Rutherford gave Pitt needed spark
PITTSBURGH – Sometimes, Pitt’s opponents focus so much of their energy and attention trying to shut down star receiver Larry Fitzgerald, they lose track of quarterback Rod Rutherford. Virginia Tech did that while trying to hang onto a 28-24 lead over the Panthers late in the fourth quarter, and it likely cost them a possible chance to win the Big East and national championships.
Rutherford found a suddenly open Fitzgerald three times for 49 yards and scrambled 12 yards for a first down on perhaps the biggest play of a decisive 70-yard drive that rallied the No. 16 Panthers past the No. 12 Hokies 31-28 Saturday night.
Rutherford had his usual big game, going 24 of 31 for 303 yards and two touchdowns and running for a touchdown. But, to a man, the Hokies said the key play was his 12-yard bootleg to the Tech 18. Pitt finished the drive with four straight running plays finished off by Lousaka Polite’s 2-yard touchdown run with 47 seconds remaining.
“He can scramble,” cornerback Eric Green said. “I think we controlled (Fitzgerald), but the quarterback started getting out of the pocket. And those guys really wanted it.”
The comeback against the first ranked opponent Pitt has faced this season partly made up for Panthers’ upset losses to unranked Toledo and Notre Dame that threatened to ruin a promising season. Better still for the Panthers (7-2, 4-0 in Big East), they remained the only unbeaten team in Big East play. A first-ever conference title would automatically qualify them for a BCS bowl.
“I’m not thinking about that,” coach Walt Harris said. “We’ve got a huge game at West Virginia on Saturday, and our guys do a better job of focusing on what’s immediately ahead of them. We do a better job when we keep our eye on the bull’s eye.”
When Pitt got the ball back at its own 30 and just over four minutes left, Rutherford said, “We knew we had to get a touchdown. We made a lot of big plays.”
The Panthers also had to overcome a number of big plays by Virginia Tech (7-2, 3-2), nearly all of them by running back Kevin Jones. Taking advantage of Pitt’s most discernible weakness, its rushing defense, Jones ran for a school-record 241 yards and all four Tech touchdowns on runs of 11, 1, 80 and 13 yards.
The final two came barely two minutes apart and turned a 24-14 Pitt lead into a 28-24 Hokies lead.
It was the second time in less a month that an opposing runner named Jones has ripped Pitt’s defense. Notre Dame’s Julius Jones had 262 yards in the Irish’s 20-14 upset of Pitt on Oct. 11.
“He got those two touchdowns in two minutes and coach (Paul) Rhoads (the defensive coordinator) got really mad,” defensive lineman Vince Crochunis said. “We had to start doing things right and get the ball back for our offense.”
Pitt did that just when it seemed the Hokies were in position to close it out. Tech quarterback Marcus Vick threw incomplete on fourth-and-4 from the Panthers’ 30 with 4:10 remaining, and Rutherford then led the decisive 70-yard drive.
It started with consecutive completions of 28 and 12 yards to Fitzgerald, who had been shut down most of the second half before making three big catches just when Pitt needed them on the final drive.
Fitzgerald was upstaged by Jones, but still made eight catches for 108 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown that extended his NCAA record to 15 consecutive games with a scoring catch.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher to get him the ball,” Harris said. “They doubled and tripled him, but he still got 108 yards. And we used him to help some other guys.”
Kris Wilson, often getting free behind a Tech secondary preoccupied with Fitzgerald, made six catches for a team-high 111 yards and a touchdown.
Pitt now tries to avoid the letdown that came after it upset the then-No. 3 Hokies 28-21 in Blacksburg last season. The Panthers followed that with consecutive losses to then-No. 1 Miami and West Virginia and settled for a trip for the Insight Bowl.
“We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Rutherford said.