20 things we're thinking about this morning...
1. After every game, we want to talk about the offense. I know that’s what is on my mind and I think that’s what you’re focused on, too. And for good reason: that side of the ball has been more or less directly responsible for multiple losses this year. We keep looking for signs of improvement, and for the most part, we haven’t seen it. I thought there were some positives on offense in Saturday’s win, and we’ll get to those, but how can we start with anything other than the defense?
2. Simply put, Pitt’s defense dominated on Saturday. Pat Narduzzi was asked last Saturday, after the 19-9 win over Syracuse, if that was the best defensive performance he has seen since taking over as head coach of the Panthers seven years ago, and he said he wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure either. It was good, but was it the best? I couldn’t really commit to that.
3. I can commit to it now. Saturday was the best defensive performance we’ve seen out of a Pitt team with Narduzzi as head coach. Defensive touchdowns, suffocating run defense, great pass rush - everything was in place for pure dominance, and that’s exactly what happened. 144 yards, minus-eight rushing yards, two third-down conversions, eight sacks - literally every stat was eye-popping.
4. Calijah Kancey was an unstoppable force in the game. He really couldn’t be stopped. The only time he wasn’t getting into the backfield and making plays was when he was on the sideline. Pro Football Focus credited him with nine pressures on 22 pass rushes; that’s a remarkably high win rate. And even that feels low for how it looked. Just a dominant performance.
5. You know who deserves a ton of credit, though? The ends. Kancey had three sacks, and he was the star of the game, for sure. But we have to talk about the defensive ends, if only because we have talked for most of this season about how little they have produced. And that was true: Habakkuk Baldonado, John Morgan and Deslin Alexandre just weren’t putting up the numbers that have been expected. Those three guys had a combined total of 3.5 sacks in the first eight games. They have doubled that in the last two games, combining for 3 sacks against Syracuse and 4 at Virginia. Alexandre has 3.5 sacks in the last two, Morgan has 2 and Baldonado has 1.5. They’re making up for lost time, and those seven sacks have made up half of Pitt’s 14 sacks in the last two games, and now the Panthers are atop the national leaderboard in sacks once again.
6. Let’s talk offense, though. Pitt flew out of Charlottesville - or Richmond, I’m guessing - with a 30-point win, but the offense really only scored 23 points. That follows last week, when the Panthers scored 17, giving them 40 points over the last two games. The reality is, averaging 20 points per game isn’t going to produce a lot of wins unless your defense plays lights-out, which has obviously been the case.
7. That said, I came out of Saturday’s game pretty encouraged about the offense. The run game put in a workmanlike performance, probably one breakaway run from truly eye-popping numbers. Kedon Slovis finished 14-of-24, but his game felt more efficient than that; he didn’t turn the ball over, made pretty good decisions and picked up eight first downs on his 14 completions. There were certainly a few throws he would probably like to try to again - the deep pass to Konata Mumpfield on the first drive of the second half comes to mind - but overall, I thought the Virginia game was an improvement on the Syracuse game, which was an improvement on the North Carolina game, which saw him show some steps forward for the first time since the beginning of the season.
8. There’s probably something to be said for chemistry and time spent working together. You’d like to think that Slovis and Mumpfield would know each other well enough - on the field - by this point that they would have that timing down. But they clearly didn’t on that play, and maybe it just comes down to building chemistry. I think there’s some optimism to be had there; Mumpfield ran a good route to get open and I am fairly confident Slovis has the arm to make that throw. If they’re a little more in sync - or if Slovis just unloads - that’s a relatively easy touchdown.
9. It’s worth noting that Virginia’s defense is pretty solid. Pitt had 189 rushing yards on Saturday; that’s more than six of the Cavaliers’ first nine opponents put up. And only four other teams have thrown for at least 200 yards against the Cavaliers. Pitt was also just the second team this season to face Virginia and not give up any sacks. On top of that, only four teams have scored more than 30 on the Cavaliers and only two have gained more than 400 yards against them. Of course, Pitt’s offense only scored 23, so the Panthers count in the first category with caveats; but they were pretty close to the latter group, putting up 397 net yards after losing two yards in the victory formation at the end.
