MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- There were many reasons behind Pitt's stunning 13-9 upset Saturday night of then No. 2 West Virginia, but two statistics, rushing yards and rushing yards against, give a pretty good indication that it wasn't a fluke and that the Panthers won because they physically beat up the Mountaineers.

Pitt rushed for 158 yards Saturday -- 148 of them by freshman LeSean McCoy -- and held the Mountaineers to only 104 yards rushing. Pitt also possessed the ball for nearly 37 minutes. Those numbers are a stunning contrast to last season when the Mountaineers outrushed the Panthers 437 yards to minus-1 in a 45-27 win and the year before when West Virginia had a 451-122 edge on the ground in a 45-13 rout.

The Panthers have had success running the ball this season because of McCoy, and that continued against West Virginia. The big surprise, though, was that defense was able to dominate the Mountaineers' offense.

West Virginia entered the game averaging 41.6 points, 310.1 yards rushing per game and 6.2 yards per carry. Against Pitt, the Mountaineers averaged only 2.5 yards per carry and scored only one touchdown.

Pat White -- who had rushed for 440 yards in the previous two games against Pitt -- ran for only 41 yards and was knocked out of the game. West Virginia's superb tailbacks, Noel Devine and Steve Slaton, were held to a combined 22 yards on 16 carries.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said the plan going in was pretty simple -- turn the game into an old school Backyard Brawl then make sure the Panthers were the most physical -- as well as the fastest -- team on the field.

The Panthers also tweaked their defensive scheme to try to match up better with the Mountaineers read-option spread offense. On a number of plays at least one defensive end was in a stand-up position and helped force running plays back into the middle of the field and the heart of the defense, which enabled the Panthers to cut down on the big running plays had hurt them in the past.

Pitt defensive tackle Joe Clermond said the Panthers went into the game believing they could slow down the Mountaineers. And, he said, they wanted to make sure that White, Slaton and Devine never got into a comfort zone.

"It wasn't very complicated -- we knew we just had to get after them and go get them on every play" Clermond said. "We know they have fast guys, but we're fast, too, and we really just had to believe that we were fast enough to get them. We played our game, we took it to them and that's really it."

Defensive tackle Tommie Duhart added: "We just wanted it more than they did. When everybody on our defense is working together they had two people working against all 11 of us, and when all of us are pursuing the ball, it is a lot harder to outrun us. It is a game of passion and we had it."

Clermond, along with defensive ends Chris McKillop and Greg Romeus and defensive tackles Mick Williams, Rashad Duncan, John Malecki and Duhart all played well. And the linebackers, led by middle linebacker Scott McKillop and Jemeel Brady, played their best game of the season.

Pitt's victory knocked the Mountaineers out of the BCS national championship game and ended a frustrating season -- one that was sabotaged by injuries and some misfortune and unlucky breaks -- on a sweet note.