I would love to talk about these past two games. How Pitt won the series. They won it with strong offense. They won it mainly with shut-down defense. Of course I was out of town and I don’t have HDNet anyways.

It started with taking Texas Tech 80-67. A slow start, but strong finish on offense. The defense, though, was there throughout.

Pitt turned to its defense, harassing the Red Raiders into 8 for 25 from 3-point range and – three days after being outrebounded by Belmont – dominated under the boards with 49 rebounds (to 31 for Texas Tech).

Along the way, Pitt started playing better defense against the Red Raiders, whose quick play led to many easy first-half baskets.

“Our transition defense was terrible,” Young said. “It seemed like we could score on them anytime we wanted. They really didn’t play good defense. At the same time, we would score, and they would come right back down and get an open 3. We were just being lazy on defense. Once we found out the problem as a team, we came out much better in the second half.”

Pitt set the tone for the game late in the first half, going on its 13-0 run

“I thought we did what we wanted to do,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “We did some good things.”

Levance Fields cut an interesting figure to many who observed him at the the games. Though, at least some understood why.

Dixon was concerned because Fields isn’t genetically blessed with a LeBron James body. With three months on the mend just prior to the start of a season with high expectations, Dixon worried his leader and point guard might balloon and wouldn’t exactly return in tip-top shape.

That’s exactly what happened.

Fields is listed at 190 pounds in the team’s media guide, but he’s probably realistically playing at around 215 pounds.

“I can’t tell you,” Fields said of his current weight. “Undisclosed.”

Then came the finale with Washington State. This was going to be a defensive battle no matter what. And it was, but Pitt still prevailed 57-43.

“They definitely toughened up on us, especially in the second half,” Washington State coach Tony Bennett said. “We had some looks, but we missed our shots. I also think we were pretty dog-tired by the end of the game. I think we learned a lot about toughness. They didn’t allow us anything down the stretch. … They just defend everything at the rim and protected the paint.

“They’re men. It was like boys against men.”

Pitt did start slow.

The Panthers trailed for most of the first half, largely because of a 4-of-18 performance from the field. But Washington State could not break down Pitt’s stout defense enough to take advantage of it. For the first 15 minutes, the Cougars never led by more than 2.

That was Young’s cue to take over, devastating ball fake — “It’s going to work forever,” he said — and all.

The Pitt defense killed Washington St.’s guards. Naturally, Coach Dixon sees room for improvement.

Pitt Coach Jamie Dixon said he is encouraged with the Panthers’ early-season progress.

“I think we can become a really good defensive team that plays a lot of guys,” Dixon said. “Those teams are hard to beat.”

If you are a “glass half-empty” kind of person, you would likely respond to the positive press on the Pitt secondary with these responses”

• It was against the Mountaineer receivers. A group that won’t be confused with Texas Tech’s gang or even North Texas.
• What about the number of drops by the ‘Eers receivers?
• Did you see the final drive when they nearly let WVU drive the field in a 2-minute drill?

Of course going into this game, most of us weren’t optimistic about the secondary even against the ‘Eers receivers. They held their own and came up with some big plays. As for the final drive, that is on the coaches who had the DBs playing so far off the receivers that there was little they could do at times. Ridiculous, especially along the sidelines. It gave WVU a couple opportunities to catch and get out of bounds. Just dumb. I almost think Wannstedt and Bennett wanted to let WVU get closer so that Pat White couldn’t break off a big run in open space.

The secondary was certainly helped by the play of the WVU WRs, but they did enough. Dom DeCicco had an interception in the game.

The more popular storyline, though, concerns redemption, perseverance, etc. Hello, Jovani Chappel.

The unlikely candidate – Chappel was sacked from the starting lineup in favor of Ricky Gary following a loss to Rutgers last month – emerged when it appeared West Virginia was ready to churn clock while nursing a 15-7 fourth-quarter lead.

Chappel intercepted a Pat White pass deep inside West Virginia territory and it ignited a LeSean McCoy-led offense to two late touchdowns and a 19-15 win Friday at Heinz Field.

“It was a huge play, huge play,” Chappel said of his first career interception. “It definitely was just preparation. … We were in cover two, the guy stopped on the route and I sat on it. I tried to run it back as far as I could.”

Chappel had just as important stop in that final drive by keeping Wes Lyons inbounds.

“We practice it every week,” Chappel said. “We do whatever we can to keep the guy in bounds and keep the clock running. It ended up being pretty crucial to the last play.”

Never mind that Chappel was giving up nearly a foot in height differential to Lyons, or that the junior cornerback had been replaced in the starting lineup the past four games by redshirt sophomore Ricky Gary. Chappel made two of the biggest plays of his career against Pitt’s arch-rival.

If you are going to step-up after a bad year, that would be the time.

Another corner who has had a (to put it delicately) disappointing season, Aaron Berry, has a feature story in his hometown paper.

After a solid 2007, Berry called his performance this season “up and down” and admitted he has to gain size and strength and raise his overall level of play.

McCoy may come back. Berry is definitely coming back. He’s not ready.

The defensive back said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt summoned him to his office for a conversation a few days before Friday’s game. Berry said defensive coordinator Phil Bennett also spoke with him.

“Coach Wannstedt expects so much out of me and I expect so much out of myself,” said Berry, who plays corner on the wide side of the field.

“He called me into his office earlier in the week and he and coach Bennett told me I should be shutting down everybody I see. You know, honors are going to be out there and [NFL] scouts ask about me.”

…

And later, Berry caught a break. With Pitt leading 7-3, WVU drove to the Panthers 9 on its first possession of the third quarter, and after a long scramble by quarterback Pat White behind the line of scrimmage, his end-zone throw to wideout Dorrell Jalloh was dropped.

