by Bo Marchionte
Pittsburgh – The remanence of Hurricane Ian rained down on the city of Pittsburgh hours before the game. The rain continued well into the second half. Soaking the newly sodded field at Arcisure Stadium.
The heavy rains fail and so did the heavily favored Panthers to Georgia Tech 26-21.
“It’s a game of body blows,” said interim head coach Brent Key who received the game ball from Frank Neville, who was named interim director of athletic just five days ago. “Body blows add up. When your team starts to believe that’s the case then one punch here and one punch there.”
The first body punch happened on the opening play of the game.
The Yellow Jackets defensive tackle D’Quan Douse plowed into Panthers quarterback Kedon Slovis, knocking him to the ground. The sort of hit that makes you cringed because you know it pack a punch.
It set the tone.
“They came out and played hard,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said postgame. “I knew we’d have a brand-new team out there. Guys played with energy. Give them credit.”
Narduzzi’s brand-new team refers to the changes made by Georgia Tech. Todd Stansbury, athletics director, and Geoff Collins, head football coach, where dismissed from their roles effective immediately on September 26th.
The team responded by playing awe-inspired football.
“Having the belief in that to become a physical defense,” Key said. “Be a swarming defense. I told them before the game you guys are the fastest group on the field. You are! Now go play like it.
“I thought they did they swarmed to the ball. Again, they did that during the week of practice. They did that on Wednesday. They did that on Tuesday. That’s what we emphasized. We made a big emphasis on that. Swarming to the football. Not just one guy but two guys, three guys, four guys.”
Ironically, the stats don’t emphasize in my opinion the lopsided battle that took place between these two ACC schools. The Panthers finished with four sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech managed two sacks and five tackles for loss.
While the Yellow Jackets didn’t record official statistics, it was the consistent effort to land those body blows Coach Key mentioned that impacted the game in the favor of the Georgia Tech.
The defense robbed the Panthers of their quick strike offense leaving them time and time again to lay this giant underdog to rest.
Yellow Jackers place kicker Gavin Stewart entered the game with just two made field goals on three attempts over his last 11-games that begin in 2020. In the soggy confines of Acrisure Stadium he connected on all four of his field goal tries.
“It has been a while, so it was good to get back on the field and everything,” Stewart said. “Very proud of what we all did tonight. It felt like the world was against us up to this point. Everything that happened Monday.”
The tough sledding by both offenses was evident. Especially for the Panthers. Their first touchdown came with 2:50 left in the second quarter on a 29-yard touchdown pass by Slovis to tight end Gavin Bartholomew.
The 7-6 halftime score marked just the second time since October 24th, 2020, the Panthers were unable to score double digit points in the first half of a game. Notre Dame held the Panthers to just three points in a lopsided 45-3 win over Pitt.
A stagnant offensive scheme, bullied by the Yellow Jackets defense echoed the same result.
A flurry of points where both scored in the fourth quarter. Thirty-one of the 47 points scored in the game came in the final quarter.
Georgia Tech finally got their running game going and began to pick up large chunks of real-estate. Pitt trailing 19-7 with a little over ten minutes left the final quarter of play had air it out.
The loss dampens Pitt’s hopes of repeating as ACC Champions. Plenty of football remains to be played but now they must count on others to stumble, while not tripping up anymore themselves.
“But all our goals are still ahead of us,” Narduzzi said. “I think it will make them a little hungrier. We have to take it.”
