 |
|
Virginia’s Christian Olsen completed 17 of 34 passes for just 133 yards on Saturday. |
PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh and Virginia tangoed in the season-opening football game Saturday and the Panthers could have danced all night. The Cavaliers, meanwhile, would be the first team voted off of “So You Think You Can Dance” after they spent most of the night wobbling around on two left feet and making costly mistakes. In the end, Pitt waltzed into the end zone four times with one-play scores and cruised to a dominant 38-13 win at Heinz Field.
The bright lights and highlights belonged to Pittsburgh throughout the night, including the quartet of big plays. Panther QB Tyler Palko posted two touchdown tosses of more than 70 yards – he connected with a wide open Oderick Turner for a 72-yard touchdown and teamed up with Derek Kinder on a 78-yarder as well.
Of course, any good dancer has a partner and Pitt’s offense found the perfect complement in its defense. The Panthers’ D added two scoring plays of its own to the cause as Darrelle Revis and Clint Session each returned interceptions for touchdowns. Revis’ 19-yard pick return broke open a 17-10 game and Session’s score late in the game provided an exclamation point on the dominant showing. The INT two-step for Pitt marked the first time a Virginia opponent has done that since Duke in the 1956 season.
“We’re extremely disappointed and embarrassed in the outcome,” UVa coach Al Groh said. “To allow four one-play touchdowns means that it’s probably impossible to do anything with the remaining 150 plays in the game to overcome that.”
Those four plays were part of strong performances from Pittsburgh’s premier players. Palko finished 17-of-22 passing for 283 yards and three touchdowns with a great deal of damage coming from the two long scoring plays. Pitt’s LaRod Stephens-Howling had 58 yards rushing, 37 yards receiving, and 31 return yards before leaving with an ankle injury.
Defensively, Session added seven tackles in addition to his INT return and Revis had four tackles and two pass break-ups as well. Plus, linebacker H.B. Blades racked up a game-high 13 tackles.
 |
|
Mike London’s defense gave up 283 yards passing. |
“I thought Tyler Palko played a terrific game. It’s really what we expected of him. He was a big difference in the game, clearly with the two big plays he made for his team and with a number of other things he checked off to where he got them into a good play,” Groh said.
“Their stars played like stars – Palco, Blades, Revis,” he added. “We had no stars. That’s about the story.”
Virginia did not have many playmakers on the night as the Cavs failed to come up with plays when they needed them the most. In fact, things couldn’t have been much uglier for the Cavaliers. On the night, the Hoos were outgained, outscored, outplayed, and outcoached. The result was the 25-point loss to a Pittsburgh team that seemed to grow more confident with each play.
UVa finished with just 211 yards of total offense, gaining a meager 3.6 yards per play. The Hoos converted just 3 of 14 third-down plays, while allowing Pitt to go 6 of 13 in the same category – the Panthers also came through on one fourth down.
All in all, it was a poor performance from pretty much start to finish.
“It’s a collective result. We all play well, we all coach well and we all play poorly and we all coach poorly. That’s the mentality that we have,” Groh said. “There are no aberrations in competition. It is what it is.”
The only true glimmer on the night – other than a reasonably good outing in three roles for Chris Gould – came late in the first half when Pitt gift-wrapped a scoring drive for the visitors. At the time, the Panthers led 17-3 and were in full control of the contest.
 |
|
Nate Lyles ‘ interception return set up the Hoos’ only TD. |
But a bit of miscommunication let the Cavaliers hang around until midway through the third quarter. On a pass play with 57 seconds left in the half, Palko fired a pass outside but his intended target turned inside. The ball hit Virginia’s Nate Lyles square in the chest and he returned the interception 47 yards to the Pitt 13-yard line.
Virginia responded with a touchdown to cut the score to 17-10 at intermission. Christian Olsen set up the scoring play with a pass to tight end Tom Santi before Jason Snelling punched the ball in from 2 yards out.
Other than that scoring drive – a loosely used term in this case – the offensive showing could have been described as a no show for Virginia. In fact, some might call it the same old song and dance.
Behind a predictable game plan and a mostly sporadic outing by the offensive line, the running game was essentially non-existent as the Hoos gained just 52 yards on an average of 2.5 yards per carry. Snelling logged the leading rushing stats with 28 yards on nine carries.
“52 total yards of rushing defense allowed – I know this, that you have no chance if you don’t run the ball and stop the run,” Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt said. “Our play-action game was good and our run defense was good.”
Olsen finished 17 of 34 for 133 yards in the passing game. Tight end Tom Santi led the receiving category with a career-high 7 catches, but that only produced 31 yards. Snelling had two receptions for 25 yards to go with his rushing stats.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m pleased with the effort or not. The effort doesn’t matter, it’s whether we win or lose,” Snelling said. “We didn’t get it done. We need to focus on making big plays and we didn’t do that tonight.”
(For complete coverage of Virginia’s game with Pitt, please sign up for Sabre Edge.)
