Home >  Sports >  U. of Pittsburgh

Friday, December 27, 2002

By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

PHOENIX -- The Insight Bowl was supposed to go to the team whose defense dominated, but No. 24 Pitt didn't stop there.

The Panthers played well enough on defense, offense and special teams to beat Oregon State, 38-13, last night in front of 40,533 at Bank One Ballpark.

Pitt's Claude Harriott closes in to sack Oregon State QB Derek Anderson in the first quarter of last night's Insight Bowl. The less-favored Panthers went on to clobber Oregon State, 38-13. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette) More coverage Insight Bowl Notebook Post-Game Audio You must have Real Player to click on and hear this streaming audio at the links below. Coach Walt Harris: Proud of team and their season Quarterback Rod Rutherford: An answer for the Panthers' skeptics Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald: Talks about his TD catch

Pitt pulled away from a 10-10 halftime tie with two touchdowns in the third quarter -- a 1-yard run by quarterback Rod Rutherford that was set up by safety Tez Morris' interception, and Shawn Robinson's 66-yard punt return for a touchdown.

"The punt return probably broke their backs," said Panthers Coach Walt Harris, who called a mix of run and pass plays and threw in a few wrinkles at times such as an empty backfield.

The Panthers (9-4) reached nine wins in a season for the first time since 1982. The win also broke a two-game losing streak. Oregon State (8-5) had ended its regular season with two wins in a row.

Rutherford was 13-of-26 passing for 183 yards and a touchdown. Tailback Brandon Miree rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown for Pitt, which used freshman receiver Larry Fitzgerald as a decoy to draw double coverage and open things up for the running game.

Although Beavers quarterback Derek Anderson passed for 318 yards and a touchdown, Pitt held Oregon State to 7 yards rushing, including a season-low 34 on 19 carries by tailback Steven Jackson, who was fifth in Division I with an average of 138 yards a game.

"It did surprise me because I thought we could run the football against most people," Oregon State Coach Dennis Erickson said. "We couldn't tonight."

Jackson, who does not play with a fullback in the Beavers' spread offense, carried the ball 15 times in the first half, for 33 yards, but Oregon State had to ditch the run in the second half.

Anderson's passing wasn't enough to get his team back in the game despite the good thing he had going with receiver James Newson, who finished with 10 catches for 165 yards and a touchdown.

"The last two games when we lost we gave up a lot of yards on the ground, and that left a sour taste," said Pitt defensive end Claude Harriott, who was credited with four tackles for losses, including two sacks, among his six tackles.

Each team struck quickly and then got a field goal for a 10-10 halftime tie.

On the sixth play, Rutherford threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Fitzgerald, who dived and stretched to catch the ball at the goal line after getting behind safety Mitch Meeuwsen. It was 7-0 only 3:10 into the game.

Oregon State answered in just three plays when Anderson hit Newson for what looked like a 10-yard gain. Pitt linebacker Brian Beinecke and cornerback Torrie Cox converged on Newson, but he scrambled to regain his footing and completed the play for a 40-yard touchdown to make it 7-7 with 9:54 left in the first quarter.

"I didn't feel I was down," Newson said. "I didn't feel my knees down."

Kirk Yliniemi kicked a field goal of 50 yards, an Insight Bowl record, to put the Beavers ahead, 10-7, with 7:56 left in the second quarter. Pitt tied it on David Abdul's 45-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.

"A lot of things happened in the first half, and we had some opportunities. We overthrew some balls," Erickson said. "But then they kicked that field goal, got the punt return and the momentum totally changed."

There were no turnovers in the first half, but that changed early in the third quarter, and Pitt was the beneficiary.

Shortly after Jackson had a run of more than 60 yards negated by a holding penalty, Oregon State tried a flea-flicker, but Pitt got heavy pressure on the quarterback. Morris snagged the pass from Anderson, his second interception this season, and returned it 36 yards to the Beavers' 23.

Rutherford threw a 22-yard pass to Fitzgerald, then followed it with a 1-yard touchdown run for a 17-10 Pitt lead with 12:08 left in the third quarter.

Robinson added to the lead when he took Carl Tobey's punt, headed toward the right sideline, cut inside a few steps behind a wall of blockers and raced 66 yards to make it 24-10 with 3:26 left in the third quarter.

"My first punt return, it was similar, but I kind of messed up," Robinson said. "My coaches just told me to have faith on the next one. It was easy for me. My teammates did all the work.

Yliniemi brought the Beavers within 24-13 with a 31-yard field goal with 36 seconds remaining in the third quarter, but Miree put the game out of reach when he ran untouched into the end zone from the Beavers' 7 to make it 31-13 with 5:38 left in the fourth quarter.

Freshman quarterback Tyler Palko made it a blowout with an 8-yard touchdown run with 3:02 left.