BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A faint message appeared from the "Voice of God" speaker inside of the Lane Stadium press box as the official's whistle sounded to end the first half of Saturday's game.
"Virginia Tech's 241 yards of offense in the first half is the most gained in a half since 2022 against Wofford," it said, before it was repeated in a muffled tone.
Remember Wofford? From about one month ago? Pitt won that game against that Football Championship Subdivision opponent. That, to this point, remains the Panthers' lone win of the season. It feels like it occurred eons ago.
After that Voice-of-God message reverberated, the final 30 minutes down on the field in front of a sold-out, white-out crowd in Blacksburg, Va., was a continuation of a harsh sign of a dark time at Pitt. This dark time is growing darker by the play, drive, minute, and quarter for Pat Narduzzi's Panthers. This dark time does not have a flicker of light to navigate toward in this moment. If there is one, the path to it is a long and difficult one to traverse in this 1-4 season.
In this 38-21 defeat to the Hokies, the Panthers had to utilize two big plays on offense and one splash turnover from the defense to stay in the game. Otherwise, it was a matriculation from Hokies backup quarterback Kyron Drones and his mobility, fused with a continued ineptitude of the Panthers' offense. Typically Narduzzi holds a defiant, stout approach after losses like these. This was not the case. A defeated Narduzzi sat in front of a black backdrop and delivered this soliloquy in part to describe the effort:
"We'll evaluate where we are. We've got an open week to check it out, but it's not up to the Pitt standards, my standards," Narduzzi said. "Extremely disappointed in the effort today. ... We'll gather in the open week, do a major self scout to figure out where we are, what we've got to do to right the ship and figure it out."
If the 75-yard touchdown to Bub Means on Pitt's first pass from scrimmage and the 61-yard screen touchdown to C'Bo Flemister are removed from this game, Phil Jurkovec would have completed 9 of 20 passes for 99 yards on this fall evening. Those two plays accounted for 136 of Pitt's 273 yards of total offense, or 49.8 percent.
By this point, offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. has to be brought under a microscope at minimum if he is not already on the hot seat. This reunion between former Boston College coordinator and former Boston College quarterback has been a failure at every stop this season. In four games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, Pitt has scored seven offensive touchdowns.
I asked Narduzzi, specifically, about evaluating Cignetti's game planning method and system going forward.
"We've got a bye week to figure it out," Narduzzi said. "We've got to figure out what we do well, what we don't do well, stop doing what we don't do well, and do something better. We've got to, obviously, change some things up, and that's what we'll do in the open week. Try to figure out what we've got to do to get first downs and touchdowns."
A harsh impasse is upon the Panthers, which have tied their loss total from the 2022 season in a matter of five games.
The Hokies' third score of the first half put glum and morose looks on faces, glued hands to hips, and left eyes blankly staring into the distance for any answer to what was going on for these Panthers. Though there were still 25 minutes and 29 seconds to play in the game, another blow came in the form of a sack-fumble on Jurkovec recovered by the Hokies on the Pitt 10-yard line.
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 1, 2023
Drones scored three plays later on this 10-yard rush to put the home team ahead 28-7.
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 1, 2023
That temporarily sucked the wind out of the visitors section in an environment that is as tough as they come within the ACC.
But, Pitt didn't quit to this point. This screen pass from Jurkovec to Flemister was all about the running back on the first play of the ensuing possession. Sixty-one yards and pay dirt cut the deficit in half and gave Pitt a glimmer of confidence:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 1, 2023
Two plays from scrimmage later, the light that flickered Pitt's way beamed brighter. This fumble forced by Shayne Simon and recovered by true freshman Braylan Lovelace made it a one-score game:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 1, 2023
Once looking lifeless on the sideline, the Panthers were, suddenly, back in the game. The defense mustered 11 tackles for loss by the end of three quarters, and the first turnover-turned-touchdown of the season gave a sliver of momentum to the visitors for the first time in this game.
The Hokies punted their next possession away. So did Pitt, after Jurkovec was sacked on his own 5.
Then, this happened:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 1, 2023
This 53-yard connection from Drones to a wide-open Jaylin Lane barely beat a cornerback blitz, but this game of inches continued to be unkind to the Panthers. This chunk play put the Hokies up 35-21 with 3:25 left in the third quarter. By this point, any deficit greater than one possession might as well have felt like a 10-possession game for the Panthers.
And, that is after the offense started off hot, at least by its standard. After the Hokies hit a 54-yard connection from Drones to Da'Quan Felton on their opening drive, Jurkovec connected with Means for this 75-yard touchdown strike on Pitt's first play from scrimmage:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSvideos) October 1, 2023
Jurkovec, who was previously given immunity from Narduzzi despite his struggles to run the Panthers' offense, completed fewer than five passes in the first half for the fourth time out of six tries this season. In the first half of games this season, Jurkovec has completed 31 of 60 passes (51.7%) for 460 yards (92 per game), two touchdowns, and one interception.
In total, Jurkovec has completed 46 of 90 passes (51.1%) for 583 yards, four touchdowns, and three interceptions. That immunity is staring to wear off. When specifically asked about changing quarterbacks, Narduzzi responded in a non-committal way with respect to Jurkovec.
"I'm going to re-evaluate where we are," Narduzzi said. "I see a lot of things that need changed on offense. We've got to move. We got nine first downs. it's hard to win a football game. We got two explosive plays, that's all we got. So we've got to look at what we're doing, how we're doing it, and how to fix it. That's my job as a head coach is to fix it. It doesn't come down to one guy. It's everybody. It's a team loss, period. That's kind of what it is, honestly."
In addition to the nine first downs, Pitt net just 38 rushing yards and 1.6 per carry and converted 2 of 10 third downs.
An open week is next for Pitt, and 13 days in between games will have to provide serious self-criticizing.
"I think, of course, you have to be critical when you're losing," Flemister said. "I don't think we need to start pointing fingers. I don't think we need to completely throw away what we're doing. It just comes (down) to playing a clean game. It comes to playing a complete game and just executing more. Executing what we have. I have no doubt we'll be OK and going forward we'll do what's necessary to get a win."
Drones started in place of Grant Wells, who missed the game with an ankle injury, and the reserve completed 12 of 19 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns while adding two rushing scores. Bhayshul Tuten rushed 24 times for 109 yards and scored a receiving touchdown for the Hokies (2-3, 1-0 ACC).
"I think they ran the ball with their quarterback really well," defensive captain Shayne Simon said. "I think they were able to get some boundary looks that were able to get some extra hats to the run game. It's on us, though. We can still make plays, we can still make stuff happen. We can get better and get back to Louisville week."
But, hey, at least we got to experience the "Enter Sandman" pregame ritual. It really is something else to see it live, but here is the press box perspective of it:
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Team feed
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Out for the season: G Ryan Jacoby (leg), OT Matt Goncalves (foot), DB Rashad Battle (foot).
• Week-to-week: OC Jake Kradel (undisclosed), LB Bangally Kamara (foot), DT Devin Danielson (undisclosed).
THE SCHEDULE
Pitt (1-4, 0-2 ACC) is off this week and returns to action Oct. 14 with a home game against Louisville. The kickoff time is to be announced. I will have you covered from Acrisure Stadium.
THE CONTENT
• Visit the Pitt team page for more from Lane Stadium.
