The Pittsburgh Football Podcast

By Chris Gates | The Pittsburgh Football Podcast

In a 12-7 football game, every yard matters.

That was especially true Saturday at Acrisure Stadium, where torrential rain turned Pitt’s matchup with UCF into a battle of field position, defense and simply avoiding the catastrophic mistake.

Pitt’s defense understandably received plenty of attention after the Panthers improved to 2-0. It held UCF to 206 total yards, completely shut down the Knights’ rushing attack and came up with the stops Pitt needed late in the fourth quarter.

But the defense had some help.

Pitt’s special teams — and punter Gabe Russo in particular — quietly played a major role in getting the Panthers out of one of the strangest games they’ll play all season with a 12-7 win.

Russo punted eight times against UCF.

Three of those punts landed inside the 20-yard line.

And on a day when one mistake could have completely changed the game, Russo continually did his job.

Field position became everything

Under normal circumstances, eight punts aren’t exactly a statistic an offense wants to celebrate.

Saturday was anything but normal.

Once the rain intensified, Pitt’s entire approach changed. With a 12-0 lead, the Panthers became increasingly conservative offensively and tried to shorten the game.

That meant running the football.

It meant keeping the clock moving.

And it meant accepting that sometimes the best outcome of an offensive possession was simply avoiding a turnover and giving the defense enough field behind it to work with.

That made Russo enormously important.

Pitt wasn’t consistently sustaining drives in the second half. There were going to be punts. The question was whether those punts would continually force UCF to travel a significant distance to score or eventually provide the Knights with the short field they desperately needed.

Russo kept making UCF work.

That mattered because Pitt’s defense was already controlling the game.

When you have a defense playing that well, field position becomes a weapon.

Make the opponent drive 60, 70 or 80 yards. Give the defense more opportunities to create a negative play, force a punt or produce a turnover.

In a five-point game played in a downpour, those hidden yards become incredibly valuable.

One bad punt could have changed everything

There’s another part of Russo’s performance that shouldn’t be overlooked.

He avoided the disaster.

Punting is easy to take for granted until it goes wrong. Pitt fans have seen games in previous seasons where a poor punt suddenly handed an opponent excellent field position.

For the past few years, the Caleb Junko experience was a mixture of booming punts downfield followed by shanks out of bounds that traveled 15-20 yards.

On Saturday, the conditions made that possibility even more dangerous.

• The ball was soaked.
• The field was slick.
• The rain was coming down heavily for much of the second half.

Russo still had to receive the snap, handle the football and consistently strike it well enough to get Pitt out of trouble.

Eight different times.

It only would have taken one mishit to potentially change the game.

Imagine UCF taking possession on Pitt’s 40 nstead of being pushed deeper into its own territory. In a game where neither offense could consistently move the football, 30 or 40 yards of field position could have been enormous.

Russo never gave the Knights that gift.

Sometimes the value of special teams isn’t producing a spectacular highlight.

Sometimes it’s making sure the opponent never gets one.

Russo’s performance complemented an excellent defense

Pitt’s defense deserves enormous credit for what it did against UCF.

The Knights managed only 206 total yards and struggled to run the football throughout the afternoon.

But Russo continually put that defense in favorable situations.

Those two things worked together.

Pitt could afford to play the game the way it did because the Panthers could trust their defense to get stops. And the defense had more margin for error because Russo repeatedly made UCF travel the field.

That relationship became especially important as the game progressed.

UCF finally put together a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter to cut Pitt’s lead to 12-7. Suddenly, what had felt like a relatively controlled game became uncomfortable.

The Knights eventually got another opportunity with the football and a chance to win.

Pitt’s defense responded and shut the door.

That’s the moment everyone will remember from the defense.

But throughout the afternoon, Russo helped make sure the Knights weren’t constantly beginning possessions with a shorter path to the end zone.

In a game decided by five points, that shouldn’t be treated as a minor detail.

Pitt’s specialists are off to an encouraging start

Russo’s performance also fits into a larger special-teams storyline through Pitt’s first two games.

The Panthers have received some encouraging play from their specialists.

Antonio Chadha provided one of the biggest special-teams moments of the season opener when he drilled a 58-yard field goal against Miami (Ohio).

Against UCF, Chadha connected from 28 yards and made his lone extra-point attempt.

Russo, meanwhile, has provided consistent punting through the opening two weeks.

It’s still far too early to make any definitive declarations about kickers and punters. Specialists can be notoriously difficult to evaluate over small samples, and one or two kicks can quickly change the perception of an entire season.

But through two games, Pitt has gotten about as much as it could reasonably ask for.

That’s significant.

There will eventually be another close game where Pitt needs a field goal late.

There will be another game where the offense stalls deep in its own territory and needs the punter to flip the field.

There will be another Saturday when the difference between starting at the 15-yard line and the 40-yard line changes how an entire possession unfolds.

If Pitt can trust its specialists in those situations, that’s an advantage.

Special teams helped Pitt win its clunker

There probably won’t be many Pitt fans who look back on the UCF game at the end of the season and remember it as an offensive masterpiece.

It wasn’t.

The weather made sure of that.

This was a survive-and-advance game.

• Pitt needed its defense to dominate.
• It needed its offense to protect the football and manufacture enough points.
• It needed players to keep competing through miserable conditions.
• And it needed its special teams to avoid giving UCF an opening.

Russo did more than that.

He repeatedly helped Pitt control field position at a time when field position was one of the most important aspects of the game.

Eight punts aren’t normally something worth celebrating.

On Saturday, those eight punts helped Pitt win.

And through two games, what once might have been viewed as an overlooked part of this roster is beginning to look like something the Panthers may be able to rely on.

Pitt’s offense will have better days.

The weather will certainly be better eventually.

But there are going to be more games this season where the margins are small and one kick, one punt or one field-position swing matters.

If the first two weeks are any indication, Pitt’s special teams might be ready to make a difference.