Blue Team wins Pitt Spring Game over Gold, 10-3

Pitt football’s spring game was held on Saturday at Heinz Field. The Panthers’ Blue team topped the Gold, 10-3, in a primarily defensive contest.

The game was tied 3-3 late with only field goals being scored until the Blue team got a pick six interception from Dane Jackson with about a minute left to play.

Here’s the full box score of the game.

All eyes were mostly on Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett, who was okay in captaining the Gold team. He completed more than half of his passes (13-23) for 140 yards but didn’t have any touchdowns and was the one who threw the pick to Jackson. Sticking with the quarterback theme, incoming transfer Ricky Town didn’t look too good for the winning team, completing only one of his nine passes.

It’s always hard to take these games too seriously for any number of reasons. The offenses certainly struggled but that also means the defenses played well. Further, not only were some guys limited in playing time, Pitt will have more guys in the mix in the fall.

Also, consider Pitt’s philosophy under head coach Pat Narduzzi. Narduzzi’s always been super secretive about what his offenses are doing and even as late as the season openers against weaker teams, isn’t generally showing too much on offense. That they couldn’t get much going on Saturday is hardly a surprise. You can actually make the argument that had they done much of anything, it would be cause for alarm for the defensive guys because the playbook certainly was limited.

I just can’t get too excited about Pickett throwing a late game pick, the running game struggling, etc. There are legitimate offensive questions for the team but trying to read too much into a spring game is kind of nuts.

Narduzzi said it best after the game when he said the most important thing was likely that the team got out of the game relatively healthy.

With that said, wake me when fall camp is here.

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