Every week presents a new challenge for the No. 18 Pitt football team and with Virginia coming to town, the Panthers will look to keep a true dual-threat quarterback Anthony Colandrea and his top receiving option Malachi Fields in check.
Colandrea, a sophomore, is a gunslinger that also makes an impact with his feet by extending plays and taking off. For the Panthers, they will need a two-dimensional approach when defending the Cavalier quarterback.
“He’s good with his feet. He’s got a couple good weapons out there in which that if something’s broken down, he can utilize his feet quickly and he can throw it well on the run. There is no play that is dead with him. He can get out of that pocket and hurt you with his feet and or get a little bit of run and then throw it,”
Every week presents a new challenge for the No. 18 Pitt football team and with Virginia coming to town, the Panthers will look to keep a true dual-threat quarterback Anthony Colandrea and his top receiving option Malachi Fields in check.
Colandrea, a sophomore, is a gunslinger that also makes an impact with his feet by extending plays and taking off. For the Panthers, they will need a two-dimensional approach when defending the Cavalier quarterback.
“He’s good with his feet. He’s got a couple good weapons out there in which that if somethings broken down, he can utilize his feet quickly and he can throw it well on the run. There is no play that is dead with him. He can get out of that pocket and hurt you with his feet and or get a little bit of run and then throw it,” Pitt secondary/cornerbacks coach Archie Collins said.
Against SMU, Pitt saw quarterback Kevin Jennings extend a few plays, including on a touchdown play to Brashard Smith as Jennings bought time moving to his right before delivering a strike in the end zone.
Pitt experienced very little of Jennings’ potential speed. This week, head coach Pat Narduzzi expects a lot more from Colandrea.
“When he goes, he can go. He’s fast. Some people said, ‘Is he faster than Jennings last week?’ I think he is,” Narduzzi said.
So far this season, Colandrea has completed 62.9 percent of his passes for 1,805 yards and 11 touchdowns. He’s added 219 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.
However, he’s coming off a rough outing against North Carolina prior to Virginia’s bye week. In a 41-14 loss, Colandrea connected on 16-of-28 passes for 156 yards, while tossing two interceptions and getting sacked a whopping nine times.
“North Carolina’s got a front. They got beasts up front. We’re going to have to match their intensity of what they did and see if we can do what North Carolina did. You always worry about the expectations of 10 sacks. It’s like, you get five interceptions against Syracuse, ‘Oh, we’re going to do that every week.’ No, that doesn’t happen like that. Things go in droves sometimes. I don’t know how many sacks we’re going to get, but we got to contain him in the pocket and put pressure on him at the same time.”
While Pitt locks in on Colandrea, the secondary will need to do the same with his trusted receiver in Fields who has a team-leading 43 receptions for 654 yards and four touchdowns.
“You got to know where No. 8 is,” Narduzzi said. “He’s a big target, their leading receiver. He’s tall, he’s strong, he’s fast. He runs 22 miles an hour. He’s special. He’s an NFL wideout. Whoever we decide to put on him is going to have to have a really good ball game. We’re going to have to lock him down out there.”
Fields records 15.2 yards per catch, ranking third in the ACC, making him a big-play threat.“Great challenge,” Collins said. “He’s 6-4, 220 pounds. He’s got really good speed, really good hips, he can drop and get out of his breaks as well. He goes up and utilizes his size and leverage. It will pose an issue for our defensive backs, so you got to be at your tip-top game.
“They just try to get him the ball. He’ll get 50-50 balls, he’ll get curls, he’ll get slants. They keep the route tree open for him. I think he’s a bigger bodied guy that can run really good routes.”
Pitt safety Javon McIntyre and the rest of the defense will have their hands full in defending Colandrea and Fields Saturday night.
“They have a lot of great weapons,” he said. “It’s going to be a great matchup. The head coach and offensive coordinator, they do a great job putting their players in position to make plays. We got to adjust to that and impose our will during the whole game.”
We have to run the ball, even if it’s just Eli running when he has the lanes