Wow. When I saw who we were missing coming into the game I was a bit worried. Great win and quite a bounceback. Thoughts below:
- I realize there will be a lot of disagreement here but I really think Narduzzi's kids love him the way someone James Franklin never will. Our team could have wilted having lost 4 in a row, with at least 3 of them should have been there for the win (assuming we get Pickett against Miami) but they REALLY came to play (and yes, this includes the one player that quit/left/opted). They throttled an FSU team in tank and then came out short handed and absolutely handled business. PSU's kids quit; ours didn't.
- Kenny Pickett looked like Joe Montana today. The pick was really bad but he is now the only Pitt QB with two top 10 all time passing performances as he has the 7th and 10th now. He never once bailed on a clean pocket and hit guys in stride all night. We only got 9 on our first three drives but we just never stopped attacking. We only punted three times all day.
- The running backs were great. Followed their blocks and hit their holes. We still couldn't really run it when they knew it was coming but all the other times it was a great weapon.
- The offensive line was incredible. I know it's one game, but this was the best our line played all year and 3 starters were out. This bodes well for the future there. Pass protection was there all night. VT only had 2 sacks and one was on a naked boot.
- Second time in as many games I thought Whipple had a great game plan. Played to his strengths and used the run as a change up in smart situations.
- DJ Turner now has what I believe are the 10th and 12th most receiving yards in a Pitt game. When you look back at his Pitt career, which spanned one year, it's going to be incredibly odd. It already is. He's played in 9 games and has 520 yards total. However, 370 of them were in 2 games! I really enjoyed watching this kid this year. I think we learned it's always worth taking a risk an upperclassmen from a P5 school.
- The defensive stats don't look that impressive on the whole but I think its misleading. VT was stopped on the 1 and got a lot of garbage time yards. But this defense made key stops and held VT to only 3-11 on third down and 0-3 on 4th.
- Alex Kessman - holy crap. It stinks he'll mostly be remembered for missing the XP against BC because he really had a great year. After starting 0 for his first three, he went 14 for 17 the rest of the way, including 4 from over 50 yards, two of them today.
- Even though the season didn't go as planned, they have a real chance to play with what's really house money against Clemson. Lawrence is they type of talent that is likely to abuse our single coverage so pressure all day will be our only chance. Last time we went in there with a senior QB, Nate Peterman threw 5 TDs in the upset. Would be quite an end to the season if we beat Clemson and then beat GT. However, I realize that this team has a similar talent level to ND and that went poorly.