10. That kind of makes the point: Pitt moved the ball relatively well, but the offense just kept shooting itself in the foot with drive-killers. After scoring touchdowns on their first two drives, the Panthers’ third drive saw them facing second-and-25 after a holding penalty; the fourth drive had a first-and-20 on another hold; and the fifth drive had another holding call that set up first-and-20. First-and-20 isn’t a death sentence, but this offense isn’t built to regularly overcome those kinds of situations.
11. Pitt did eliminate the turnovers on Saturday. After committing at least one turnover in every ACC game this season - 11 total in five games - the Panthers didn’t have a single one at Virginia. That’s certainly a step in the right direction. But they replaced the turnovers with holding penalties, committing five against the Cavs, and while a holding penalty is better than a turnover, it’s still a drive-killer.
12. On the whole, I thought the offense did take some steps forward on Saturday. I thought Slovis looked fairly comfortable. The receivers made plays when they had opportunities. The offensive line blocked pretty well (Virginia had 30 sacks through its first nine games and none on Saturday). And Abanikanda was Abanikanda, which is to say, the best back in the ACC and one of the best in the country.
13. Pop quiz: Who has scored more points in the last two weeks? Ben Sauls or Syracuse and Virginia’s offenses combined. You probably know the answer even without looking it up. Sauls has scored 18 points (six PATs and four field goals). The Orange scored nine points and the Cavaliers had seven. Advantage: Sauls.
14. Sauls deserves a mention here, because he has been really good this season. He missed two field goals against Tennessee and missed one at Western Michigan to start the season 5-of-8; since that miss at WMU, he made five in a row before putting one off the upright on a strong-enough 54-yard kick at Virginia. Then he collected himself to make three more on Saturday. So he has made 11 of his last 13 attempts. Sauls has become a reliable kicking weapon.
15. Pitt’s punters…have not been reliable kicking weapons. Caleb Junko was the starting punter and hit his first kick 48 yards to the Virginia 30; not bad. Not great but not bad. Junko’s next punt went 31 yards to the UVa. 28,. And his final punt was a 35-yard shank to the UVa. 33. Sam Vander Haar placed one perfectly at the 1 last week against Syracuse, and his lone punt at Virginia was a 37-yard boot that was downed at the UVa. 10. So maybe the coaches will go back to Vander Haar, although he has certainly had his struggles as a freshman this season. I’m really not sure what the best move is here.
16. There’s no point in playing the what-if game, but we also know this is sports fandom and sports commentary - the what-if game is like half of what we traffic in. And the what-if game with this year’s Pitt team is strong. Very strong.
17. Tennessee: That’s an overtime game and Pitt missed not one but two field goals in the third quarter. I praised Ben Sauls, but that Tennessee game was a rough one. Two missed field goals. Overtime game.
18. Georgia Tech: I lost count of the dropped interceptions in this one. Erick Hallett almost had one on the first play of the game. Then he had another one on third down on the second drive. Tylar Wiltz had another near-miss on the fourth drive. I wrote down another missed pick by Shayne Simon on the fifth drive.
19. Louisville: Holy red zone turnovers, Batman. Okay, there was only one in the red zone (Rodney Hammond fumbled from the 18). But Pitt’s first and fifth drives in the game were ended with interceptions thrown from inside the 20 and picked off at the 2. That’s three drives that were virtually guaranteed to produce points - either three or seven on each - and ended up with none.
20. But the what-ifs don’t count for much. Pitt is 6-4, not 7-3 or 8-2 or 9-1, which those what-ifs would imply. The Panthers have earned their 6-4 record honestly: they haven’t been consistent to overcome mistakes or bad luck. But in the last two games, there have been signs of promise. We figured that would happen at some point with the defense, which has been pretty good all year. The offense was another story, but even there, I think there are things to like. Duke’s going to be a challenge in the home finale, but it’s far from an un-winnable game. Pitt is favored already, and the opportunity to get to 7-4 heading into the finale at Miami is very present. It will just come down to building on what has worked in the last two games.
