Football: Baldwin, Mason lead Pitt to 27-14 win over Navy

Jonathan Baldwin must be an Army fan.

In Baldwin’s young career, his two most productive games have both come against Navy. Earlier tonight Baldwin set career highs with six receptions and 111 receiving yards in Pitt’s 27-14 win over Navy. Last year, in a 42-21 Pitt win over Navy, Baldwin caught three passes for a then-career high 101 receiving yards and a touchdown.

It seemed like no Navy defender could guard Baldwin. On most of his catches, Baldwin jumped up over a defender or simply wrestled the ball away.

“JB one-on-one, you have to take it,” quarterback Bill Stull said. “He always tells me, ‘Just put it up there. I’ll jump.’”

While the 6-foot-5 Baldwin didn’t get into the endzone tonight, he hauled in two fourth down receptions that extended drives and led to scores.

On the first drive of the game, on a fourth-and-three from the Navy 28-yard line, quarterback Bill Stull threw a high pass that Baldwin leapt up and brought down for a 22-yard gain. The very next play, Stull hit Oderick Turner for a 6-yard touchdown pass and the game’s first score. Late in the third quarter, on a fourth-and-seven from Navy’s 36-yard line, Baldwin caught an 11-yard pass for the first down. A few plays later, kicker Dan Hutchins connected on a 29-yard field goal to give Pitt a 24-7 lead.

A big part of Baldwin’s success tonight was because Stull gave another solid performance. The senior finished 17 of 24 for 245 yards with one touchdown. He also threw about three incomplete passes that should have been caught, but receivers simply dropped them. Last week in Buffalo, Stull went 21-30 for 172 yards with three touchdowns in Pitt’s 54-27 victory. That came after Stull was booed by the home fans in Pitt’s 38-3 win Week 1 over Youngstown State.

“The best thing that could have happened for Bill was playing on the road [last week],” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “It was good for him mentally to get away and play in front of a road crowd, where he could focus on just playing football.”

Stull said he didn’t start doubting himself after being booed by the home fans, adding that his confidence is at its highest since coming to Pitt.

Although Stull had another good game, and Baldwin had his best as a Panther, the Pitt offense slowed down in the second half, scoring just six points. Luckily for the offense, it has the luxury of playing with the Pitt defense, which rebounded tremendously after giving up 27 points last week.

The defense tallied six sacks, matching its season h¬igh, and gave up only 218 total yards. It was especially impressive considering the defense was without its leading tackler, middle linebacker Adam Gunn.

Gunn missed the game with a left ankle sprain suffered last week in Buffalo. Wannstedt said Gunn practiced all week, but the decision was made yesterday that Gunn wouldn’t play against Navy. Starting in his place was freshman Dan Mason, who anchored the defense without any significant drop-off, whether he realized it or not.

“It took a lot of time for me to get this defense,” Mason said.

But not too long. Starting in only his third game as a Panther, Mason finished with a team-high 11 tackles, as well as two sacks.

“He’s a young guy, but he didn’t act like it,” defensive end Greg Romeus said. “He was making all the calls [and] he was confident with it too.”

As the middle linebacker, Mason is in charge of the defense, or “the quarterback of the defense,” as he called it. While he said he was nervous starting as a freshman, much like the Pitt offense, Mason benefited from playing with the Pitt defense.

“The defensive line—oh my goodness,” Mason said. “If I make a mistake they’re right there to back me up.”

Navy’s main offensive play is the triple-option, a running play where the quarterback can hand off to the fullback, pitch it to the running back, run it himself or run it and then pitch to the running back. So because Navy is such a run-oriented team, the defensive line and line backers were left to tackle the ball-carrier on mostly every play.

Along with Mason’s 11 tackles, defensive tackles Gus Mustakas had 10 and Mick Williams had eight.

“For the inside guys to have 29 tackles, that’s pretty good,” Mustakas said.

The defense held Navy quarterback Ricky Dobbs to 6 of 21 passing for just 89 yards. His leading receiver was Mick Schupp, who caught two passes for 24 yards. To put that in perspective, Bill Stull had 23 yards receiving today.

One of Stull’s passes was tipped at the line of scrimmage, Stull caught it and ran 23 yards for the quasi-completion. He did, however, fumble to the ball when he was tackled.

“I was just making sure it wasn’t tipped for an interception,” Stull said.

Pitt is on the road next week when it travels to North Carolina State.

Notes: Wannstedt said Gunn will be looked at tomorrow, but he expects the senior linebacker to return next game… Pitt is 3-0 for the first time since the 2000 season.