Berry was covering Jalloh on the play. The Mountaineers had to settle for three points instead of seven.

“Luckily, he dropped it. It was big, and I was praying he dropped it,” said Berry, who has 36 tackles, an interception and seven pass breakups.

“That was a big play in the game, actually, him dropping that ball.”

It’s been that kind of year for Berry. Every time his name has been mentioned, it’s in connection with something negative. He struggled in coverage during Pitt’s 54-34 upset loss to Rutgers in late October and also was replaced as the team’s punt returner after some fumbles.

“It’s been that kind of year for Berry.” Um, yeah.

You didn’t really think I was skipping the primary and secondary reason on offense that Pitt won this year’s Brawl?

LeSean McCoy had 200 total yards in the game out of Pitt’s 346 total yards. 183 on the ground and 17 more receiving. He scored 2 of the 3 Pitt TDs. And just for good measure he took one kickoff return for 16 yards. On a weekend where there were only 2 Big East games, is there any doubt who will be the offensive player of the week in the conference?

As such, there were just a few stories on LeSean McCoy.

There tend to be a few as the biggest star on the offense leads the team to the win. To say nothing of McCoy coming up big on a big stage. Especially after being held back the last couple of games. He comes back and that 183 yards of his was his career high (previously it was 172 at Michigan State). And just keeps piling up numbers.

With his 183 yards, McCoy has 13 100-yard games during his first 23 games with Pitt. The nation’s leading scorer also has a school-record 35 touchdowns through his freshman and sophomore seasons.

And, by the way, he’s got 331 rushing yards in two games against West Virginia.

It was impressive from McCoy and the Pitt offensive line in the 4th quarter when everyone knew it was going to be McCoy and little else from the offense. And WVU still couldn’t stop him.

A performance like that has many saying, good gosh, McCoy is ready for the NFL despite what he says.

After an interception by Pitt’s Jovani Chappel gave the Panthers the ball at the West Virginia 16 midway through the fourth quarter, McCoy ran for 11 yards on the first play and a 5-yard touchdown on the second to cut the Mountaineers’ lead to 15-13. Then, after Pitt took possession at its 41 with 5:10 left, with everyone in the house knowing he would get the pig, he carried 10 times on an 11-play touchdown drive, accounting for 55 of the 59 yards and scoring on a 1-yard run with 52 seconds left. It was his 20th touchdown this season and the 35th of his two-year career, breaking Larry Fitzgerald’s Pitt freshman-sophomore record.

“When I was with Miami,” Wannstedt said, recalling his NFL days, “I once gave the ball to Ricky Williams 14 plays in a row.”

You have a horse …

“Oh, yeah, you ride him,” Wannstedt said.

And you have to imagine McCoy will get plenty of advice. Including the fact that RBs have short NFL shelf lives, and running for a Wannstedt coached team at any levels will put a lot of tread on the tires.

I want him to stay, but I have no problem if he goes pro. Another McCoy earlier said he was staying, but is now reconsidering. Shady has been everything Pitt could have hoped to be and more.

So, not a bad weekend.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	—
2	Alabama	—
3	Florida	—
4	Texas	1
5	Texas Tech	1
6	Southern Cal	—
7	Utah	—
8	Penn State	—
9	Ohio State	—
10	Boise State	—
11	Cincinnati	2
12	Ball State	—
13	Oklahoma State	2
14	TCU	3
15	Oregon	5
16	Georgia Tech	5
17	Brigham Young	2
18	Georgia	4
19	Missouri	4
20	Pittsburgh	5
21	Oregon State	5
22	Michigan State	—
23	Boston College	3
24	Northwestern	—
25	West Virginia	7

Texas and Texas Tech flip-flopped, but that was about it for my top-10. Really the Tech struggle against Baylor was  a classic hangover performance, but it does matter.

I know, the big meme is Oklahoma or Texas and how can anyone put Oklahoma ahead of Texas since Texas won head-to-head on a neutral field. I don’t disagree that it matters, but it isn’t the only factor. At least not in a poll where you are ranking the teams.  Not only do I think that Oklahoma is playing better than Texas and that Oklahoma is a better team. I’ll fall back on a favorite in college basketball: non-con strength of schedule.

Texas’ non-con: FAU, Rice, UTEP and Arkansas

Oklahoma’s non-con: TCU, Cinci, Washington, Chattanooga (1-AA)

Oklahoma at least challenged itself in the non-con. Yes, Washington and Chattanooga were worse than FAU and Arkansas. But that was more than offset with TCU and Cinci as compared to UTEP and Rice. I’ll reward putting a couple decent games with some risk on the schedule versus staying with all teams that are well below weight class and have little chance of something going awry.

The ACC is… something. The team playing and looking best — GT isn’t even playing in the ACC Championship game. Just like Georgia last year in the SEC. Must be a Georgia thing. Instead it is BC-VT again. The ACC officials must be thrilled with the Big East afterthoughts to get Miami meeting yet again. Really going to make Tampa a lively place this week.

Pitt didn’t disappoint by being ranked by me last week. Don’t blow it this week when everyone puts you in their blogpoll.

Final Score, 2008

Still trying to catch-up so let’s get the links out there in appropriate groupings. These are just the general game posts.

Coach Wannstedt really made sure the team was prepared to stop Pat White (though WV partisans think the WVU OC provided an assist in that). It helps that Pitt now seems to have the personnel to stop him. It left many with a sinking, familiar feeling.

Lots of mistakes by both sides and questionable decisions, made it unwatchable to the cantankerous.

In the end it was too much LeSean McCoy. Pitt didn’t let the game slip away. Instead retaking the lead and sealing it.

So, Pitt and the fans have another year of bragging rights.