The Good, the bad and ugly – Pitt
The Clemson Tigers went into the game this past Saturday against with a clear mission — destroy the Pittsburgh Panther football team. Well, they did exactly that.
In discussing the “Good”, there is lots to talk about. The return of Trevor Lawrence ignited this offense to the tune of 31 points in the 1st quarter. To be honest, Trevor was Trevor in every way. The spark was the defense, led by returning starters James Skalski, Tyler Davis and Mike Jones, Jr.
Pitt’s first seven drives of the game ended in four punts and 3 interceptions. To be more specific, the panthers ran 21 plays for 32 yards in their first 7 possessions. In Clemson’s first 6 possessions, the tigers ran 28 plays for 257 yards, resulting in two punts, four touchdowns and a FG. The rout was on. As per the “Dabo Philosophy” (or so it seems), he let the gas pedal off. Lawrence threw for 403 yards, and two touchdowns. Cornell Powell continued his amazing season, hauling in 6 passes for 176 with one TD, including a beautiful one handed catch on a 70 yard reception. Travis Etienne has yet to crack the 100 yard mark this season on the ground with Virginia Tech the last hope in the regular season. Etienne has showed his value moreson this year in the passing game and his blocking on blitzes, which is exactly the reason he came back this year. Offensively, the tigers rushed for 145 yards, and while some will say that’s not a great number for Clemson, Pittsburgh was 2nd in the nation in rush defense, giving up 78 yards a game, and 8th in the nation in total defense, allowing 296 total yards a game. Clemson put up 581. This was an angry Clemson offense.
Defensively, the tigers had six sacks by six different players, with 8 tackles for loss, and four interceptions, two by sophomore Mario Goodrich.Yes, the defense came to play with renewed vigor and it showed. Pitt rushed for a season low 16 yards and managed 230 in the air, most long after the game was in doubt.
There wasn’t much bad or ugly to talk about with this game. One could argue some very inopportune penalty calls against the tigers, but on further review of the penalties, they were justly called. One was a lineman down field that resulted in a called back TD. Justly called.
Basically, PItt got hit by a tornado, and it was called the Clemson Tigers. Trevor Lawrence played his first game in 5 weeks and the tigers were coming off a disappointing OT loss. The ship was set right Saturday and next in the path of the Clemson Tornado is Virginia Tech. Back on November 21st, the Pitt team that Clemson just destroyed beat VT 47-14. Let that resonate for the next 5 days.
