Steelers, WVU, Pitt stagger to finish line
Watching your favorite football team tease you with a potentially great season and then ripping the carpet out from under you is torture for diehard fans.
If you鈥檙e a college or NFL football fan in the area, chances are you鈥檙e wondering what happened right about now.
It was less than a month ago that Pitt and West Virginia looked to be on the verge of something special in the college football world and the Steelers were touted as legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
Amazingly, all three teams have crashed and burned down the stretch, leaving their faithful followers stunned and frustrated.
Here蘑菇视频 a look at each teams鈥� plight:
Pitt
Then: The Panther defeated Wake Forest for their fourth straight win on Nov. 17 to improve to 7-4. The victory clinched their first Coastal Division title, earning them a spot in the ACC championship game, and jumped them into the AP Top 25 at No. 24.
Now: Coach Pat Narduzzi蘑菇视频 squad is 0-2 since then, has been outscored 66-13 in those two losses, and dropped out of the rankings.
The most disappointing and concerning defeat was the 24-3 trouncing in Miami on Nov. 24. Everyone pointed to that game as a flat spot for Pitt, since it was coming off such an emotional win and the ACC final was looming.
You expect your coach to be aware of that and take steps to avoid it, make the players aware this game is huge if you want to end the season with a winning record. But the Panthers were never in the game and fell even flatter than most anticipated.
Pitt was overwhelmed by the second-ranked Tigers as expected.
Outlook: Pitt plays Stanford in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31 in El Paso where it is a 6 1/2-point underdog. That蘑菇视频 not surprising when you look at the Panthers鈥� recent bowl history. They are 0-2 under Narduzzi and 1-5 in their last six. Despite claiming a division title, this will end up as a fairly typical Panthers season record-wise at 7-7.
West Virginia
Then: Will Grier threw a touchdown pass with 16 seconds left then ran in the winning two-point conversion to give the Mountaineers a dramatic 42-41 victory at Texas on Nov. 10. WVU improved to 8-1 with the win, jumped up to No. 7 in the rankings and were in the mix for a possible shot at reaching the College Football Playoff.
Now: West Virginia lost its final two games in heart-breaking fashion and has fallen to No. 15 in the rankings.
Despite a late go-ahead TD drive by Grier, Oklahoma State scored with 42 seconds left to pull out a 45-41 win, costing the Mountaineers a spot in the Big 12 championship game. The following week, with the Big 12 final still at stake, WVU lost at home to Oklahoma, 59-56, thanks in large part to a pair of defensive scores by the Sooners.
Outlook: The good news is the Mountaineers are headed to Orlando for the Camping World Bowl on Dec. 28 to play No. 17 Syracuse. The bad news is Grier, continuing a disturbing new trend in college football, has decided not to play so as to avoid injury and protect his NFL draft status.
WVU was a 7-point favorite against the Orange, but with Grier now out that has dropped to just 1 1/2. Take the points. Coach Dana Holgorsen is just 2-4 in bowl games, WVU has lost six of its last eight bowls and Grier is such a big part of their offense it蘑菇视频 hard to see it beating a pretty good Syracuse team without him. Also, Syracuse won this match-up in the 2012 Pinstripe Bowl, 38-14. West Virginia ends up 8-4, not bad, but disappointing after an 8-1 beginning.
Steelers
Then: Pittsburgh defeated the Jaguars on Ben Roethlisberger蘑菇视频 dramatic dive into the end zone for the winning touchdown in the final seconds to improve to 7-2-1 on Nov. 18. The Steelers were sitting pretty, in first place in the AFC North and holding a comfortable 2 1/2-game lead over the Ravens and Bengals.
Now: Coach Mike Tomlin蘑菇视频 crew is 0-3 since, losing games in every fashion imaginable, and has watched its lead dwindle to a half game with the Saints and Patriots still left on the schedule.
Against the Broncos the Steelers scored one touchdown on a fake field goal and another on an incredible 97-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to JuJu Smith-Shuster 鈥� and still found a way to lose.
Against the Chargers the Steelers built a 23-7 halftime advantage which seemed safe since they were 174-0-1 at home in their history when they held a lead of 16 points or more 鈥� but somehow they still lost.
They wasted a late game-trying touchdown drive by Roethlisberger and jumped offsides twice to negate a missed Michael Badgley field goal from 39-yards out and then a blocked Badgley field goal from 34 yards away before the Bolts kicker finally booted a game-winning 29-yarder.
Sunday蘑菇视频 game in Oakland 鈥� the Steelers fourth straight loss there, all to horrible teams considered among the worst in the league 鈥� was even more excruciating.
Against the Raiders, Roehtlisberger came back from an apparent rib injury to throw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Smith-Shuster late in the fourth quarter, and in the final seconds JuJu ran 43 yards with a lateral from James Washington to set up a potential game-tying field goal 鈥� and the Steelers still lost again.
Roethlisberger threw a late interception in the end zone in the loss at Denver, but overall it蘑菇视频 been the defense and special teams, especially late in games, that has dragged the Steelers down.
The defense allowed the Raiders to score touchdowns on their final two drives on Sunday and Chris Boswell missed a 40-yard field goal on the final play as well as a 39-yarder in the second quarter.
The defense allowed the Chargers to go touchdown, touchdown, game-winning field goal on their final three drives, while special teams gave up a punt return for a score, had the offsides meltdown at the end, and saw Boswell missed his fifth extra point of the season.
The defense was better against Denver. It only allowed the Broncos to score touchdowns on half of their final four possessions.
Outlook: The Steelers aren鈥檛 winning in New Orleans with their defense. Their best-case scenario is win their last two home games against the Pats 鈥� obviously a difficult task, especially with New England coming off a loss 鈥� and Bengals to end up 9-6-1. More likely they鈥檒l end up 8-7-1 or worse and out of the playoffs unless they somehow back in miraculously.
On the bright side, maybe you鈥檙e a Penn State fan as the Nittany Lions have bucked the trend that has befallen Pitt, WVU and the Steelers.
A lopsided loss at Michigan on Nov. 3 left coach James Franklin蘑菇视频 team at 6-3 but it has since reeled off three wins in a row to get to 9-3, moved up to No. 12 in the rankings and earned a spot in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando against No. 14 Kentucky on New Year蘑菇视频 Day.
The Lions, who are 6-point favorites, will top the Wildcats to give Franklin a third straight 10-win season because, unlike Grier, quarterback Trace McSorley will be there for his team in his final collegiate game.
Rob Burchianti can be reached at rburchianti@heraldstandard.com or on Twitter at @rvburch.