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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SPRINGDALE, Pa. (KDKA) — Pittsburgh Street is the main artery connecting Cheswick to Springdale, but some traffic woes are on the way as crews prepare to remove a 100-year-old trestle bridge.

“It was an original trestle when they brought coal cars down from the old coal mines on top of the hill that fed the old Colfax station down by the river, before the Cheswick power station. Since the 1970s, it’s been used for a pipe bridge for transport of ash and water from the site across Pittsburgh Street,” Miller said.

At a town hall meeting on Thursday night, people who live in Springdale Borough had the opportunity to get some answers about the demolition plan and how it will impact them.

The owner and police said starting Nov. 13, Pittsburgh Street will be closed for at least five nights between Duquesne Avenue and Washington Street. It’ll make going between Cheswick and Springdale a bit of a chore from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“We have all the major intersections covered, we have road barricades at all the endpoints, and we will have police there to direct,” Springdale Borough Police Department Chief Derek Dayoub said. 

Sgt. Fred Hockenberry told KDKA-TV that police will block the intersections and sidewalks during the closures. He said the work is happening at night because Pittsburgh Street has major traffic during the day, including truck traffic.

“With this being a major artery that goes right along with (Route) 28, we do get a lot, especially we have a few businesses,” Sgt. Hockenberry said.

Springdale Borough police hosted the town hall so residents could ask questions about the process, concerns and detours.

“How far can traffic go?” one resident asked in the meeting.

“Is there going to be excessive noise through the area that would cause issues for the residents?” another neighbor asked.

“When they brought down the smokestacks, there was a danger zone. Are there any danger zones dropping this trestle?” a community member said.

Sam Miller with Charah Solutions, which manages the property, told community members there will be no danger zone, but people should expect some construction noise.

“We’re planning on closing the road, putting protection down on the road, and then cutting up the bridge in pieces and taking it down piece by piece,” Miller said.

“We’re going to do it safely and we’re going to try to do it as efficiently as possible to minimize the effects to the community,” he added.

Sgt. Hockenberry said they have a plan to make sure there’s no impact on emergency response times.

“We did coordinate with Charah Solutions into using the backside of the plant for emergency vehicles to be able to go to and from the location if need be for medial, fire or police emergency,” Sgt. Hockenberry said.

The trestle removal project is part of the demolition process at the old power station. Miller said Charah Solutions hopes to sell after cleaning up the property to industrial standards.