Pitt Cruises Past Delaware in Season Opener

Pitt cruises past Delaware in season opener
By Jerry DiPaola
http://triblive.com/sports/college/p...#axzz3BzPKdnoq

Eyes straight ahead, jaw set firmly, Pitt quarterback Chad Voytik wasn't kidding.
Football matters too much for him to make light of it, even when the result is the ridiculously easy 62-0 victory Saturday against overmatched Delaware at Heinz Field.
The message for Pitt and a crowd of 40,549 to carry home?
The Panthers have much work to do because every team on the schedule will be significantly better than the Fightin' Blue Hens.
“I have a lot of room for improvement,” Voytik said after his first career start. “And I'm not just saying that because that's what you're supposed to say.”
The good news is that Pitt was dominant, recording the largest margin of victory in an opener in 101 years. Even while playing more than half the game without star wide receiver Tyler Boyd, who suffered a dislocated left pinky returning a punt in the second quarter.
The word on Boyd is that the injury is nothing to ignore, but, perhaps, not serious enough to upset the order of things when Pitt opens its ACC season Friday night at Boston College.
Asked if he expects to have Boyd available Friday, Pitt coach Paul Chryst was cryptic. “We'll find out, but I do,” he said.
As for the rest of the team, it didn't belong on the same field with Delaware, whose defensive line was shoved around like a rag doll in the teeth of a Doberman.
The Pitt running game worked so well that the game's leading rusher, sophomore James Conner, played only the first half and ran for 153 yards and four touchdowns on 14 carries.
Backups Rachid Ibrahim and freshman Chris James added 91 and 77 yards, respectively, each carrying 14 times. Throw in Isaac Bennett's 32 yards and various totals from assorted sources — eight players carried the football — and Pitt walked away with 409 yards on the ground (an average of 7.3 per try).
“When you run for over 400 yards, you're doing something right,” center Artie Rowell said.
Just as impressive was the Pitt defense, which wasn't tested by what had been advertised as a potentially productive Blue Hens passing game. Quarterback Trent Hurley, a Greensburg Central Catholic graduate, completed only six of his 13 attempts for 19 yards.
Pitt linebackers Todd Thomas and Matt Galambos and safety Terrish Webb recorded interceptions, totaling half as many catches as the Delaware receivers had on passes from Hurley. Safety Ray Vinopal almost had another.
“I thought they did a nice job,” coach Paul Chryst said of his defense. He was especially “proud” of how Delaware's recovery of a fumbled punt on the Pitt 28 led only to Thomas' interception two plays later.
Overall, Pitt allowed Delaware (0-1) only 57 yards of total offense, the lowest in 16 years, and secured a shutout for the first time since 2005.
Still, Chryst will ask them for more this week.
“They will continue to be a group that will evolve and grow,” he said.Which is the point, after all.
Chryst talked after the game of the “teaching moments” that emerged during the game. Pitt fumbled four times, losing one on the punt, and Chryst indicated that the five penalties will be emphasized during video review Sunday.
“I think that will be the case all year,” he said. “Our guys get that. I like the way they were after the game. They were smiling and appreciative of it, but they know we have a ways to go.”
“We're not going to be arrogant enough to not celebrate,” Rowell said. “But we are moving forward. We are not going to hang our hats on this game.”