Pitt Offensive Line Needs to Get Better Quickly
New Offensive Coordinator Mark Whipple’s new scheme was probably the most anticipated aspect of the 2019 Pitt football season. After a couple years of Shawn Watson’s antique unimaginative offense, fans were clamoring for something more explosive, exciting, and energetic. While I think even the most optimistic fan could realize that a turnaround wasn’t going to happen overnight, there was hope on the horizon that the staunch defense Pat Narduzzi has built up would have a bit of help on the other side of the ball. Well we’re one game into the “Whippleball” era and reviews are mixed to say the least. The Panther offense did score two touchdowns in the 1st half against a stingy Cavalier defense, they moved at a much faster tempo, and play-calling was vastly improved. However, they were blanked in the 2nd half and were doomed by Virginia being granted short fields on all 3 of their Touchdown drives. There are of course many things that need to be cleaned up. There were several drive-killing drops of extremely catchable passes by Panther receivers and Kenny Pickett needs to get rid of the ball more quickly and have better accuracy on deep passes. However, the most important thing that can be done to get the offense going is for the Offensive Line to play much better than they did on Saturday.
There were more than a few qualms regarding the Offensive Line coming into this season. That’s going to happen when a unit loses 80% of their starters, as happened with Pitt. However, there was reason to believe that the drop-off wouldn’t be as steep as feared. The best player and anchor of the Line, Center Jimmy Morrissey, was returning and healthy after missing the final 3 games of the previous campaign. Additionally personnel on the Line actually made more sense, as last year’s unit had a couple of “square peg in a round hole” situations with players who were better suited to play Guard suiting up at the two tackle positions. This is how you ended up with a unit so talented at run blocking, but just as deficient when it came to pass blocking. Finally, there wasn’t complete inexperience as every projected starter had game experience and most had started at least one game. While no one expected this version of Pitt’s Offensive Line to contend for a Joe Moore Award, there was hope that the unit wouldn’t resemble a sieve.
Unfortunately when Saturday came, the Offensive Line decidedly did not look ready for prime time. In pass protection, Kenny Pickett seemed to spend more time running away from defender than looking for open receivers. He did have a few exciting scrambles for big games that resulted out of this. However, it’s not usually a good look when your Quarterback has the most rush attempts in the game, as Pickett did. Overall for the night, Pickett was hurried 7 times, sacked 4 times, and picked off twice (one of which came while scrambling under pressure). As mentioned above, Pickett did have deficiencies that don’t fully rest on the Offensive Line. However, having stouter protection will only help him more effectively lead the Panther offense.
It isn’t just in the passing game where the Offensive Line can help get the offense going. Last year was actually a historic rushing year for the Panthers despite having such an awful overall offense. Despite the fact that Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall have exhausted their eligibility, there was hope that the Panthers would be able to keep rolling along with several highly touted but unproven options in the backfield. I’d also be lying if I didn’t say that Pitt’s reputation as RBU came into play with this thought process. Pitt fans have almost come to expect the next star Running Back for the Panthers is already on the roster.
This isn’t to say that AJ Davis, Todd Sibley, or any of the other current Panther Running Backs for certain won’t become stars, but none will look back at Saturday’s game as a memorable night. Both of the starters had flashes at times, but overall on the night the Panthers only got 62 yards on 18 rushes from their Running Backs. That works out to only a 3.44 average yards per rush. Now of course, there are caveats, such as the fact that Pitt pretty much had to abandon the running game late as they were trying to come back and the play-calling was decidedly in favor of a passing attack even early. Regardless, having some semblance of a rushing attack is typically necessary to keep the defense honest. While Sibley and Davis are seeing extensive playing time for the first time in their Pitt careers, they need to do better than 3.1 and 3.3 rushing averages that they had respectively on Saturday. However, they can only do so much if the Offensive Line doesn’t give them the space to operate and make plays.
Now it’s time for the good news. While the Offensive Line has a lot of room to improve, they are not doomed to be the weak link that brings the Panthers’ entire attack crashing down to the ground. First of all, this unit is still inexperienced with 4 new starters. Though all had some game action, many were still experiencing their first extended playing time at the college level. Some mistakes were to be expected, and did occur, but they should be playing more sound football as the season progresses. Second, even though most had playing time this was the first game where these five guys were all playing together. More than any other unit, the Offensive Line is reliant upon cohesion, communication, and familiarity with the other members. It typically takes a team a few games to gel. Expect to see much fewer mistakes due to this as well within a few games. Finally, the Virginia defense employs a 3-4 front with 3 down linemen and 4 linebackers. The Pitt defense and most of their opponents utilize a much more common 4-3 front with 4 down linemen and 3 linebackers. Of Pitt’s remaining 10 FBS opponents, it appears that UNC is the only team that uses a similar defensive alignment. The point of this being, that while it’s no excuse for not being prepared, this throws a wrench into preparation and proceedings. I would almost say it’s a milder version of how the Pitt defense used to have to always prepare specially for Paul Johnson’s Triple Option attack at Georgia Tech. As Pitt faces much more familiar defensive alignments, the reads should be simpler and cut down on the opportunities for mistakes to be made.
Despite the relief we should feel over knowing that Pitt’s Offensive Line to improve, they unfortunately don’t have a ton of time to get everything up to speed. Over the next three weekends they face a sneaky Ohio team that is among the favorites to win the MAC, 15th ranked Penn State, and 18th ranked Central Florida. The offense as a whole needs to improve if they aren’t going to dig themselves into an early hole. This involves the Quarterback and the Receivers cleaning up mental mistakes and the Running Backs getting more involved. However, the linchpin of all of this comes down to improved play from this young Offensive Line. If they get up to speed quickly, Pitt can put this loss behind them and maybe knock off one of the ranked non-conference opponents they have. If not, we could be in for a long season that will still be too short with the Panthers staying home over the holidays.
*Stats courtesy of College Football Reference
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