ACC Game of the Week Preview: Pitt at Virginia Tech

By: Rich Douglas

Virginia Tech has looked much, much improved in their last two weeks, picking up a pair of much needed wins over ACC foes.  Pitt comes off a bye week and is a surprising 3-1, with two conference wins from the first four weeks.

When VT has the ball:
Logan Thomas has started to look like the 1st round pick that he was touted as two years ago.  In large part its been a change in his supporting cast on offense coming to help him out.  The receiving corps has only been scored with a drop in the last two games, with five  through the first four.  His yards per attempt and completion percentage have blossomed to over 9 yards and over 70% respectively.  Willie Byrn has been a force so far this year,, not recording a single drop all season and averaging 14.4 yards per catch.  Demitri Knowles has also started coming on after a sluggish start. with 13.4 and 14.25 yards per catch and five first downs.  Its been good, because the run game has fallen off sharply totaling just 103 yards on 61 carries against Georgia Tech and North Carolina.  Trey Edmunds has seen his production cut a bit, getting just 20 total carries and gaining just a single yard against GT.  The run game had been very productive in the past, and could find ground against Pitt.

Pitt has struggled on defense this year to consistently get stops, allowing 16 of the 17 red zone trips by opponents to end in a score, and a 37.5% conversion rate on third downs.  This is in large part because they've allowed over four yards per carry, and have given up 22 runs of 10 yards or more in just four games. Its somewhat strange since theyve been pretty prodigious at making plays in the backfield, with 30 tackles for loss.  Aaron Donald leads the unit with 9 TFL, who also has 13 tackles overall with six sacks.  Jason Hendricks leads the team with 30 tackles from his safety position.  His high tackle total shows a bit of the problem Pitt has had against the pass as well, surrendering 62.9% completion rate for over 7.5 yards per attempt to opposing passers.  Tyrone Ezell and Ray Vinopal both have a pair of passes defended.

When Pitt has the ball:
The Panthers offense by contrast has been pretty solid, scoring 33.5 points per game with 6.4 yards per play on average.  Theyve gone 3 and out 38% of their drives though, and are averaging just 29 yards per.  This could improve with a few more completions by Tom Savage, who is completing just 58.7% of his passes.  He has hit the big plays though, with 28 completions of 15 yards or more, and 12 of those for 25 or more.  Savage has gone almost exclusively to Devin Street and Tyler Boyd, who have combined for 67% of the production from the receiving corps.  Neither has a drop so far this season, and the pair have combined for 7 TDs and 870 yards.  Boyd has converted all 5 of his third down catches for firsts, with 14 of his 21 catches going for more than 15 yards.  The freshman Boyd has shown explosion, with 9 15 yard catches, but has scored all of his TDs in the first half of games; in the second halves his yards per catch drops to just 12.78 from 22.1 in the first half.  James Conner has toted the ball in the run game, averaging 5.7 yards per carry, but was stifled against Virginia last week with just 27 yards on 15 carries.  He has scored in the last three games though.

The VT defense is the strength of the team, especially against the run.  Theyev allowed just 2,7 yards per carry, and only three rushing touchdowns all year to opponents.  Theyve allowed the same number of long runs plays as Pitt, but theyve played two more games (and arguably, two of the best rushing teams in the nation in 'Bama and GT).  They continue to make a ridiculous amount of plays in the backfield, with 50 on the season and 7.5 by leader JR Collins.  The DE also has been good against the pass, with 4.5 sacks, a number that should be much higher with his 12 QB hurries as well.  Those hurries though are second to his bookend James Gayle, who has 13 hurries with just a pair of sacks.  The secondary has made full advantage of the pressure, picking off 13 passes, four by freshman Brandon Facyson.  Senior Kyle Fuller has 7 passes defended to lead the team.

What's our take:
Pitt has had a couple weeks off now to get ready for VT, which might actually be a bad thing since the Hokies have started to hit their stride.  The offensive line for the Panthers will be severely challenged with the Defensive front of VT, having given up pressures on more than half of their QBs dropbacks.  If the Hokies can find the run game, they should be able to rout Pitt at home.