Hokie pokie

Pitt beat No. 12 Virginia Tech 38-7 at Heinz Field on Saturday.

No tricks here, Halloween is… Pitt beat No. 12 Virginia Tech 38-7 at Heinz Field on Saturday.

No tricks here, Halloween is over.

But maybe Pitt left its costumes on, because it looked like the same team that beat a dismal Temple squad 33-7 a week before. It looked like the team that everyone thought it would be at the beginning of the season.

According to head coach Walt Harris, Pitt looked like the Virginia Tech team it expected to face this weekend.

“They play great defense,” said Harris of the Hokies, a team a week removed from a top five position in the national rankings but who’ve now lost consecutive games for the first time since 1997. “They play tremendous special teams, and they run the ball on offense. The only difference between them and us is we’re probably going to always throw the ball pretty well.”

Except for a blocked field goal, which Hokies defensive back Ronyell Whitaker returned 71 yards for Virginia Tech’s only touchdown, Pitt was all those things against a big-time opponent for one Saturday in what so far has been a disappointing season.

The defense held the volatile Hokies offense to 151 yards total and only 15 yards rushing. The Pitt offense had a pass-first mentality against the nation’s top ranked defense and came away with 245 passing yards. But then the rushing offense picked up in the second half, and Pitt finished with 148 yards on the ground.

“We finally did more of the things that we needed to do to be successful,” Harris said.

After going three and out on the first set of downs, quarterback David Priestley started connecting with his receivers the next time Pitt got the ball. He threw long and incomplete to Antonio Bryant, but pass interference was called on the defense. On the very next play, Priestley threw 24 yards to Bryant over the middle for a touchdown.

Virginia Tech was called for 11 penalties, and it cost them 120 yards.

“Antonio made a great catch early