For all intents and purposes, this was a trap game.
With all due respect to Stanford, they were by far the least exciting and challenging matchup on Pitt’s remaining schedule. I think even Cardinal fans would tell you that if they took a gander at Pitt’s upcoming opponents.
The Panthers have a gauntlet of a slate to finish the year, which features hosting No. 10 Notre Dame in two weeks, visiting No. 16 Georgia Tech and closing their season at home against No. 18 Miami. It’s easy to look ahead to those enticing games and write off Stanford before the kickoff even starts.
And even though Pitt’s method of transportation was a little more efficient than the school’s last visit to Stanford nearly a century ago, the travel all the way out west was still a factor in this one.
Usually, I don’t like to give weight to that as an excuse, but the numbers show it is a legitimate challenge. Four East Coast ACC teams have traveled all the way out to California this season — a place famously close to the Atlantic Coast — to take on the two West Coast teams, Stanford and Cal. Those visiting opponents were a combined 0-4, and Stanford had won four straight home games dating back to last season.
So, all things considered, pulling off a 35-20 win over the Stanford Cardinal — who I was just recently informed is named after the color and not the bird — is just the latest in five straight wins for a football program that was floundering earlier in the year.
That mid-season surge is still powered by true first-year quarterback Mason Heintschel, but grading his performance on Saturday is a little difficult.
He went 23 of 38 for 304 yards, three touchdowns and a 143.3 passer rating. That’s really good!
He was also responsible for four total turnovers, with two interceptions in the endzone and a pair of fumbles to go with them. That’s really bad.
Heintschel’s play certainly slipped the longer the game went on. The turnovers were really uncharacteristic of Heintschel, who marked his first multi-interception game of his season.
He made a few truly unforced errors, like late in the third quarter when Heintschel was on the run and threw one into the arms of Cardinal sophomore cornerback Brandon Nicholson. Instead of simply throwing the ball away and living to fight another day, Heintschel appeared to try to force the ball to sixth-year wide receiver Deuce Spann, where it cost him.
But even though Heintschel had some “rookie moments,” I’ll call them, that second fumble is not one I am going to hold against him. Yeah, he’s got to hold onto that ball. He knows that. But, with Pitt up three scores, on the opposing four-yard line, and with under four minutes to go in the game, how in the world is Heintschel even in a position where he might need to run?
Considering the shot that Heintschel took on that play, too, they’re lucky a lost fumble was all that happened.
“It wasn’t supposed to be a run to him,” Pat Narduzzi said after the game. “If you go back and watch the videotape, it was kind of a power read — he was supposed to shovel it. Something happened with the shovel and he just ate the ball. But if you shovel it, it’s an incomplete pass. It would have been nice to come out of that with at least three [points] down there, but we can’t turn the ball over.”
Based on Narduzzi’s explanation, I see the vision of what Pitt was trying to do. I just disagree with it. It felt like a big risk to take with your prized, undefeated quarterback. I would much rather see a simple handoff to a running back in a time-killing play.
That’s a prime time to get someone like redshirt first-year running back Juelz Goff some carries, and if the coaches insisted on keeping Heintschel on the field that late in the game, the least you need to do is not put him at any unnecessary risk.
Despite the errors, though, I’m not all that concerned over Heintschel. He wasn’t his most polished self on Saturday, but he still did enough to get the win. We think of “game manager” as a derogatory term for quarterbacks these days, but truthfully, it’s far from always a bad thing. Against Stanford, with the running game still working and a healthier defense creating turnovers, all the Panthers needed Heintschel to be was a game manager.
If anything, it only heightens the intrigue as to how the 18 year old will fare in two weeks, when Pitt hosts Notre Dame. How does he respond and polish his game ahead of his biggest test yet?
If he succeeds, it will come in part from some of the factions of this team who put up strong performances.
Pitt’s defense had a big game to get them back on track. Last week, a plethora of injuries forced them to start understudies in several positions, and the defense surrendered 34 points and 445 yards to NC State. After that game, Narduzzi praised the defense for their performance, given the circumstances, but I can’t imagine those were the kinds of numbers the players or coaches wanted to even approach against Stanford.
On their trip to Northern California, their defense got closer to full strength, with redshirt junior linebacker Kyle Louis headlining the returning players list.
Their defensive captain racked up 11 total tackles, two pass breakups and had one of Pitt’s three interceptions on Cardinal redshirt senior quarterback Ben Gulbranson. Redshirt senior defensive back Javon McIntyre and first-year defensive back Shawn Lee Jr. also nabbed Gulbranson passes. They looked much more like the defense we know they are when they are healthy.
The running game also continues to excel despite the lingering absence of senior running back Desmond Reid. In his place, first-year rusher Ja’Kyrian Turner put up another strong game, averaging 5.8 yards per carry on 22 attempts. For as good as Reid is, Turner has made sure the rushing game doesn’t skip a beat. Narduzzi even called him “Des Reid 2.0” in his postgame presser.
Getting Reid back before Notre Dame would obviously help, but Turner gives fans more reasons every week to feel like the offense is in good hands, no matter what.
This next week is going to really test this Panthers team, and I, for one, am very excited to see how they respond to that.