BLACKSBURG, Va. — There’s hitting rock bottom, and there’s whatever happened to Pitt Saturday. I guess you could say Pitt hit Hokie Stone at Lane Stadium.
There had been some embarrassing moments during Pitt’s three-game losing skid, but a 38-21 loss to VT highlighted a lot of flaws that don’t look fixable without drastic changes. Phil Jurkovec was abysmal (yet again), as was his pass protection for much of the game, and the Panther defense was unable to make any sort of adjustments to stop the Hokies’ backup quarterback.
Pat Narduzzi has praised his squad’s ability to continue to compete when losing this season, but throughout much of the second half, Pitt looked dead in the water. Flattened against the Hokie Stone, if you will.
It’s time to face the facts, Pitt is a bad football team.
Jurkovec completed 11-of-22 pass attempts for 235 yards with two touchdowns, and that stat line may be the most misleading I’ve ever seen from a quarterback. Pitt managed just 38 yards on the ground, and the defense let up 400 yards and 38 points to one of the worst offenses in the ACC. And committed eight penalties.
It’s almost as if Jurkovec just stopped playing after two drives — the impact would’ve been the same, if not better, if he had.
Jurkovec completed 3-of-12 pass attempts in the first half against Virginia Tech, propped up by a 75-yard touchdown strike to Bub Means, and the offensive synergy immediately went into a nose dive.
He missed throws over the middle, he missed uncontested screens on rollouts and he simply played bad football. Virginia Tech didn’t.
The Hokies started hot with a 54-yard touchdown toss on their first offensive possession, Da’Quan Felton burning M.J. Devonshire and hauling in a perfect pass from Kyron Drones in stride. And VT capitalized on some poor coaching — deciding not to go for a 4th-and-1 opportunity at midfield, taking a delay of game and getting off a 10-yard punt — with a 1-yard quarterback keeper from Drones to cap an 11-play drive.
VT ripped off another 11-play drive at the end of the first half, converting an easy 4th-and-1 to set up a 12-yard screen to Bhaysul Tuten for a score — pushing the Hokies lead to 14 at the half.
And it wasn’t just bad play-calling and clock management that hurt Pitt either. The decision to keep Jurkovec in the game hurt the Panthers.
Pitt fumbled away its first offensive possession of the first half — literally. VT ripped through the Panthers’ offensive line untouched, hit Jurkovec in the backfield and popped the ball free. The Hokies recovered and took just three plays to score from the Pitt 9. And as the lead rose to 21 points, morale sank even lower.
But. Pitt would answer as Jurkovec dumped a screen off to C’Bo Flemister on the Panthers’ next offensive snap, and he bounced off a couple of Hokies defenders on the way to a 61-yard touchdown. And the lead was cut to just 14 points. And then a horrible error from Drones, whiffing on a pass attempt, allowed an easy 4-yard Brylan Lovelace scoop-and-score touchdown to close the deficit to just a touchdown.
But the Hokies would capitalize on a busted coverage late in the 3rd quarter, Drones hitting a wide-open Jaylin Lane underneath on a play that turned into an untouched 53-yard touchdown. Back to a 14-point lead.
The offensive ineptitude continued deep into the third quarter as errant passes, sloppy penalties and a general lack of identity resulted in back-to-back punts with the game still — technically — within reach.
VT put it away with a masterful 14-play, 77-yard drive that burned nearly nine minutes off the clock, stretching the Hokies’ lead to 17 points with a 33-yard John Love field goal.
Pitt enters the bye week at 1-4, in the midst of a dismal four-game losing streak that makes you wonder if Pitt will be able to do anything to correct the numerous issues this season. 5-0 Louisville will travel to Pittsburgh on Oct. 14.
VT had lost to Rutgers, Marshall and Purdue. They are not a good team. But, against Pitt, they look like the ‘72 Dolphins. Jurkovec is pathetic and I have never seen a QB get trotted out there again and again after playing so poorly in so many faucets of the game. Players will transfer out like rats off a sinking ship because of Narduzzi’s stubbornness. Remover when Pitt was throwing and winning with Whipple and Pickett, but Narduzzi insisted on a more run-oriented offense? Enter Cignetti and all that we have gotten is losing and pain. This is like a… Read more »
Wait until Lindsay and Duggar decommit
How long until Narduzzi figures out that if he doesn’t fire Cignetti mid year then soon they’ll be calling for his head instead of Cignetti’s?
