Weekly Kickoff: Pitt has chance to rebound vs. Marshall

Pitt has come close to knocking off two quality teams on the road but lost in the final minutes against both Oklahoma State and North Carolina. Instead of being 4-0, the Panthers find themselves at 2-2 and desperately in need of a win.

They’ll get that chance against the Marshall Thundering Herd this weekend.

Pitt faces Marshall in a night kickoff this weekend as the team gets back to its home field. Seemingly, this is what the Panthers need to get back on track.

No, Marshall isn’t necessarily a gimme but it’s obviously a game that Pitt should win.

The Thundering Herd looked incredibly impressive with a 62-0 win over Morgan State. But since then, they’ve struggled badly. First came a 65-38 blowout loss to Akron. This past weekend, Marshall was routed 59-28 against Louisville.

The big thing here to watch is the status of quarterback Chase Litton. Litton dropped six touchdown passes against Morgan State then added four more against Akron before suffering concussion symptoms. He wasn’t healthy enough to play against Louisville on Saturday and his availability will be something to watch.

Pitt fans will likely be scared by some of those passing numbers and, well, given the state of the secondary, they probably should be. Litton is yet another quarterback they’ll face with the ability to sling the ball all over the field and not only put up 722 passing yards in those first two games but has those ten passing touchdowns. If he’s able to play this weekend, that could hurt.

For Marshall’s sake, they better hope he does go. His replacement, Garet Morrell, didn’t fare nearly as well this weekend. Sure, he was facing Louisville. But Morrell really struggled to do much of anything despite two touchdown passes. On the day, he was 9-21 for only 59 yards and an interception. You have to figure that even Pitt’s suspect secondary should be able to rebound well if it’s Morrell in the game.

While Marshall’s passing game will depend on which quarterback is in there, the running game looks to be solid. It’s a by-committee approach there with four guys carrying the load. Keion Davis, Hyleck Foster, Tony Pittman, and Anthony Anderson have combined for 119 carries and 465 rushing yards.

Defensively, the Thundering Herd have struggled. They shut out Morgan State, but allowed a whopping 124 points to Akron and Louisville. Marshall has had problems against both the run and the pass, but probably struggled a little more in the passing game, allowing nearly 800 yards in the air in both of those games.

It will be interesting to see if Pitt tries to air it out a bit more this week. Nathan Peterman has certainly shown some limitations but facing an opponent that’s been pretty bad in pass defense might mean the Panthers try to pass a little bit more. I’m not expecting a 300-yard game or anything but Peterman could do a bit more this weekend.

The past two weeks have been disappointing. But playing good teams on the road is never easy. A 2-2 record at this point with that schedule, while frustrating given that Pitt had last week’s game won, is entirely reasonable for a program still on the rise. But there’s no doubt that the Panthers need to rebound on Saturday and cannot afford a loss going up against Marshall at home.

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