Pitt Dominates Wahoos In The Rain
On Saturday at Heinz Field, the Pittsburgh Panthers turned in their most impressive team effort of the season when they defeated the Virginia Cavaliers by the score of 31-14. It was their second straight game and kept their bowl hopes afloat. The Panthers had 111 yards from Darrin Hall, a 75 yard punt return for a touchdown and held the Cavaliers to 14 points, which is the second best effort of the season. The Panthers did so by controlling the line of scrimmage, especially in critical game situations. This was also their best win in terms of the quality of their opponent with Virginia coming into yesterday’s game at 5-2.
Here are some takeaways and observations from Saturday’s win at home vs. Virginia.
Offense
The Panthers were efficient on offense with good QB play from Ben DiNucci, especially on their first two scoring drives when he made completions of 16 yards to Qadree Ellison and to Rafael Araujo-Lopes for 18 yards for first downs.
On the next scoring drive he completed a 32 yard pass to Michael Ffrench before his 19 yard touchdown pass to Jester Weah. Weah’s TD was an impressive individual effort, as he made a spin and broke two tackles on his way to the end zone. DiNucci isn’t putting up the numbers that Pitt fans crave, but he is making the plays to keep drives alive and the offense in rhythm.
As for the running game Hall had another solid game with 111 yards on 25 carries and a touchdown. Ellison added 47 yards on 6 carries and also scored a touchdown. The Panthers now seem to have found their best formula to be successful on offense: Strong running game and efficient quarterback play with limited mistakes.
Player of the game: Hall
It’s safe to say that the Youngstown native is now the focal point of the offense with his ability to make big plays, as he showed last week, and he can make the power runs as well as evidenced on Saturday.
Defense
Pitt is quietly becoming a good defense with their play as they dominated the line of scrimmage for most of the game on Saturday. Pitt stopped the Cavaliers on 3rd down on three occasions on Saturday, including an opportunity for the Wahoos when they only needed a single yard on both third and fourth down at the Pitt 28 in the first quarter that set the tone for the rest of the game. The Panthers also had a goal line stand in the fourth quarter when Virginia had two chances at the one-yard line to score, but Pitt’s defense stood up and made the stop.
Player of the game: LB Saleem Brightwell
Brightwell had 10 tackles (7 solo) and a fumble recovery.
Up Next:
The Panthers will return to Heinz Field on Thursday, November 9th when they host the North Carolina Tar Heels.
Brandon Walker
Brandon is a Steelers and Pitt Panthers contributor to the Point of Pittsburgh. He can be reached at @bwalkerdadon on Twitter.
Hail to Pitt!
Two more wins to become bowl eligible!
YAY
IS the pass rush better….overall?
Or is VA lousy on the O-line / off day?
Front porch got a coat of paint yesterday.
Whatever happened to Narduzzi’s driving need to give his backup quarterback playing time? I didn’t watch much of the game, but according to the box score Pickett neither threw nor ran the ball. Based on Narduzzi’s previous comments that strategy makes no sense in 31-14 win.
Making even less sense was Narduzzi tweeting, `Hail To Pitt,’ seconds after the Penn State loss.
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/2017/10/28/Pat-Narduzzi-tweets-pitt-Penn-State-loses-ohio-state/stories/201710280103
If the Pitt program wants to make an improvement, Pickett would have been the starter beginning last week and for the remainder of the season to see what the Panthers have at the QB position. I am starting to lose confidence in Narduzzi’s coaching abilities especially on the defensive side of the ball, and even though i am a big Pitt fan, his tweet was classless.
I saw a lot worse (LOL). Stoking the fire of a continued rivalry, which I would love to see happen, but I fear will not.
” I am starting to lose confidence in Narduzzi ?s coaching abilities especially on the defensive side of the ball,”
Mark
Narduzzi had more elite athletes at MSU and therefore his “defense” abilities to coach were helped a lot. Made him look better.
What you see more is the inability for Pitt to attract anything above a MAC or FCS type player to the program — at least enough of them to make a difference.
That is why hs coaching “ability” looks tainted.
Hail to Pitt!
Of course it has nothing to do with the bumper crop of seniors that graduated, particularly on the offense.
well, yeah and no replacements
Although that “bumper crop” did not lead to much although we did have that outlier of the CLemson game and the PSU game. But overall, 7-6
I think Narducci has done about as well as could be expected, and perhaps even better than that, given what he inherited. His first recruiting year was not very good because of the late hire and most kids already committed elsewhere. Plus Paul Chryst took most of his quality recruits with him to Wisconsin. What he had left got them to a bowl game last year and then they all graduated.
As we’ve discussed endlessly, Pitt’s never going to be a contender for a national championship again in my lifetime. Geography works against them and Penn State gets the best of the Pennsylvania high school kids worth getting.
