Ugly

As I feared, Pitt collapsed in the second half yet again and showed exactly why it was an 11.5-point home underdog.

The key for both teams entering the second half was which team would make better adjustments on defense.

Jeff Castillo's plan: Blitz Tyler Palko like crazy and give him no time to throw. Something was done right, anyway, as Palko was considerably less efficient in the second half, and started getting visibly frustrated at his offensive line for getting overwhelmed by Mountaineers, at his receivers for not cutting back on longer routes.

Paul Rhoads' plan: Honestly it didn't seem like Pitt's defense did anything differently in the second half except make fewer stops in the backfield. To be fair to Pitt's defense, they actually did get off the field a couple of times in the second half, but Palko's magic had already started to run out and they couldn't capitalize offensively. West Virginia gave the ball back to Pitt twice in a span of three possessions in the third quarter, and if the offense had been able to march up and down the field like it had in the first half, Pitt could have been in the game for a little bit longer, but I won't conjecture. What's done is done, and a team of Pitt's caliber probably shouldn't even have been winning at the half against a team like West Virginia, as fun as it was while it lasted.

In any case, college football season is now over for me. I hear there's a couple of teams playing on Saturday or something but I've always had a hard time watching college sports if Pitt isn't involved, with the exception of the NCAA tournament (and that's just because I usually have money riding on it; when my bracket gets busted, I usually stop paying such close attention).

I will wish Rutgers good luck before I go. Beat those fucking Mountaineers. And I'll wish Tyler Palko and H.B. Blades the best of luck in their future, wherever it may lead them. I hope it's in football, because both of them are talented enough to play in the NFL, and I do need more reasons to be biased in favor of one NFL team or another when I can't decide who to choose in the weekly picks. Sadly, Palko is getting the Drew Brees treament from a lot of scouts (not big enough), but hey, Drew Brees turned out alright.