Film review: What happened in Blacksburg?

Each week, Panther-Lair.com contributor Josh Hammack looks at the film to find out what happened in Pitt's most recent game. Here's his review of the Virginia Tech loss.

GAME REVIEW

One of the biggest question marks about this year's Pitt team has been the offense, but one of the underlying issues is the inability to score points when the other team turns it over. Most coaches call that a "sudden change situation" and the Panthers have been absolutely dreadful in those situations. This week was no different when the Panthers forced a Virginia Tech turnover on a great interception by Avonte Maddox but yet again failed to secure points off that turnover.

Sudden Change Scenario

Late in the second quarter, Maddox intercepted VT quarterback Josh Jackson and the Panthers started their drive with plenty of time to manufacture a score. Pitt's drive started out slow with a short gain on outside zone to Darrin Hall, but then the Panthers hit a big play off of a split-zone action reverse to Quadree Henderson. On the next two plays the Panthers were able to gain 8 yards bringing up a 3rd down and 2 inside the red zone.

Here, the Panthers aligned in a heavy formation with two running backs in the backfield. Jordan Whitehead aligned to the right of Kenny Pickett and the formation was heavy to the left. Very few times has Whitehead been used as a decoy, which begs the question in a crucial situation, knowing that a negative play – due to the fact that Whitehead being in the backfield is a very easy key – would the Panthers use this play in this situation?

The Panthers failed to block the weak-side linebacker who shot the gap and hit Whitehead for a loss. The Panthers then missed what should be a chip shot FG and get no points once again off of a turnover. Here’s the entire series below.

Defensive Inconsistency

Pitt's defense has improved this season, and while defense won’t remind you of the '85 Bears, they have improved drastically since last season and even since the beginning of this season. However, the consistency is still not there from a scheme standpoint as well as players just being very inconsistent.

For example, on Pitt's opening defensive drive, the Hokies were able to drive the field and end up in the end zone. The final play of the drive was a simple zone-read scheme where the H-Back avoids the defensive end (Allen Edwards) and arcs on the next-level defender. The Panthers have the running back portion covered, but Edwards goes inside the arc block in order to play the running back, leaving no one to account for the quarterback. Here’s a clip below.

Another inconsistency for Pitt's defense is the inability to defend RPO’s (run-pass options), thus leading to big plays. Below is a clip of Virginia Tech in a two-back set with two receivers to the right of the formation. The Panthers are bringing pressure from the boundary with Maddox on a blitz. Virginia Tech is running a zone-lead scheme with the backside No. 2 receiver running a slant.

The quarterback reads the apex linebacker (Seun Idowu), and if he attacks the run, the QB will throw the slant. The release of the slant makes it difficult for Jordan Whitehead to get to off the snap and the QB pulls and throws a good pass for an explosive gain and first down. Until the Panthers can shore up their RPO defense, spread teams will continue to gash them for big yardage.

Offensive Line Struggles

Pitt's offensive line has taken a huge step back this season, ranging from the new players all the way to the best returning lineman. They are extremely inconsistent, similar to the defense, but they also struggle at some of the basic fundamentals. The clip below, in particular, is the epitome of basic struggles from a college offensive line.

You can see the Panthers are faced with a tackle/end stunt where the defensive tackle and the defensive end exchange gaps by stunting. The right side of the offensive line fails to recognize the stunt and gives the Hokies two free rushers at the quarterback. Pickett was able to check the ball down, but once again the inconsistency with the OL on basic fundamentals continues to hurt this team.

The Final Drive

Clock management was an issue when Pitt took the ball back trailing by six. The Panthers gave up 20 seconds from a long lay-off during the review of Jester Weah's 74-yard reception before they called the first play at the 1. Then Pitt was forced to burn its final timeout by not calling a second play (even one similar to the third play they ran with a jump ball to Weah).

After a timeout, the Panthers used zero creativity and burned 23 seconds off of the clock. The managing of the clock goes back on the head coach, but the offensive coordinator should share some of the blame on that one as well.

Play selection was also an issue, and this lies solely on the offensive coordinator. The inability to be creative and find an easy touchdown from the 1 (or 2) yard line is indefensible. On back-to-back plays, including the play out of the timeout, the Panthers used the same formation with the same motion and got the same look from the VT defense. There was no adjustment made by the offensive staff.

Above you can see two clips from Saturday’s game . The first came early in the game in a third-down situation and the second clip was the final play call of the game. In both instances, the play was blown up in the backfield and both plays cost the Panthers points. Again, the play selection was poor, especially when the goal is to get 1-2 yards. Virginia Tech had stopped the run successfully all day, but instead of using the play-action game that was very successful, the Panthers continued to run the football with the game on the line even after failed attempts.