All you need to know about Narduzzi is at the peak of his success, he stood on the stage holding the ACC trophy and credited HIMSELF. “7 years ago I told you we would win it and we’ll… here we are “ was his quote. If he took the credit then he should take it now. His ego is why he hired Cignetti. With that said, this is a bad team too to bottom. Jurkovec seems more interested in talking to the other teams defense more than anything else. Even down 17 with 6 minutes to go, yep he’s still… Read more »
He better do something to fix this mess
If you think that he will then you haven’t been paying attention.
What an ugly game. The offensive line is offensive. Jurkovec never knows when to trust the line or when to come forward into pressure… and his throws have been less than inspiring. The defense gave up today. We need to bring in a coach that can build an offensive line. Without that, nothing on offense can work. And yes, I am in the fire Cignetti camp.
defense didn’t give up, they were tired and beaten up
No heart
Shippers should be the quarterback
I wonder how many more games of watching a duel threat QB beat him that Pat might get it through his thick skull that his archaic offense doesn’t cut it anymore.
Every dual threat QB that they go after picks another school. Pat can’t figure out why.
Narduzzi, 🤣 Ain’t goin nowhere’s he Just scratched his own name off Mich St list.
I bet Jurkovec, is still his Guy.
Jurkovec, is a punk and he stinks.
Stupid Coaches coaching stupid football.
Better have those excuses ready Heather, this team stinks. It’s almost like Pitt and Steelers have the same OL scouts and coaches because both Olines play the same, BAD! Really bad!
At this point a return of Canada would be an upgrade for Pitt.
Not necessary to call players names!
Cignetti needs to go. So predictable in his play calling is unreal. Never calls a play for the TE, iso so very few. Gavin B is a weapon he could use, but very seldom shown the ball.
Gross, pathetic and embarrassing.
C’mon … “horrific” … it got me to click but when I saw 38-21 I chuckled. I was expecting 72-3 or something crazy. Heck, they way we’ve been playing, I’m not sure even 38-0 would be horrific.
Can we play Louisville at 11:00? I got *stuff* to do. Better yet, forfeit.
As PSU Alum, I would like to see Pitt’s Program get a lot better. Yes, I want them to play again. But all I heard from Local Radio shows was how PSU is “Afraid of Pitt?” I watched them yesterday…..who the hell is afraid of this team? It’s sad. Recruit a QB, and perhaps Pennhills senior QB will be their answer. Penn State and their white out games, their Big Ten schedule, their National exposure absolutely destroys any local school’s recruitment of areas Athletes. If we can get Pitt into the Big 10 and out of the that conference…that would… Read more »
Big10 already has the Pgh market with PSU, Pitt doesn’t bring enough tv revenue to be attractive, it’s not gonna happen, what a shame, Pitt would be better off.
Gloating much ?
JOE KNEW
As a season ticket holder, we need to look to next year. We have to see if Nate or Christian are the quarterbacks of the future. That would give the underclassmen, signed recruits and fans some hope for the future of the program. Phil seems like a nice guy, but if we stick with him, we maybe in the same position next year. Why would Gavin , the freshman recievers and the 2 high school running backs come to or stay at Pitt if they don’t see a serviceable quarterback and a offense that can produce. If it wasn’t for… Read more »
VT was only avg’g 16 ppg in games against FCS schools. They more than doubled that against this horrid Defense. If you remember now, they also got lucky and got the 2nd string QB at WVU, to keep that score down. 2nd string QB against VT. And UNC basically went into a 4th Q offensive shell, where they could have rolled up the score
into the 50’s.
When you can’t run the football against the worst run defense in the conference – you are a BAD football team. Period.
Kenny Johnson is a play maker and they don’t get the ball into his hands. It would have to be a jet sweep though because Jurkovec is bouncing screen passes.
Same with Bartholomew. I love the way he plays as he gives 110% every play. The problem is, incompetent Cignetti doesn’t include Bartholomew as a key part of the game plan. That’s the first layer problem. The second layer is that, even if he did include him in the game plan, Jurkovec would need to throw a catchable pass.
KJ is gone in the portal as soon as it’s open.