A 1-2 start was not completely surprising. Disappointing? Yes. But not something completely unexpected. Even a 1-3 start was hardly out of the realm of possibility. But the way this third loss went down was not what anyone saw coming.

The defense was decent. Yes, the Yellow Jackets piled up the rushing yards,  time of possession and finished with 35 points. That’s what they do in the triple option. The defense also came up with four turnovers, made stops and generally gave the offense a chance. But they were gassed. They were gassed by halftime and finished by the end of the third quarter.

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi can complain about the style of blocking Georgia Tech employs — he’s hardly been the first to do that — but it is not something new. This loss wasn’t on the defense. This was on an offense from the coaches down to the players that looked scared, lost and unfocused.

The first sign of offensive trouble came on the next possession, when Pitt forced a turnover and took over at the Georgia Tech 33. But two incompletions and a 1-yard run forced Alex Kessman to try a 50-yard field goal that sailed just wide.

“The first drive was good,” DiNucci said. “Then the defense gets a turnover, and we can’t capitalize. That would have been nice to get points there.”

But the offense managed little the rest of the afternoon. They produced 37 rushing yards on 20 attempts, a 1.9 average. DiNucci completed 12 of 19 passes for 110 yards and was relieved by senior Max Browne midway through the fourth quarter.

“We couldn’t run the ball,” Narduzzi said. “Give them credit, obviously. We continue to not be able to get moving up front with our offensive line and we can point our fingers at the quarterback. But if you’re not running the ball, there’s not many quarterbacks who can sit back in that pocket and throw it all day.”

The leading rusher was safety Jordan Whitehead, who carried twice for 35 yards. Ollison gained 11 yards on seven carries but added five catches for 44 yards and a 28-yard touchdown.

“We’ve got to do something with the football,” Narduzzi said. “You can’t win if you don’t score points. At halftime, we had 24 plays and they had about 50. That’s not good … because they’re going to continue to run it and run it and run it.”

GT HC Paul Johnson had the most painful and honest burn of Pitt. One that stings more then anything after Penn State.

Paul Johnson: turnovers have to be cleaned up "because against a good team, we won't be able to survive."

— Ken Sugiura (@ksugiuraajc) September 23, 2017

Four turnovers. Four freaking turnovers and 0 points off of them. Hell, there wasn’t even a first down made by the offense on the turnovers. I’m still incredulous over this.

I’m hardly impressed with the playcalling from OC Shawn Watson. It has shown little feel or sense of the game. Not ready to demand his firing and have Pitt on its 5th OC in 5 years either. Still, the number of short passes well short of the sticks is like watching half the teams in the NFL.

And where to start with the regression by players. Jester Weah is now 50-50 on every pass his way. The rest of the receivers don’t seem to be running good routes or getting any separation.

The O-line has one entire side not able to do much but wave at the defensive linemen as they go by. And the other side has struggled to do much better.

With little help from the O-line, the running game looks pathetic.

Then there is the quarterbacking and decisions made there. There seems to be a premium on not making mistakes. Couple that with the bad O-line play and receivers not open, the number of checkdowns and short passes for little to no gain were absurd. DiNucci and Browne combined to go 22-34 for a whopping 198 yards. And 28 of that came on one play.

The spark DiNucci provided off the bench was largely snuffed by the poor O-line play, drops and an excessively conservative offensive game plan. Browne, in relief, was what Browne has been. Largely immobile, scared of making mistakes, and making short throws on check-downs. Regardless of the situation.

I gave myself an extra day to cool down from this one. Didn’t help.