A bit of tit-for-tat over Franklin’s dismissive tweet about Oh. St. being their rival and not Pitt. Pitt’s just another game, etc.
Henry, I am sorry that your Nittany Lions lost the way they did. That was a bad loss that may hurt for a while. Franklin, I ?m pretty sure, will keep the team focused.
I agree that Narduzzi ?s tweet was classless. However, it was grammatically correct, while some of his comments tend not to be. By the way, FWIW, isn ?t the head coach considered to be on the level of a faculty member?
Pickett not playing makes you wonder if his redshirt was burned unnecessarily.
Duzz, however, does seem to have the Panthers moving in the right direction. I have them on the threshold of the top 10 of my W. Pa. Relative Power Ranking*.
1. Duquesne
2. W & J
3. California High School
4. IUP
11. Pitt
*The W. Pa. Relative Power Ranking ranks teams not in relation to each other, but in relation to where they stand now in relation to their pre-season expectations.
Pitt………..11?
Relative to what kind of expectation?
ACC title game?
What record did you have Pitt attaining pre-season that has them ranked now 11th (I assume behind some high school teams)? 9-3?
This was and is a 5-7/6-6 team AT BEST unless they have at least one upset left in them this year.
I agree that Narduzzi ?s tweet was classless. However, it was grammatically correct, while some of his comments tend not to be. By the way, FWIW, isn ?t the head coach considered to be on the level of a faculty member?
Pickett not playing makes you wonder if his redshirt was burned unnecessarily.
Duzz, however, does seem to have the Panthers moving in the right direction. I have them on the threshold of the top 10 of my W. Pa. Relative Power Ranking*.
1. Duquesne
2. W & J
3. California High School
4. IUP
11. Pitt
*The W. Pa. Relative Power Ranking ranks teams not in relation to each other, but in relation to where they stand in relation to their pre-season expectations.
Henry, I feel for you. That was a tough, tough Penn State loss. I thought that tyw Nittany Lions had a good chance to finish the regular season undefeated and make the four-team playoff. The playoff is now a long shot, but who knows. I ?m pretty confident that Franklin will keep the team focused.
Thanks Howard. TBH, I never felt confident even heading into the 4th. But never did I expect, nor did the several I was watching the game with, think J.T. would play the quarter of his life. Nothing one can do but ?tip of the cap ?.
Franklin blew this game. 1st and goal at the four and not even really make a serious attempt to get into the end zone, settling for a field goal.
1st down at their own four after allowing Oh. St. to close to within 5, run three plays up the middle and then punt with more than four minutes to play.
Playing not to lose almost always causes that undesired result.
To some extent, their play calling was restricted due to the restructured OL, but I agree three runs by McSorley when furstvand goal was to conservative in my book.
Especially three runs right up the gut. No imagination at all. It seems that Franklin thought 11 points would be insurmountable and that the field goal was sufficient.
Henry, I listened yesterday while I ran errands. And I pulled over to listen to the last few minutes. I don ?t want to read any post-game analyses yet, but later I may take a look at Pennlive. I live in Lower Alabama, and I got ahead of myself. I was anticipating that the Nittany Lions would take on and beat the Crimson Tide for the national championship.
My preseason projection was 10-2, 2nd Big Ten East with an invite to the Cotton Bowl on New Years Day. But I would have enjoyed your scenario a little bit more
Bob – What do you think that the over/under is that Narduzzi knows that his tweet yesterday was a display of schandenfreude? I think it was zero.
I like to hear how it ?s pronounced.
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/pronunciation/american/schadenfreude
I don ?t like the karma such a tweet might have. And speaking of karma, I do not think that Yuli Gurriel did himself any favors.
This might be hard to believe. An SEC football coach may have spoken untruthfully.
It ?s been suggested that Jim McElwain at Florida may lose his job for cause for not being truthful about death threats, and for not giving the school adequate information about those threats.
It seems such conduct it might cost the coach his job. That his team is perceived to be underperforming is only coincidental.
http://www.onlygators.com/10/25/2017/florida-coach-jim-mcelwain-fails-to-clarify-death-threat-comments-when-given-chance/
and they are negotiating his ~$12M severance package as we speak…….
He will be picked up by a non power conference school and will be coaching again in 2018.
Unless the death threats were true, no tears for Jim, please.
Best comment on Narduzzi ?s tweet:
Tim B: ?Narduzzi should charge PSU rent for living in his head. ?
Posted following PG ?s Brian Batko ? article about Duzz ?s tweet.
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/2017/10/28/Pat-Narduzzi-tweets-pitt-Penn-State-loses-ohio-state/stories/201710280103?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1509245721