The last time Georgia Tech ventured into the Steel City, Pittsburgh’s coach was “Pop” Warner, and the Panthers went on to a relatively mundane 10-3 win. If Warner was watching Saturday from somewhere well north of Pennsylvania, he probably was slapping his forehead — and changing the channel five minutes into the game.
Not to sell short anything that the Jackets or their sudden ball-stripping defense accomplished in a 56-28 win over Pitt. But the game bordered on a cartoon. Actually, it crossed the border into Toontown after a few minutes.
Pittsburgh fumbled on four of its first six plays. It fumbled on its first five possessions. It lost six of seven fumbles overall.
Rarely has this kind of self-immolation been witnessed, at least this side of a Wile E. Coyote pursuit of the Road Runner. Pitt couldn’t have had worse ball security if its players had webbed feet and wore oven mitts on their hands.
“Kind of a screwy start,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said.
“We were just like, ‘Seriously? This is happening again?’” running back Synjyn Days said.
“I would sit down on the bench and then get right back up to go back on the field,” wide receiver DeAndre Smelter said. “It was crazy.”
It was comical. At least for the visiting team.
When asked if had ever been involved in a game like that before, Smelter smiled and responded, “I’ve been involved in a game where we fumbled that many times.”
Yeah. That’s another story.
But the Jackets will take it. And as much as Pitt made it easier than it should have been, the Jackets deserved this.
Tech had 612 yards of offense against what had been the nation’s No. 4 defense (280.4 per game in the first seven). The players showed some resolve by winning a conference road game after consecutive upset losses to Duke and North Carolina. They also rolled over an opponent despite missing their best non-quarterback running back (Zach Laskey, likely out at least two more weeks with a shoulder injury) and losing their next best ball carrier (Charles Perkins) early in the game to a sprained knee.
But even with that said: Who fumbles on five consecutive possessions to start the game?
There aren’t a lot of games where the opponent basically tries to hand you a win on a platter. This was one. Pitt had four fumbles in six plays in 1:28 of possession time. The Panthers averaged 69 offensive plays coming in. Do the math. That’s a 46-fumble pace.
What makes Saturday’s events even more remarkable — as if this needed punctuation — is that Tech entered the game with only one fumble recovery in seven games. It was tied for last in the nation with the likes of UMass, Toledo and Louisiana-Lafayette.
This is the same defense that got steamrolled for 579 yards in last week’s 48-43 loss in Chapel Hill. Pitt’s offense actually consumed nearly as much real estate (526 yards), but had the six turnovers and Tech had three timely sacks.
“The last two weeks we kind of stunk it up a bit,” defensive tackle Adam Gotsis said. “Especially after last week — on everyone’s behalf, that was a bad game. We watched the film Monday, and then we flushed it.”
There were obviously offensive stars: Days, who wore Laskey’s No. 37 torn-sleeves undershirt as a tribute to his friend, finished with 110 yards rushing. The seldom-used Broderick Snoddy rushed for 92 yards and three touchdowns. Tony Zenon had a 57-yard touchdown. Perkins had a 79-yard score before exiting.
Less expected, there were defensive stars: Gotsis with two sacks. Jamal Golden with two forced fumbles. Quayshawn Nealy with two recoveries. Isaiah Johnson with a forced fumble, a recovery and a team-high 14 tackles.
Paul Johnson: “He had a good game. But you don’t like to see your safety with 14 tackles.”
Yeah. Good point.
When Pitt made it a game — closing to 28-14 by halftime and 35-21 in the third quarter — Johnson did a Johnson thing: He went for it on fourth-and-2 from the Jackets’ 41. Actually twice. B.J. Bostic ran for a would-be first down, but Johnson had called time-out just before the snap because the play clock was about to run out.
After the timeout, Days gained six yards, and the Jackets went on to a touchdown drive that stretched 16 plays and nearly nine minutes.
When asked why he chose to go for it, Johnson said, “I was just watching the game. There wasn’t much use in punting.”
The teams combined for fewer punts (four) than Pitt had fumbles (seven). Somewhere, “Pop” wasn’t happy.
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