good
Tye Edwards was a Workhorse – The season-ending injury to Jahiem White last week was a crushing blow to the WVU offense and seemed to deflate the entire squad, so having Edwards (141 yards, 3TDs) come out and have such a dominant performance on the ground was the spark that kept this team in the hunt even when they fell behind.
Big Poppi Bailed out the Panthers O – There wasn’t much excitement on the Pitt offense for much of the game, but Raphael “Poppi” Williams Jr. came to play. The senior did his part and snagged 6 for 119 and a touchdown to help keep Pitt in the lead.
The Bad
QB Inconsistency – I have no clue what Rich Rod was thinking by benching Nicco at halftime for two OBVIOUSLY worse options in Henderson and Fox. Don’t get me wrong, Nicco has NOT been good this year (except for the 4th quarter today), he’s been aggressively mediocre, and was exposed pretty badly last week without having White to lean on as a safety valve. It’s something to watch for the remainder of the year on how Rich Rod/Nicco mesh moving forward, especially if you have no clue which version of Nicco you are going to get.
All that being said, we got one hell of a game, one hell of a comeback, and one hell of a Rich Rod moment.