Entering Saturday’s game, Graham was third in the country in carries with 126 and second in yards with 734, behind only Oregon’s LaMichael James. Last week, citing Graham’s ability to elude defenders, Rutgers Coach Greg Schiano compared the 5-foot-9, 195-pound Graham to Barry Sanders.
“For him to say something like that, that’s crazy,” Graham said.
The comparison may have been an exercise in hyperbole, but it did not take long for Graham to demonstrate to the 46,079 in attendance at High Point Solutions Stadium the attributes that drew Schiano’s praise. Fresh off a 26-carry, 226-yard performance last week against then-No. 16 South Florida, Graham galloped through a gaping hole and went untouched for 20 yards on a 24-yard scamper on the game’s second play from scrimmage.
Everyone in the stadium knew where the ball was going, so the Rutgers defense loaded the box and frequently blitzed in an attempt to force the Panthers to win through the air. Yet Graham, a junior from Elizabeth, N.J., added another impressive performance to his Heisman Trophy résumé, rushing 24 times for 165 yards and a touchdown.
The game nevertheless belonged to Rutgers. Capitalizing on the Panthers’ poor quarterback play and a multitude of mistakes, the Scarlet Knights won, 34-10, in what was probably Pittsburgh’s final visit here as a Big East member.
“They capitalized on those short fields, and that was the difference in the game,” Pittsburgh Coach Todd Graham said. “The difference in the game was simply that.”
The first half was an ugly defensive struggle, but Rutgers, a heavy underdog, turned things around after halftime. Pittsburgh (3-3, 1-1 Big East), on the other hand, committed a season-high 12 penalties and turned the ball over four times.
Rutgers (4-1, 2-0) could not capitalize in the first half, and the freshman quarterback Gary Nova ended it with a kneel to the sound of boos from the home crowd with Rutgers up, 6-3.
Poor play by quarterback Tino Sunseri prompted the Pittsburgh coaching staff to replace him with Trey Anderson, a freshman, after the break. The experiment did not last long.
Anderson continued where Sunseri left off, throwing an interception on the Panthers’ second drive of the half in their own territory, which Steve Beauharnais returned 9 yards to the Pitt 18-yard line. The Scarlet Knights finally made Pitt pay, taking advantage of the short field with the game’s first touchdown, a 6-yard pass from Nova to wide receiver Mark Harrison despite a holding penalty.
Rutgers put the game away later in the period when Nova dumped a screen pass to fullback Joe Martinek, who turned it into a 60-yard touchdown and a 20-3 Rutgers lead.
Sunseri was back under center after Rutgers’s first touchdown, but the damage had been done as the two Pitt quarterbacks combined to go 16 of 33 for 131 yards and 4 interceptions. Anderson returned to the game for Pitt’s final offensive series.
“We were trying to get a spark,” Coach Graham, who made it clear Sunseri was still the team’s starter, said of the quarterback change. “It actually didn’t work very well because he came in and turned the football over.”
Ray Graham did his best to keep the Panthers close, answering Martinek’s score with a 64-yard dash before being tripped up at the 3. He scored on the next play to cut the lead to 20-10.
“My team kept coming to me,” Graham said. “Somebody had to make a play.”
But Rutgers squashed any idea of a comeback, stretching the lead back to 17 after Jeremy Deering returned the ensuing kickoff 73 yards, setting up a quick touchdown drive.
“We all have scholarships,” Ray Graham said. “Like we make plays, they made plays and they made more plays and they came out on top.”
And there are only so many plays that any running back, Barry Sanders or not, can make.
View the original article here
No comments:
Post a Comment