ATLANTA — Pitt has not gotten off to the best of starts in the first few games of the 2021 season. In Pitt’s first road contest this season, the Panthers trailed Tennessee 10-0 in the first quarter before eventually pulling out a 41-34 win. Pitt’s lone loss this season to Western Michigan, the Panthers trailed 20-7 in the second quarter, and obviously never recovered from that slow start to the game.

It was the total opposite on Saturday in Pitt’s 52-21 win over Georgia Tech. The Panthers used two big defensive plays to grab a 14-0 lead and never looked back from there and got off to a 1-0 start in ACC play.

Senior linebacker John Petrishen returned an interception for a touchdown in the first quarter to give Pitt that early two-touchdown lead. He believed it was important to make that kind of statement early to help set the tone.

"I know a lot of us were talking about the game at the end of the game in general and Georgia Tech is a really good team and we thought the difference today was kind of starting fast,” he explained. “In prior games we had to take a few minutes to get going, a few drives to get going…that really jump-started us.”

Georgia Tech responded and cut it to 14-7, but the Panthers used that early momentum on defense and carried it over on offense. The Panthers eventually raced out to a 42-14 halftime advantage thanks to three Kenny Pickett first half touchdown passes.

“We felt like we haven’t started fast for at least the majority of the games that we’ve had so far,” Pitt senior quarterback Kenny Pickett said. “It was great to come out in the first drive and handle business.”

Pitt showed growth from its first road game at Tennessee in how it started against Georgia Tech on Saturday. Rather than playing from behind, the Panthers made that quick statement and it fueled them for the rest of the game.

“It was just a different road game,” Narduzzi said the difference between the first road game at Tennessee as opposed to Georgia Tech. “They’re all going to be different. We’re going to have to deal with that adversity like we dealt with Tennessee at some point this season again, so learned our lessons and our kids started fast and made some plays.”

Pitt has a bye week on the horizon, but another ACC road game looms after that. Starting fast will likely be a key in that game as well. The Panthers will travel to Blacksburg to take on Virginia Tech in two weeks. Pitt has not won a game in Blacksburg since 2015, and lost 28-0 in 2019 at Lane Stadium.

“Virginia Tech is sitting right there ready for us, and it’s never easy down there,” Narduzzi said. “We know that. We’ve had our struggles down there, so it's time to take it on the road again. It's not always you play your first two ACC games on the road, so that’s not an easy task at all. But we'll get a week and get a little extra time to prepare for them and prepare a great big game plan.”