1. After every game, we want to talk about the offense. I know that’s what is on my mind and I think that’s what you’re focused on, too. And for good reason: that side of the ball has been more or less directly responsible for multiple losses this year. We keep looking for signs of improvement, and for the most part, we haven’t seen it. I thought there were some positives on offense in Saturday’s win, and we’ll get to those, but how can we start with anything other than the defense?
2. Simply put, Pitt’s defense dominated on Saturday. Pat Narduzzi was asked last Saturday, after the 19-9 win over Syracuse, if that was the best defensive performance he has seen since taking over as head coach of the Panthers seven years ago, and he said he wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure either. It was good, but was it the best? I couldn’t really commit to that.
3. I can commit to it now. Saturday was the best defensive performance we’ve seen out of a Pitt team with Narduzzi as head coach. Defensive touchdowns, suffocating run defense, great pass rush - everything was in place for pure dominance, and that’s exactly what happened. 144 yards, minus-eight rushing yards, two third-down conversions, eight sacks - literally every stat was eye-popping.
4. Calijah Kancey was an unstoppable force in the game. He really couldn’t be stopped. The only time he wasn’t getting into the backfield and making plays was when he was on the sideline. Pro Football Focus credited him with nine pressures on 22 pass rushes; that’s a remarkably high win rate. And even that feels low for how it looked. Just a dominant performance.
5. You know who deserves a ton of credit, though? The ends. Kancey had three sacks, and he was the star of the game, for sure. But we have to talk about the defensive ends, if only because we have talked for most of this season about how little they have produced. And that was true: Habakkuk Baldonado, John Morgan and Deslin Alexandre just weren’t putting up the numbers that have been expected. Those three guys had a combined total of 3.5 sacks in the first eight games. They have doubled that in the last two games, combining for 3 sacks against Syracuse and 4 at Virginia. Alexandre has 3.5 sacks in the last two, Morgan has 2 and Baldonado has 1.5. They’re making up for lost time, and those seven sacks have made up half of Pitt’s 14 sacks in the last two games, and now the Panthers are atop the national leaderboard in sacks once again.
6. Let’s talk offense, though. Pitt flew out of Charlottesville - or Richmond, I’m guessing - with a 30-point win, but the offense really only scored 23 points. That follows last week, when the Panthers scored 17, giving them 40 points over the last two games. The reality is, averaging 20 points per game isn’t going to produce a lot of wins unless your defense plays lights-out, which has obviously been the case.
7. That said, I came out of Saturday’s game pretty encouraged about the offense. The run game put in a workmanlike performance, probably one breakaway run from truly eye-popping numbers. Kedon Slovis finished 14-of-24, but his game felt more efficient than that; he didn’t turn the ball over, made pretty good decisions and picked up eight first downs on his 14 completions. There were certainly a few throws he would probably like to try to again - the deep pass to Konata Mumpfield on the first drive of the second half comes to mind - but overall, I thought the Virginia game was an improvement on the Syracuse game, which was an improvement on the North Carolina game, which saw him show some steps forward for the first time since the beginning of the season.
8. There’s probably something to be said for chemistry and time spent working together. You’d like to think that Slovis and Mumpfield would know each other well enough - on the field - by this point that they would have that timing down. But they clearly didn’t on that play, and maybe it just comes down to building chemistry. I think there’s some optimism to be had there; Mumpfield ran a good route to get open and I am fairly confident Slovis has the arm to make that throw. If they’re a little more in sync - or if Slovis just unloads - that’s a relatively easy touchdown.
9. It’s worth noting that Virginia’s defense is pretty solid. Pitt had 189 rushing yards on Saturday; that’s more than six of the Cavaliers’ first nine opponents put up. And only four other teams have thrown for at least 200 yards against the Cavaliers. Pitt was also just the second team this season to face Virginia and not give up any sacks. On top of that, only four teams have scored more than 30 on the Cavaliers and only two have gained more than 400 yards against them. Of course, Pitt’s offense only scored 23, so the Panthers count in the first category with caveats; but they were pretty close to the latter group, putting up 397 net yards after losing two yards in the victory formation at the end.
