Panthers Were ‘Pittsburgh Tough’

By Jerry Ratcliffe

There will be all kinds of analysis, theories, and yes, even excuses as to why Virginia lost a critical, 23-13, Coastal Division home game to Pittsburgh on Friday night at rain-soaked Scott Stadium.

Truth is, the reason the Cavaliers lost this game is as simple as cornbread. Pitt was the more physical football team.

In fact, during the Panthers’ four-game winning streak against UVa, whether at Scott Stadium or Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, they’ve been the more physical team. The men from the Steel City lived up to their rugged reputation.

Pitt controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, particularly after halftime when the Panthers’ running game – which put up 484 yards on Duke last week – got into gear.

In a game that was projected to be physical, on a rainy night, the team that could run the ball and stop the run was going to win this one.

Pitt, now 4-1 in the Coastal and with a pivotal game at Virginia Tech next week, did just that. The Panthers drove railroad stakes down Virginia’s throats, rushing for 254 yards, most of that by lightly regarded Darrin Hall (229 yards on 19 attempts and three touchdowns).

Conversely, the Cavaliers couldn’t mount a running attack for the first time in a month, gaining 44 yards on 26 attempts. There wasn’t as much magic in mobile quarterback Bryce Perkins’ game, particularly on the scrambling end of things. He rushed for 47 yards but was sacked five times for 54 yards in losses and pressured into some poor decisions, taking sacks when he should have thrown the ball away.

Still, things didn’t look too bad for the Wahoos, now 6-3 / 4-2, at halftime. Virginia held a 10-7 lead and had somewhat contained Pitt’s running game (15 rushes for 64 yards – 41 of those coming on one of Hall’s jaunts).

The second half was quite different.

UVa had lost cornerback Juan Thornhill to injury with 13 minutes left in the second quarter. It would lose defensive end Mandy Alonzo with 13:23 to play in the third, then one of its best tacklers – safety Joey Blount (high ankle sprain) – with two minutes left in the third. The Cavaliers also lost safety Brenton Nelson somewhere along the way.

Wounded and weary as Pitt’s run volume accelerated and Virginia’s will faded, the Panthers were in control of the game after halftime.

Pitt finished the night with 254 yards rushing, 190 of that after the break on 27 carries.

UVa’s run defense, which had been exemplary in a three-game win streak over Miami, Duke, and North Carolina, couldn’t stop Pitt. One of the Cavaliers’ defensive pillars is to hold opposing running attacks to less than 3.5 yards per rush. Pitt averaged six yards per carry.

“That’s what we do,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said. “That’s Pittsburgh tough.”

“We did it the old-fashioned way, running the football for 250 yards,”  Narduzzi said. “Darrin Hall was a beast.

“We stopped the run,” he continued. “I think [Virginia] had less than 50 yards rushing, which would be their lowest for the year.”

Narduzzi said his coaching staff made some slight adjustments at the half and saluted his offensive line’s blocking, and fullback George Aston, who helped open holes for Hall time and again.

Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall believed his team had practiced well during the week and was prepared to face a Pitt running game that offers a different style than any other opponent on the Cavaliers’ schedule.

When it was over, Mendenhall ripped a page from legendary Bear Bryant’s football philosophy and fell on the sword, saying that he didn’t do a good job of preparing his team or his coaches. Classic Bryant.

Mendenhall, however, wasn’t the one getting whipped at the line of scrimmage. It wasn’t surprising that Pitt’s offense was effective. What was surprising was that Virginia’s wasn’t. The Panthers had given up 40 something to Duke last week in a track meet of a game, but the Cavaliers barely couldn’t muster anything after halftime but a field goal.

Virginia averaged but 1.7 yards per carry, putting added pressure on Perkins to pull rabbits out of his hat. On this night, Perkins ran out of rabbits.

“Bryce was reflective of the whole team,” Mendenhall said. “He’s creating things outside the system and so what we learned today was that alone won’t be enough. You have to execute core offense and defense as the baseline and improvisation can be added later.”

Mendenhall said those core schemes have to be executed regardless of the circumstances from the beginning of the game to the end.

“If you want to be a contender for a conference championship [that execution] has to happen,” Mendenhall said. “That to me was one of the most vital lessons we needed to learn and have learned. It exposed our weaknesses. When you play outside the system in critical moments it hurts the collective. We didn’t play clean enough or execute enough.”

The loss was a huge bummer for Virginia, which entered the game sitting atop the Coastal standings and control of its own destiny. Now, the Wahoos would need lots of help.

Maybe the biggest lesson learned here is that Virginia failed when it came to matching up physically against Pittsburgh yet again, and if it is to break through and win a division championship or a conference championship, then that is going to have to change.