When Pitt beat North Carolina two Thursday’s ago at Heinz Field, the Panthers’ offense did a few things very well. Kenny Pickett pushed the ball downfield, he was sharp in his throws, he ran decisively, his receivers were secure in their catches and the offense didn’t commit a turnover.

On Saturday at Virginia Tech, Pitt’s offense did the opposite in almost every regard - including, most importantly, the end result of the game.

Facing a top-50 defense in sloppy weather conditions, the Panthers sputtered from the start, never found any rhythm and produced arguably the worst offensive performance in more than a decade. That’s not hyperbole either; Pitt hadn’t been shut out in 105 games prior to Saturday’s 28-0 loss to the Hokies at Lane Stadium, a streak that dates back to the 3-0 loss to Oregon State in the 2008 Sun Bowl.

“Offense didn’t get in a rhythm, didn’t make plays and didn’t score,” redshirt junior center Jimmy Morrissey said after the loss.

There were plenty of culprits for Pitt’s woeful offensive performance on Saturday. Pickett was not as accurate in his passes as he had been against North Carolina, and Virginia Tech’s pass rush - the Hokies entered the game ranked No. 11 nationally in sacks - had something to do with it.

But not all of Pickett’s throws were off the mark. Pro Football Focus charged Pitt’s pass-catchers with six drops in the game; those half-dozen passes could have turned Pickett’s less-than-average line of 10-for-26 (38.5%) into a more respectable 16-of-26 (61.5%).

What’s more, the drops prevented Pitt’s offense from building extended drives. The Panthers had 13 possessions on Saturday; six of them were three-and-outs and 10 of the 13 drives gained 22 yards or less.

The result was that Pitt ran 55 plays after averaging 76.6 plays per game over the first 10 contests of the season. Without the regular volume of plays, the Panthers couldn’t extend drives. Without extended drives, they couldn’t score. When the game ended, Pitt had reached the red zone just once.

“We had everything we wanted,” Pickett said when asked what Virginia Tech did to stop Pitt’s offense. “We just weren’t making the plays that were there. We’ll see on film, but it was pretty clear to tell when we were out there playing.”

“It was just us,” Morrissey said. “We didn’t execute our jobs, really. You look at a lot of the series, we didn’t make plays. Missed block here, dropped ball there, bad throw - it’s all the same.”

And to top it off, Pitt’s offense was also called for six penalties, including two false start flags, an illegal shift and an illegal substitution when the Panthers lined up with 12 players (that last one came in the fourth quarter and acted as a counter to a snap in the first quarter when Pitt only had 10 players on the field).

“Yeah, it was terrible,” Morrissey said about the penalties. “Undisciplined play. It was a bad day for our offense as a whole. We have to be better.”

Of course, the offense wasn’t the only group to take a penalty. Pitt drew 10 flags on Saturday, the fifth time in 11 games this season that the Panthers have had double-digit penalties.

When it was all added together - the drops, the missed throws, the penalties, etc. - Pitt ended up with just 177 yards of total offense; that was the lowest total since the Panthers had just 120 yards in a loss to Utah in 2011.

That 2011 team rebounded from the Utah loss with a 500-yard performance against UConn the following week, a game in which Tino Sunseri set a Heinz Field record for passing. It remains to be seen if Pickett and the 2019 Pitt offense can have a similar bounce-back when they host Boston College for the regular-season finale at Heinz Field next Saturday.