On Saturday morning, Daniel Carter was named the most improved offensive player of spring.

A few hours later, the Ed Conway Award winner showed why he earned the award, rushing 10 times for 72 yards and scoring two touchdowns as the Gold Team beat the Blue Team 10-7 in the 2022 Blue-Gold Game at Heinz Field.

Carter lined up for both teams during the game, and his touchdowns were split between the two squads. He also caught one pass for nine yards.

As is typical for Pitt spring games, there wasn’t a lot of offense on Saturday, for a variety of reasons. For starters, the coaches admittedly used a limited playbook, which kept the offense from having anything approaching a unique attack against Pitt’s talented defense.

Additionally, the format of the Blue-Gold Game since Pat Narduzzi arrived at Pitt in 2015 has been to draft the rosters for the Blue and the Gold; the result is that the offensive lines are mixed-and-matched from what the players have practiced with since camp started - further increasing the defense’s advantage, particularly along the line of scrimmage.

As such, the two teams combined for seven sacks - four for the Blue and three for the Gold. John Morgan set the pace there with two sacks on his own, while Bangally Kamara had 1.5. David Green had one of his own, as did Nahki Johnson and Calijah Kancey.

The Gold Team defense also produced a pair of interceptions - Shayne Simon picked off Kedon Slovis and Jehvonn Lewis got one from Eli Kosanovich. The Blue defense had one turnover on a fumble recovery (all told, there were five fumbles between the two teams, but only one was lost).

Not surprisingly, Pitt’s quarterbacks didn’t put up great stat lines. Kedon Slovis was 10-of-21 for 64 yards and one interception on the Blue Team; Nick Patti completed 4-of-9 for 108 yards on the Gold.

Patti’s success largely came from throwing to Akron transfer Konata Mumpfield, who opened the game with a 55-yard catch on the first play. Mumpfield added one more catch for four yards to finish with a game-high 59.

Still, the day was defined by offensive struggles. The Blue and Gold teams combined for 20 possessions; three of those ended in points - the two Carter touchdowns and a 41-yard field goal from Ben Sauls - but the other 17 drives featured seven punts, two interceptions, one fumble four turnovers on downs and three missed field goals.

The three missed kicks included a miss from 49 yards by Sauls and two misses by Sam Scarton - one from 37 and one from 56 as time expired.

The Blue-Gold Game represents the conclusion of Pitt's 2022 spring camp, which opened at the end of February.