| 16 October 2011
First Half
The offense started the game with the ball and put together it's own semblance of a drive against the Utes. Unfortunately, it resulted in zero points. After keeping the ball on the ground early and throwing short passes utilizing Ray Graham and Ronald Jones, Pitt picked up its first offensive line penalty of the game, a false start on Cory King. Sad to say, but it was all down hill from there. Pitt's drive stalled out, helped in part to one of the only bad exchanges of the season between Ryan Turnley and Tino Suneri. The offense was kept alive by a questionable roughing the passer when the Utah blitzer shoved Sunseri after he got rid of the ball, but was unable to capitalize. Sunseri was sacked on third down (surprise) and pooch punted it away.
The defense took the field for the first time missing two normal contributors in the linebacker corp: Todd Thomas and Ejuan Price. Price would get in the game later, but the starting outside linebackers were Kevin Adams and Greg Williams. Williams made the most of his increased role, putting forth a career game and had a sack, a batted pass and a tackle for a loss in the first two series alone. He finished with seven tackles, four for a loss, the sack and the batted pass on the day.
Pitt surrendered three points on Utah's opening drive, but the biggest loss was saftey Jason Hendricks, who suffered what looked to be a shoulder injury on a tackle. Hendricks and Jarred Holley have been a reliable tandem at safety and a loss of one of them would be a big blow to a secondary that has recently turned things around. He was replaced by freshmen Lafayette Pitts and Brandon Ifill.
On the ensuing kickoff, one of only two great plays on the day for Pitt happened: Buddy Jackson, who was praised all summer as a kick return specialist, finally took one to the house. Jackson bounced off a pile of Utah covermen and hit the sideline, running with Antwuan Reed at his side for the touchdown. An incredible play on a day that lacked many.
The next (and last) scoring play by Pitt was just a few minutes later. After a three-and-out by the defense - in part because of a third down sack by Brandon Lindsey - Andrew Taglianetti blocked the punt and it was picked up by Antwuan Reed and taken into the endzone. For Tagliantetti, it was his sixth (SIXTH) career blocked punt. That's four shy of the NCAA career record. He needs just one more to be tied for second. What a gamer.
Despite having a 14-3 lead, it was all down hill for the Panthers. Despite two more three-and-outs by the defense - including more tackles for loses by Greg Williams and K'Wuan Williams, the offense couldn't capitalize. Devin Street continued his recent trends of droping balls when he couldn't hang on to a pass to convert third-and-seven. Ray Graham continued to inexplicably not get the ball. On the next possession, Tino Sunseri took two sacks in a row, including one on third-and-twenty.
To add some back luck to their bad play, Max Gruder was able to get a hand on a Utah pass, but he tipped it right into the hands of the receiver who was able to run it in for the touchdown. Utah cuts the lead to one.
Anderson takes the field for the last drive of the half, and unsurprisingly, accomplishes nothing before the half. Pitt goes into halftime with the lead, but no offensive points and only seven carries for the nation's leading rusher, Ray Graham.
Second Half
Utah got the ball to start the half and were able to take the lead thanks in part to a big run by White. Despite a sack by Aaron Donald to put Utah in a third-and-long, Utah kicked a 40 yard field goal into the wind at the open end to take a lead, they would never give back.
The offense once again took the field with Trey Anderson at the helm. Anderson did no better than Sunseri the next two drives, although there were no negative plays, so there's that.
Utah and Pitt once again traded three-and-outs, before Utah put together a decent drive. Fortunately, the combination of a Chas Alecxih sack and a Utah false start forced a punt. Unfortunately, that meant Pitt's offense got the ball, which after a pass interference call on first down, went three more plays before a punt.
The cycle continued. Utah started the fourth quarter with a three-and-out on another Aaron Donald sack. Sunseri returned to the game and was able to run four plays before the punt unit came on. With the defense obviously out of gas, Utah was able to use running back John White to gash the defense and put Utah in position for kick ANOTHER long field goal for a 19-14 lead. At that point, the game clock kept ticking, but the game was over.
Sunseri took a sack on third down and, in a nice change of pace, fumbled the ball away to Utah. To complete the comedy of errors, Utah then fumbled on another Aaron Donald sack. Trey Anderson game back in the game to break the cycle and eventually turn the ball over on downs. Pitt had two more possessions, both of which ended with interceptions by Anderson, one for a touchdown.
Ray Graham finishes the day with just 12 carries on the day. Sunseri goes 4/11 and Anderson goes 5/19. Pitt's offense musters just 120 total yards. Pitt's defense has 17 tackles for a loss.
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