Brennan Armstrong outperformed Kenny Pickett, but the big plays – two fourth-down TD passes, a kickoff return for a TD, another TD after an offsides on a field-goal try, another on a third-and-5 answered prayer – went Pitt’s way tonight in a 48-38 Panthers win.
This is your reminder that football is a team sport.
Armstrong, who missed last week’s 28-3 loss to Notre Dame with a rib injury suffered back on Oct. 30 at BYU, threw for 487 yards and three TDs, but the problem is, he doesn’t also play defense.
And that’s where, news flash, Virginia gets exposed.
Pickett threw for 340 yards and four touchdowns, including a 62-yarder to Jordan Addison with 2:10 left on a third-and-5 play that was a microcosm of all that is wrong with the UVA defense.
The front actually got pressure on Pickett, flushing him out of the pocket, forcing an underthrown ball into coverage.
All cornerback Darrius Bratton, one of six defenders back for a super senior year, had to do was knock the ball to the ground, to get the offense the ball back after a punt, with 2:15 or so left on the clock.
Instead, he went for the pick, Addison outwrestled him for the ball, and went to the house.
A good play call, coverage there, execution lacking.
The story of this season for the Cavaliers defense.
Armstrong got Virginia into the red zone on the next drive, trying to keep the game alive, but for some reason, coach Bronco Mendenhall, facing a fourth-and-2 at the Pitt 14, opted to go for the first down instead of a field-goal try that would have kept the game alive.
The pass from Armstrong intended for Jelani Woods was incomplete, game over.
A thud of an end to a game that was borderline classic, considering the level of play of the two QBs.
What was most frustrating here for the Virginia side was all the quirky plays that went Pitt’s way.
There was a fourth-and-3 play in the second quarter that saw Pickett again flushed out of the pocket, throwing on the run, again to Addison, who was wide open in the back of the end zone, after Nick Grant, who’d had him in coverage, gave up on the play, maybe thinking Pickett was about to be sacked.
Not sure what he was thinking, but he clearly gave up on the play, which was what left Addison open for the easy TD.
And then another fourth-down TD – this one a good play call by Pitt offensive coordinator Mark Whipple, on a fourth-and-1 at the UVA 34 in the third quarter, again to Addison, in one-on-one coverage with Coen King, a safety.
Coen King should never be left alone in coverage on anybody, much less Jordan Addison.
Two other fourth downs in the fourth quarter were key. The first, a fourth-and-1 from the UVA 30, with Pitt up 34-31, was with Pickett off the field, in the medical tent getting checked out for a knee injury. Backup quarterback Nick Patti, in the face of a blitz, threw the ball down the right sideline, well over the head of Jared Wayne.
For some reason, King grabbed Wayne before the ball was anywhere near, and was flagged for a pass interference penalty that kept the drive alive.
The second came after the D had forced a 28-yard Pitt field-goal try. The middle of the D line was called for offsides, giving the Panthers a fresh set of downs, which converted into a TD with a 1-yard run by Rodney Hammond.
Armstrong answered that score with a two-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a 39-yard TD pass to Ra’Shaun Henry.
The Virginia D got a stop on the next Pitt drive, sacking Pickett on a third-and-2, but the offense, with the ball and a chance to take the lead, sputtered, the key play being a bad shotgun snap by Olusegun Oluwatimi on a second-and-7 play from the UVA 46.
The 14-yard loss eventually forced a Virginia punt, and the theatrics from Pickett on the long TD pass to Addison.
I’ve left out the oddness of the kick-return TD. Brendan Farrell had allowed just five kick returns on 42 kickoffs all season, but his second-quarter kick following a Mike Hollins TD run was taken by Pitt returner Israel Abanikanda at the 1, and once he got past the UVA wall around the 25, he was able to run untouched down the left sideline for a 99-yard score.
All told, it was just the 10th kick return on, at that point, 69 kickoffs for the coverage unit.
Might have been an issue of not enough reps to recognize Pitt’s blocking scheme.
Whatever the issue, no one set the edge, and in a flash, Abanikanda was gone.
Sum total of what we’re talking about here is 35 points in a 48-38 game that was a one-score game with Virginia with the ball near midfield inside of four and a half minutes to go with a chance to take the lead.
Not going to win too many games against 8-2 teams gifting them 35 goddamn points.
Story by Chris Graham
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