10. That kind of makes the point: Pitt moved the ball relatively well, but the offense just kept shooting itself in the foot with drive-killers. After scoring touchdowns on their first two drives, the Panthers’ third drive saw them facing second-and-25 after a holding penalty; the fourth drive had a first-and-20 on another hold; and the fifth drive had another holding call that set up first-and-20. First-and-20 isn’t a death sentence, but this offense isn’t built to regularly overcome those kinds of situations.
11. Pitt did eliminate the turnovers on Saturday. After committing at least one turnover in every ACC game this season - 11 total in five games - the Panthers didn’t have a single one at Virginia. That’s certainly a step in the right direction. But they replaced the turnovers with holding penalties, committing five against the Cavs, and while a holding penalty is better than a turnover, it’s still a drive-killer.
12. On the whole, I thought the offense did take some steps forward on Saturday. I thought Slovis looked fairly comfortable. The receivers made plays when they had opportunities. The offensive line blocked pretty well (Virginia had 30 sacks through its first nine games and none on Saturday). And Abanikanda was Abanikanda, which is to say, the best back in the ACC and one of the best in the country.
13. Pop quiz: Who has scored more points in the last two weeks? Ben Sauls or Syracuse and Virginia’s offenses combined. You probably know the answer even without looking it up. Sauls has scored 18 points (six PATs and four field goals). The Orange scored nine points and the Cavaliers had seven. Advantage: Sauls.
14. Sauls deserves a mention here, because he has been really good this season. He missed two field goals against Tennessee and missed one at Western Michigan to start the season 5-of-8; since that miss at WMU, he made five in a row before putting one off the upright on a strong-enough 54-yard kick at Virginia. Then he collected himself to make three more on Saturday. So he has made 11 of his last 13 attempts. Sauls has become a reliable kicking weapon.
15. Pitt’s punters…have not been reliable kicking weapons. Caleb Junko was the starting punter and hit his first kick 48 yards to the Virginia 30; not bad. Not great but not bad. Junko’s next punt went 31 yards to the UVa. 28,. And his final punt was a 35-yard shank to the UVa. 33. Sam Vander Haar placed one perfectly at the 1 last week against Syracuse, and his lone punt at Virginia was a 37-yard boot that was downed at the UVa. 10. So maybe the coaches will go back to Vander Haar, although he has certainly had his struggles as a freshman this season. I’m really not sure what the best move is here.
16. There’s no point in playing the what-if game, but we also know this is sports fandom and sports commentary - the what-if game is like half of what we traffic in. And the what-if game with this year’s Pitt team is strong. Very strong.
17. Tennessee: That’s an overtime game and Pitt missed not one but two field goals in the third quarter. I praised Ben Sauls, but that Tennessee game was a rough one. Two missed field goals. Overtime game.
18. Georgia Tech: I lost count of the dropped interceptions in this one. Erick Hallett almost had one on the first play of the game. Then he had another one on third down on the second drive. Tylar Wiltz had another near-miss on the fourth drive. I wrote down another missed pick by Shayne Simon on the fifth drive.
19. Louisville: Holy red zone turnovers, Batman. Okay, there was only one in the red zone (Rodney Hammond fumbled from the 18). But Pitt’s first and fifth drives in the game were ended with interceptions thrown from inside the 20 and picked off at the 2. That’s three drives that were virtually guaranteed to produce points - either three or seven on each - and ended up with none.
20. But the what-ifs don’t count for much. Pitt is 6-4, not 7-3 or 8-2 or 9-1, which those what-ifs would imply. The Panthers have earned their 6-4 record honestly: they haven’t been consistent to overcome mistakes or bad luck. But in the last two games, there have been signs of promise. We figured that would happen at some point with the defense, which has been pretty good all year. The offense was another story, but even there, I think there are things to like. Duke’s going to be a challenge in the home finale, but it’s far from an un-winnable game. Pitt is favored already, and the opportunity to get to 7-4 heading into the finale at Miami is very present. It will just come down to building on what has worked in the last two games.
