Still have to drive back tonight, but stopping at the Monterey Pub for a beer, bite and to use their wi-fi to post.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. Where last week it was the offense that did everything and the defense hung on by its fingertips. This week it was the defense playing well and the offense barely doing enough. As Coach Paul Chryst put it in his post-game comments, the script was flipped from one week to the next.
The Pitt O-line did not have a good day. They struggled against a much better and more disciplined Virginia D-line. Compounding that problem was a poor effort at blocking by the running backs and tight ends. It was almost as if they were trying to get Tom Savage killed.
Let’s put it this way, the running game had only 8 yards because Savage accounted for -57. And that includes a 12 yard run he did have. He took an absolute beating. If I have it correct, he was sacked 6 times and knocked down more times than I could count. Even if you think he sometimes holds the ball too long at times (like me), that was no where near the reason he took such a beating. As if that wasn’t enough he took a helmet to helmet hit when he slid. Somehow that was not flagged as a flagrant targeting penalty despite the defender diving at him leading with his head. (And yes, Ray Vinopal got away with what sure looked like a targeting play as well, but it wasn’t nearly so flagrant.)
