UVA’s Nasty Defense Stonewalls Pitt

By Jerry Ratcliffe

After Pitt put up 14 points in the second quarter on UVA’s defense to give the Panthers a one-point lead, there wasn’t any panic in the Cavaliers’ locker room during the break. No rah-rah, Rockne-esque speeches. Just calm.

UVA’s coaching staff focused on pointing out mistakes, correcting them with adjustments and letting their players do the work.

As a result, the Cavaliers dominated the second half and completely shut down the defending ACC Coastal Division champions in a 30-14 Wahoo win. After it was over, the Cavaliers were basking in the glow of pitching seven shutout quarters out of their last eight, dating back to last December’s obliteration of South Carolina in the Belk Bowl.

The problem was in that second quarter, Pitt had UVA on its heels with a fast-tempo offense with quarterback Kenny Pickett throwing the football from side to side without enough resistance. That all ended at halftime.

“The speed in which they were going with the formations they were giving us made it really difficult,” Coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “It was very difficult to identify what personnel they were in. The formations were unique and we were just a count off of making the adjustments by alignment we needed before the ball was snapped.”

Mendenhall’s coaches had the adjustments that would have worked well but couldn’t make the calls fast enough, particularly on Pitt’s 14-play, 80-yard, go-ahead drive with 38 seconds remaining in the first half (the Panthers’ other score was set up earlier on a 59-yard pass-and-run from Pickett to A.J. Davis on a missed assignment by a UVA player).

On the long drive, Pickett was 6 of 7 passing for 51 yards, in addition to three scrambles for an extra 23 yards.

Because of the greyhound tempo Pitt was using and some unique formations (some unbalanced line), the calls were being made too late for the defensive line to adjust.

“For us, it was getting everybody on the same page,” said UVA defensive end Mandy Alonso. “The D-line and linebackers were on different pages in the first half. Once we cleaned that up and cleared it up with each other, the linebackers would just give us the calls and we would play what the whole defense was playing. It was basically just one call.”

Because the calls were coming in a step behind, the defensive line wasn’t reacting fast enough, leading to Pitt keeping UVA’s defense on its heels. Once that was adjusted at halftime, the Cavaliers’ defensive line managed to do its job: taking on the blocks by Pitt’s O-Line and allowing UVA’s linebackers and defensive backs to wreak havoc.

Virginia’s defensive coordinators Nick Howell (on the sidelines) and his eyes in the sky, Kelly Poppinga (in the press box) started blitzing the daylights out of Pickett and it was all over.

Once UVA’s defensive line began to control the line of scrimmage, the defensive backs were unleashed on blitzes that harrassed and punished Pickett the remainder of the game. 

The Pitt QB was sacked four times and hurried seven more, and hit numerous times. Pickett probably spent a lot of time in the ice tub on Sunday. After completing 12 of 20 passes for 122 yards in the first half, Pickett managed to only go 9 of 21 for 63 yards in the second half and was intercepted twice.

“It was awesome,” Alonso said. “We saw our defensive backs coming in fast, coming free of the edge.

One of those DBs doing the damage was free safety Joey Blount, who had two sacks and an interception when UVA was in its nickel.

“We saw in our preparation that [Pickett] really got out of the pocket a lot, got frazzled when the rush was in his face and would try to force the ball downfield,” Blount said. “We felt that was good for us to pressure him.”

Blount hadn’t played that much in the tackle box since high school, but when he learned that would be his role for the Pitt game, as he said, he “had to put my big-boy pants on.”

All that pounding on Pickett definitely had a cumulative effect, as it should. Few quarterbacks can take that kind of a beating and remain effective.

“Obviously they weren’t as confident in their run game as they were the year before,” Blount said, which UVA correctly recognized as time to allow its linebackers and DBs to pin their ears back and rush the passer. “They were really relying on the pass and the pressure we put on [Pickett] had him frazzled.

“I saw him looking at the [defensive front] and trying to keep his eyes downfield. He was taking some hard hits. I thought on some plays he wasn’t going to get up. I give him kudos for the resilience he had and the strength to keep pushing forward. I think [all the hits] took a toll on him and the team.”

Virginia knew Pitt had four new offensive linemen, two of which were making their college debuts, which isn’t recommended against such an experienced and deep defense as the Cavaliers fielded.

In recent seasons, when Pitt reeled off four consecutive wins over UVA, the Panthers were the more physical team and relentlessly pounded the Cavaliers with a superior running attack. Not Saturday night.

Most of Pitt’s yardage came via the pass. During that four-game winning streak, the Panthers rushed for an average of 195 yards per game, often going over 200 yards, while averaging 4.7 yards per attempt, well over Mendenhall’s required 3.5-yield by his defense.

Pitt was pretty one-dimensional in those games without a truly effective passer. Well, Saturday night, the Cavaliers made Pitt no-dimensional.

The Panthers managed a mere 78 yards on the ground on 30 attempts, an average of only 2.6 yards per rush.

“We really tried to keep them under 3.5 a rush,” Blount said. “The tone that we try to set as a defense is that we stop the run and that we have the best secondary in the nation. We showed them at their home that we’re a team to be reckoned with in the ACC, Coastal and both divisions.”

For his effort, Blount was elected to “Break the Rock,” an honor given to essentially the player of the game. It was an honor he cherished and said he shared with all of his defensive teammates.

It was truly another sterling effort by a Virginia defense, which finished No. 20 nationally in total-D last season.

After beating Pitt, the Cavaliers presently rank No. 37 in total defense, No. 36 in rushing defense, No. 19 in passing efficiency defense, and tied for No. 13 in sacks.

What was it Poppinga was telling us last week that when Virginia has at least one more sack than its opponent that Mendenhall’s winning percentage was astronomical?

To be precise, a 92-percent winning percentage over Mendenhall’s 15 seasons as a head coach, and that number just went up.

No wonder a lot of UVA’s work in fall camp was focused on producing more sacks.