Game Preview: Delaware

Game Five: Pitt (2-2) vs. Delaware (3-1)

Saturday, September 28 at 12:30 p.m.

Series Record: Pitt leads 1-0

Last Game: Pitt won 62-0 (2014)

After 3 of their first 4 games this season came against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25, Pitt gets what on paper should be a bit of a breather this weekend when they play host to Delaware. The Blue Hens serve as Pitt’s annual FCS opponent this year, though the game comes a bit later than typical. Usually, these games are played opening weekend to serve as a bit of a tune-up since college football has no preseason. However, the ACC wanted marquee conference matchups to kick off their new network this year, so Pitt had to open against Virginia. While Pitt didn’t get a warm-up to open the season, they get to play this game just prior to ACC play and the real meat of the schedule opening up.

Delaware has come to Heinz Field once before, for the season opener during Paul Chryst’s last season as Panther Head Coach. The outcome of that game was never in doubt, as Pitt opened up a 42-0 lead by halftime and cruised to a 62-0 final. While blowouts of that proportion should rarely be expected, regardless of the quality of the opponent, it would be nice to see the Panthers build a sizeable halftime lead, as they did 5 years ago, so that they can rest their starters going into ACC play. This visit also continues something of a trend of Pitt bringing in their FCS opponents from the membership of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Other than Delaware, the Panthers have hosted or have on future schedules CAA members Villanova, New Hampshire, Maine, Albany, Richmond, and Rhode Island. Of those teams, Maine is the only one to really put up a fight, managing to lose by only 6 points in 2011 (the Todd Graham year).

Offense

Looking at this year’s edition of the Delaware Blue Hens, we see that there has already been a changing of the guard at Quarterback. Redshirt Senior Pat Kehoe started the season at the position, but was replaced midway through their third game by Redshirt Sophomore Nolan Henderson. Kehoe had looked ineffective against North Dakota State in that game, so was replaced. Henderson got his first collegiate start last week against Penn and led the Blue Hens to a comeback 28-27 victory. In that game he had an impressive statline of 20/29 for 260 yards, 3 Touchdowns, and no Interceptions. For the season Henderson has the better statistics, a 72.3% completion rate, 8.61 Yards/Attempt, 5 TDs, and 0 Ints compared with Kehoe’s 61.3% completion rate, 6.39 Yards/Attempt, 7 TDs, and 4 Ints. Henderson is also more of a spread Quarterback whereas Kehoe is more of a traditional pocket passer. It’s worth noting that Kehoe and Henderson had already been splitting time prior to the switch and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kehoe play this weekend, despite Henderson seeming to take over as starter.

Delaware’s rushing attack is led by Redshirt Freshman Will Knight and Redshirt Senior Andre Robinson. Knight leads the team with 236 yards, while Robinson isn’t far behind with 204 yards. Knight leading the team in rushing is somewhat surprising given that he has less than half the carries that Robinson has (21 compared with 51). This means, that while Robinson has a somewhat respectable 4.0 yards per rush average, Knight has a stratospheric 11.2 average. Unsurprisingly Knight’s total seems to be buoyed by a two long runs, a 61 yarder against Delaware State and a 59 yarder against North Dakota State. Even taking those two runs out yields an impressive 6.1 average though. Delaware will likely have a hard time getting their rushing attack going, but if they do at all, it will likely be thanks to Knight.

Thyrick Pitts will be the main receiving target for Delaware. The Redshirt Sophomore leads the team with 17 receptions for 290 yards on the season and has also contributed 2 touchdowns. He is far from the only player to contribute in the passing game though, with Chichi Amachi and Brcye DeMaille each having over 100 yards so far on the season (153 and 114 yards respectively). DeMaille also leads the team with 3 Touchdown receptions and Amachi is one of 4 players with 2 (Pitts, Gene Coleman, and Tight End Owen Tyler being the other 3). Despite having some players with good stats and an overall fairly productive offense, one shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that so far Delaware has only played other FCS opponents. They have yet to see a team as talented as Pitt. Additionally, any offensive success they’ve had cannot really be said to be due to their offensive line play. Though that unit is an experienced one, they are dead last in their conference when it comes to allowing sacks (13).

Defense

As poor as the Delaware offensive line has been at allowing sacks, the Defense has been just as, if not worse, at getting sacks. Through 4 games, the Blue Hens have only recorded 1 sack, by Freshman Defensive End Chase McGowan in the opener against Delaware State. This is indicative of a defense that has overall had difficulty harassing opposing offenses. That sack is one of only 6 Tackles for Loss that the team has this year (for comparison, Pitt has 34 against one of the toughest schedules in the country). They have also only recorded 3 turnovers, with 2 of them coming last week against Penn. 

This is a young defense that lost a lot of talent over the offseason, including two players who are now playing in the NFL (Troy Reeder and Nasir Adderley). So far they are playing like a young defense, having surrendered nearly 450 yards per game (446.75) and over 30 points per game (30.75). Don’t forget, this is also against FCS competition. Even taking out their game against North Dakota State, a team who has won 7 of the last 8 FCS National Championships and has regularly beaten FBS opponents, they are still giving up 25.66 points per game and 435.66 yards per game. While these stats may not seem terrible, they can probably be thought of as a bit of a baseline of what to expect from Pitt this weekend given the talent disparity between the Panthers and who the Blue Hens have faced so far this year.

Special Teams

Pitt isn’t the only team in the country with kicking woes right now. Delaware kicker Jake Roth has only made half of his Field Goal attempts this season (4/8) and three-quarters of his extra points (9/12). Roth shouldn’t be in a position to make any pressure kicks, but between these struggles and how notoriously kicker-unfriendly Heinz Field is, he may have trouble if the Blue Hens manage to get within his range. Delaware also appears to have a kickoff specialist, as Ryan Coe has appeared to take over those duties since the Rhode Island game. Redshirt Senior Nick Pritchard is the Delaware punter and is averaging 41.6 yards per punt.

Final Thoughts

There is no reason for this game to be close, let alone for Pitt to actually suffer what would be an embarrassing loss. Frankly, this team is too talented to be seriously challenged by even a top FCS squad, let alone an average one like Delaware. Just because something should play out a certain way doesn’t mean that it will though. After the team has had to “get up” for a season-opening conference game, a rivalry game, and another Top 25 matchup in 3 of the first 4 weeks, there should definitely be concern regarding focus for the team this week. This is especially the case with ACC play looming and the possibility that the players overlook this game. 

While they could play this game 100 times and I would be shocked if Pitt lost even once, there would definitely be instances where Pitt comes out flat or is undisciplined or makes dumb mistakes and has to rely on their talent to come out on top. I don’t want to see any of that this weekend. Pitt needs to stay focused so that they play smart, play disciplined, and come out firing. The best case scenario for this game is that Pitt does this takes a big lead into halftime and can freely rest their starters so that they are healthy going into conference play. The worst case scenario would be that the opposite happens and the outcome is in doubt into the 4th quarter. This would leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth going into the Duke game next week and leave everyone wondering which Pitt team will show up the rest of the season.