It certainly wasn’t pretty but a win is a win for West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl.
The Mountaineers beat rival Pitt 17-6 in what was certainly considered a brawl at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday.
Starts and Ends With the Run
It’s simple, it starts and ends with the run if you’re West Virginia. On both sides of the ball, the ability to stop the run and the ability to run the ball effectively helped the Mountaineers on Saturday.
Between their pair of running backs in Jaylen Anderson and CJ Donaldson, the Mountaineers rushed for a combined 164 yards between them. Donaldson basically carried the Mountaineers on one of their touchdown drives, as they just kept handing him the ball.
“Have you seen my front five, they have to stop them first. All I have to do is run behind my front five and I’m going to get that extra yard. I love running behind that front five,” Donaldson said after the game.
On the flip side though, West Virginia’s run defense seemed to be in for a long night following their first drive. Pitt went 67 yards and did not attempt a pass, just running the ball all the way to the West Virginia three.
After that drive though Pitt would only rush for 63 more yards, going for 2.4 yards per carry the remainder of the game.
Secondary Stand Up
West Virginia’s secondary was talked about all week following their performance the first two games of the season. Head coach Neal Brown said there would be some promotions and demotions and you saw some changes in the lineup. With those changes was an increase in production with the Mountaineers recording three interceptions.
Pitt ended up with only two passing plays of 15 yards or more, with Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec finishing 8 for 20 passing for 81 yards and three interceptions. What’s going to be key for the Mountaineers though is sustaining this success against teams like Texas Tech who are highly capable on offense with throwing the ball downfield.
Nicco Did Enough
It would have been unfair to ask Nicco Marchiol to come into that spot and expect him to perform like a starter. The truth is though he did enough to manage the game and not put WVU in any adverse situations outside of his fumble.
“Tonight in a really tough spot, biggest rivalry we have, [on] national television, and he gets thrust in there in the third series,” Brown said of Marchiol. “A lot of times is people don’t win people games, a lot of times what happens is people lose them. He had a fumble and he came back, but he didn’t lose the game. That’s something should not be lost.”
Marchiol’s numbers weren’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but he picked up a key third down with his legs on a zone read and then was able to convert on a 7-yard touchdown pass near the goal line to Kole Taylor. Marchiol finished with 60 passing yards on 6 for 9 passing with a touchdown.
