The Turning Point: An Early Turnover

Pitt’s offense has been in its fair share of back and forth games, where they have been forced to keep up with the opponents abusing the Panther defense. Pitt’s defense decided to flip the script yesterday, and it worked. They did it early and it keyed a 56-14 Pitt Panther conference victory. An early turnover put the Blue Devils on their heels and they never really seemed to recover.

On Duke’s second offensive play of the game, Shaun Wilson was met in the middle of the line by sophomore linebacker, Oluwaseun Idowu. Idowu, who has quietly had a solid season, forced a fumble deep in Duke territory. The loose ball was picked up by fellow linebacker Matt Galambos and gave Pitt the football at the Blue Devils’ 17-yard line. Three plays later, Pitt was up by seven and off and running.

Duke was able to tie the game, but with Pitt getting the ball to start the second half of the game, the early turnover had the Devils feeling the heat the rest of the half. Pitt’s offense didn’t let up and it helped give the Panthers a nice lead and the offense continued to build on that lead to give Pitt fans some breathing room...for once this season.

Idowu, a North Allegheny graduate, spent the entire training camp locked into a battle with converted linebacker, Elijah Zeise. Zeise went down in the Villanova game and has been out ever since. Pitt needed Idowu to step up and and he has all year. He may have been missing a big splash play, but that changed yesterday for the better, giving Pitt an important conference victory.

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