A’M win a big one for Pitt

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A’M offense racked up 544 yards on the Panthers’ defense… COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A’M offense racked up 544 yards on the Panthers’ defense on Saturday, including 303 yards in the first half.

The quarterback combination of Reggie McNeal and Dustin Long threw for 317 yards and Jamaar Taylor hauled in six passes for 110 yards and a touchdown.

But thanks to four Aggie turnovers, including two fumbles on punt returns, Pitt was able to sneak out of Texas with a win.

How about that for Southern hospitality?

Five years from now, Pitt supporters will look back and call this a great win for head coach Walt Harris and his program. To travel to College Station, a week after a shocking loss at Toledo, and win in front of one of the loudest crowds in the country, is an amazing feat. It would be difficult to find another group of 80,000 people who care more about a football team than at Texas A’M.

Even right now, this win looks good for Pitt. Any road win against a team from a powerful conference is a good win.

But there are still plenty of holes the Panthers need to find a way to plug, and on the top of that list is their sieve-like passing defense.

Texas A’M head coach Dennis Franchione took a page out of Toledo’s playbook, having McNeal dump the ball off with short, quick passes to his receivers and backs. And when they weren’t throwing, McNeal was running the option to perfection. As a team, the Aggies averaged seven yards per play from scrimmage.

But unlike in the game against Toledo, Pitt made adjustments at halftime. Both cornerbacks played closer to the line of scrimmage, and both outside linebackers found their way into McNeal’s passing lanes, forcing the Aggies to look elsewhere.

Also unlike in the game against Toledo, the Panthers defense was able to get off the field on third down, forcing the Aggies to either punt or attempt a field goal on seven of 13 drives. Three of those drives lasted seven plays or more, and had the Aggies found a way into the end zone on any of them, Pitt would not have been able to recover.

The players know they need to improve on defense as well.

“The defense has got a lot of work to do,” freshman linebacker Clint Session said. “I think we have to be a little more aggressive and play harder. We had a lot of missed tackles; we definitely need to work on that even more.”

In its defense, Pitt played most of the game without starting middle linebacker Lewis Moore. Defensive ends Claude Harriott and Thomas Smith also missed part of the game with injuries.

But the players can’t use those injuries as an excuse and it doesn’t seem like they will.

“We [redeemed ourselves] somewhat, but if you look at the stats, we’re still not pleased with what we did, even though we won,” free safety Tez Morris said. “We gave up some points and some yardage, and they were able to run the ball, so we’re still not pleased.”

The Panthers shouldn’t be pleased with their defensive performance, but because the offense has so many weapons – see here: Heisman candidates Rod Rutherford and Larry Fitzgerald – Pitt can keep up with any opponent.

Come home games against the defenses of Virginia Tech and Miami, it’s going to be a lot harder for the Panthers to rack up 35-plus points every week. And with Pitt done with a third of its schedule already, which means the defense needs to get better – and soon.

Joe Marchilena is the sports editor for The Pitt News.