PITTSBURGH — West Virginia’s offense ran out of gas at the most crucial time in Saturday’s 38-34 loss to Pitt.
The Mountaineers got their offense moving in the second half, but ran out of steam late in the fourth quarter, settling for a field goal inside the 10-yard line and going three-and-out in between the Panthers’ final two scoring drives.
“You should never lose a game when you’re up 10 with five (minutes) to go,” WVU coach Neal Brown said. “Credit Pitt, they made plays at the end of the game and we did not.”
With first-and-10 at the Pitt 12-yard line, WVU had an eight-yard run on first down before losing a yard on second and throwing an incomplete pass on third.
“We needed to stick it in,” Brown said. “That’s the four points if we could’ve scored a touchdown … I thought we could’ve won it on offense as poorly as we played covering the pass.”
Michael Hayes’s subsequent 23-yard field goal put WVU up 27-24 instead of potentially going ahead by seven points. Justin Robinson’s touchdown a few minutes later put WVU up by 10 points.
Pitt easily went down the field and scored, cutting the lead to just three points. That still gave WVU’s offense a chance to ice the game with a couple of first downs.
WVU went three-and-out, however, taking barely a minute off the clock before punting the ball back to the Panthers.
CJ Donaldson ran the ball twice, gaining one and three yards and Garrett Greene was sacked on third down.
“We had a good play on the first play,” Brown said. “We just missed a block at the point of attack that would’ve been a made first (down) and put them in a tough spot.
“I felt we had some guys open, but I’ve got to see it (on film). I felt like two of the three were good plays.”
Special teams missteps
Two special teams misplays led to 14 Pitt points.
The lesser of the two errors was a kickoff out of bounds at the start of the second quarter that gave the Panthers the ball at the 35-yard line. It wasn’t a huge swing in field position, but Pitt did score a touchdown on that possession.
The more glaring mistake was Oliver Straw’s blocked punt in that led to the first touchdown after halftime. Straw had converted a fourth down on a fake punt earlier on the drive, but the offense stalled out a few plays later.
Pitt’s Maverick Gracio got a clear path to Straw to block the punt and Brandon George was able to pick the ball up and run 24 yards to the end zone.
“We had two guys that just didn’t execute,” Brown said. “We had two guys that were there and just didn’t make the block.”
Jackson stepping up
T.J. Jackson has arguably been the Mountaineers’ best overall player through three weeks. The Troy transferred entered the game with a team-high three tackles for loss and got the start against Pitt in the place of Edward Vesterinen.
“I wouldn’t say I was nervous, I would just say I had a little bit of butterflies,” Jackson said. “It was my first big rivalry game besides Penn State, especially since I was starting.”
Jackson got another tackle behind the line on Pitt’s first play from scrimmage. He then got pressure on the quarterback on the next two plays as the Panthers went three-and-out.
Jackson made another tackle for no gain on Pitt’s first drive in the second quarter and then got the Panthers on an eight-yard loss on an end-around that was blown up by fellow lineman Ty French.
Jackson capped the first half with a sack of Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein.
“After watching film all week, I kind of had a beat to where I knew I could beat him with speed instead of power,” Jackson said. ”
He added another tackle for loss and a half sack in the second half to finish with four TFLs and 1.5 sacks.
Donaldson in the Brawl
CJ Donaldson has had some of the best games of his career in the Backyard Brawl.
Donaldson’s college debut came against the Panthers in 2022 and he ran for 125 yards and a touchdown. His first career carry was a 44-yard gash up the middle, but the Mountaineers lost 38-31.
“That one was a lot of up and down for me,” Donaldson said. “I kind of had my opening game here and burst on the scene.”
Donaldson was then the driving force in 2023 as he ran for 102 yards and a score and the Mountaineers won 17-6.
Donaldson ran for 79 yards with a touchdown and also caught a 10-yard score on Saturday.
