UVA Football: Five Keys to a Virginia Victory over Pittsburgh

Virginia football is set to travel to Pittsburgh to face the Pittsburgh Panthers this Saturday at 8pm at Acrisure Stadium. Last time out against the Panthers, the Cavaliers were crushed 37-7 by Pittsburgh on their home turf in Charlottesville. UVA will look to get some redemption on Saturday in addition to snapping a three-game losing streak. Virginia has not won a football game since October 5th.

The Panthers face Virginia with a new quarterback, Eli Holstein, who has proved to be one of the best transfers in college football this season. Under head coach Pat Narduzzi, Holstein has revitalized the Pittsburgh offense, a key reason for the Panther’s strong 7-0 start before falling to SMU last week. With that said, here are five keys to a Virginia victory on Saturday at Pittsburgh.

The Virginia offensive line allowed a season-high ten sacks against North Carolina as Anthony Colandrea spent the entire afternoon running for his life. Despite the abominable performance, Virginia was without center Brian Stevens and guard Ty Furnish. With the two set to return, in addition to McKale Boley, who has been dealing with a knee injury, set to play closer to 100%, the Virginia offensive line can protect Colandrea and allow the sophomore quarterback to operate the Cavalier offense effectively. 

There are many reasons why the Virginia offense has struggled these past few games, such as poor protection, lack of separation by wide receivers, and failure to establish a rushing attack. Despite these things, Colandrea has not played his best football either, as the sophomore has failed to throw for over 160 yards in either of his last two games and threw two interceptions last week against the Tar Heels. If Virginia wants to win on Saturday, Colandrea must emulate past performances, such as last season against Duke and Wake Forest this season, where the Florida native lit up the opposing defense with poise and unwavering confidence. 

Eli Holstein has dominated opposing defenses this season but, when in trouble, has often relied on Desmond Reid to pick up the slack. Reid is a dynamic threat, a powerful runner, and an excellent pass-catching back. The junior has 975 all-purpose yards and six total touchdowns this season, the highest among any playmaker on the Pitt offense. With that, it will be critical that the Cavaliers contain Reid with first-time tackling, preventing any big play from sparking the Pittsburgh home crowd. 

Shutting down Reid will make Holstein uneasy, but the other key to taking the redshirt freshman quarterback out of rhythm will be getting pressure early and often. Last week against SMU, Holstein was sacked three times and threw one interception. Against Cal, Holstein was sacked twice and threw two interceptions. Finding ways to get pressure on Holstein will be vital to testing the composure and poise of the young quarterback. 

Elliott took full blame after the blowout loss to North Carolina, apologizing for not having his team prepared to face the Tar Heels with a poor game plan while vowing to improve upon this for future weeks. Doing this showed Elliott taking accountability and ownership of the team as a whole, but with two weeks to prepare for Pittsburgh, the question now is, can Elliott and staff prepare the team with an effective game plan or are the Cavaliers headed towards their fourth-consecutive loss?

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