Football: Defense shows improvement, offense declines

Pitt football has yet to complete the first half of its season, but the concerns about the team have taken a 180-degree turn in just five games.

After a 41-13 loss to the nation’s current No. 5 ranked team, Florida State, the Panthers’ offense scored 107 points and racked up 1,125 yards in victories against New Mexico and Duke. But the defense allowed Pitt’s opposition to score 82 points and post 802 yards. 

Now, the script has been flipped. The Pitt defense allowed a total of 22 points and 503 yards in its last two games, while the offense has declined, scoring just 23 points over 409 yards of offense during the same stretch of games. 

The latest episode came in a 19-9 loss to the No. 24 Virginia Tech Hokies (6-1, 3-0 ACC) Saturday in Blacksburg, Va., during which the Panthers (3-2, 2-2) offense never found a rhythm, while the defense limited the Hokie offense to 315 yards of total offense. Head coach Paul Chryst summed up the loss as clearly representing the dichotomy developed in Pitt’s play in the team’s two recent games.

“Defensively, I felt we did some really good things,” Chryst said. “We really didn’t do anything in the first half, so you couldn’t give yourself a chance to really get the running game going.”

Pitt’s running game contributed just 23 total yards, all of which were negated by the eight sacks for a loss of 49 yards registered by the Hokies at the expense of quarterback Tom Savage and Pitt’s offensive line.

Like the Virginia game that saw Pitt record only 199 yards of offense, Savage was once again in danger nearly every time he dropped back to pass. The Cavaliers sacked Savage seven times in Pitt’s game two weeks ago, and the Panthers’ signal-caller took another eight in his most recent game.

“They were pinning back their ears,” Chryst said. “Protection was an issue, clearly something two weeks in a row now. We’ve got to clean that up.”

Defensive end Dadi Nicolas took advantage of redshirt freshman tackle Adam Bisnowaty on the edge for three sacks, while Derrick Hopkins applied up the middle from his defensive tackle slot en route to two sacks of his own.

“On a couple of them, we had some guys getting beat,” Chryst said. “There’s times when you’ve gotta get the ball out of [Savage’s] hand.”

Alongside the eight sacks, Savage also sustained seven hits on plays in which he wasn’t sacked. A large part of the Hokies’ success on the line of scrimmage came from quality play in the secondary. 

“I thought their corners going in were pretty good and sometimes it takes a little bit longer, you’re kind of waiting for that space,” Chryst said.

As a result, the Hokies could send more men on blitzes while leaving sometimes only four or five players down the field to cover the likes of Devin Street and Tyler Boyd. Virginia Tech’s work in the secondary was arguably the best yet against two candidates for the Biletnikoff Award.

Street’s numbers were still of quality, with five receptions for 104 yards — the largest portion of which came on a 48-yard prayer he caught from Savage near the end of the first half to set up a field goal for Chris Blewitt from 47 yards out with 14 seconds remaining before halftime.

Boyd had his first taste of adversity this season, managing to record just two receptions for 20 yards. Virginia Tech’s performance against the duo made the Hokies the first team to keep Boyd or Street out of the end zone this season.

“I think we’ve got to look at it not just with the O-line, but with the quarterbacks, the routes we’re running,” Chryst said. “Everyone can own that a little bit, I think.”

On the bright side, Pitt’s defense turned in another solid performance to follow up the Virginia game. Pitt allowed only 188 yards and three points to the Cavaliers.

Multiple times Saturday, the Hokies embarked on long drives only to fall short of touchdowns inside or close to the red zone. Virginia Tech was forced to kick five field goals, on which Cody Journell converted four of five to keep Pitt within striking distance for much of the game.

But there were also times the Panthers had opportunities to halt Hokies drives before they could start rolling and failed to do so. Virginia Tech converted eight of 20 third-down attempts, a number of which were on big plays. 

“Virginia Tech made some big plays, kept some drives alive,” Chryst said. 

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald and linebacker Todd Thomas were standouts for the Panthers Saturday. Donald recorded six tackles and two sacks to become the nation’s active career-leader in sacks at 26.5, while Thomas recorded a game-high 12 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

In Thomas’ eyes, the extra week to prepare for Virginia Tech helped the Panthers’ performance defensively.

“Everybody buckled down and hit the playbook, watched overtime on film,” Thomas said. “Everybody just did what they had to do today.”

But the loss negated much of any good feelings following the game, leaving the atmosphere in the locker room slightly darker than usual.

“It’s a little down,” Donald said. “We’ve got to build off this game and learn from our mistakes.”