Mason Heintschel Beginning to Struggle

The Pitt Panthers defeated the Syracuse Orange 27-13 to win their first ACC game of the season and move to 3-0. Pitt hasn’t lost to Syracuse at home since 2001.

While it’s always good to win, this game was similar to last year’s matchup with the Orange, even having a similar final score. The team won despite offensive struggles, with the defense stepping up to make big plays.

It wasn’t all bad on the offensive end, but there’s a lot to be desired as the ACC matchups only get tougher from here.

Heintschel Struggles

Quarterback Mason Heintschel started his sophomore season lighting up Miami (OH), leading the team to 59 points, throwing for 453 passing yards and seven touchdowns to seven different players.

This excellent play got Heintschel on several awards lists and even some Heisman buzz. Since then, he hasn’t thrown the ball quite as well.

The game against UCF being played during a downpour, was a decent excuse for only putting up 12 points and throwing for zero touchdowns. But on a mostly clear night against Syracuse, Heintschel only threw for 123 passing yards and his first interception of the season.

Heintschel still was able to use his legs to break some sacks, keep plays alive and even run in for a touchdown. But he was overthrowing his receivers on pivotal plays that could’ve put the game away even earlier. The sophomore went 10/23 for passing in the biggest game so far this season.

Heintschel is missing some of his best targets, as starting running back Ja’Kyrian Turner and wide receiver Malik Knight have missed the past two games. But that didn’t matter in Week 1, as Heintschel connected with players both new to the team and returning.

“I didn’t play well, and that can’t happen,” Heintschel said postgame. “Receivers were creating separation, I just couldn’t hit them.”

This doesn’t mean anybody should be out on Heintschel. He also struggled last season against Syracuse before going on to put up huge numbers in bigger matchups. But it would be nice to see something close to what he did in Week 1 again.

Improved Run Game

Something on offense that has improved is the run game. Despite starting running back ‘Boosie’ Turner being out, backups Damon Ferguson Jr. and La’Vell Wright had even better games than during UCF. Ferguson rushed for 102 yards in just ten carries while Wright rushed for 81 yards in 14 carries. Both players had touchdowns as well.

The running backs obviously deserve a lot of the credit, but the veteran offensive line has also mightly improved since Week 1. The running backs had more space than ever to actually make big plays.

The best drive of the night was in the third quarter when the Panthers took just four plays to rush 76 yards down the field for a touchdown.

Defense Still Dominate

For the second game in a row, the defense was the true hero. Pitt’s defense held the Orange to 142 rushing yards, 3.9 rushing yards per attempt, made eight tackles for a loss and held quarterback Steve Angeli to 13/25 on pass attempts.

Some of the biggest plays include Raion Strader getting his second interception of the season, Braylan Lovelace making the big interception play that’s expected of him and a huge pass break-up in the endzone by Shawn Lee Jr.

Even when Syracuse scored their lone touchdown of the game, it took six plays after a flag for them to move the ball two yards into the endzone.

Pitt faces Bucknell for their next game on Sept 26, which is hopefully a game where both the offense and defense can click at the same time. After that is a road game night game at Virginia Tech, the Panthers’ first real test of the season.

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