WATCH: Pittsburgh's defense makes house call with pick-six
The Pittsburgh Panthers are one of the surprise teams in the ACC this year. They have been led by their offense and Heisman-hopeful Kenny Pickett. And so far against the Clemson Tigers, they have had the upper hand with their offensive play. But on this touchdown, it was their defense making the play for six.
On second-and-eight from Panthers 47-yard line Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei set up for a shovel pass to running back Kobe Pace. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Pittsburgh linebacker SirVocea Dennis read the play perfectly and shot through the line. He picked off the shovel pass running it back 53 yards for the touchdown. That score extends Pittsburgh’s lead two a 14 point advantage. The Panthers are currently up 21-7 midway through the third quarter.
Pittsburgh… the better team
Coming into this game, Pittsburgh has the better record between the two teams at 5-1. Their offense, led by Pickett he is one of the best ones in the ACC. Entering this game, Pickett has completed 143-205 passes for a 69.8 completion percentage. He has thrown 21 touchdowns on the season but has only had one pass intercepted this year.
The Panthers’ defense as of late has risen to the challenge of slowing down their opponent’s offense over their past three games. Only Georgia Tech was able to score more than seven points, with 21. And in that game, they held the Yellow Jackets to 2-11 on 3rd down conversions.
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In Saturday’s game, they are facing off against a Clemson team that has struggled to find any offensive identity on the season. Not only that but after poor play to start the season and two losses the tigers are currently unranked in the AP top 25.
Since throwing that interception Clemson has elected to pull Uiagalelei and replace him with sophomore Taison Phommachanh. If this move finishes off Uiagalelei’s day, he will have completed less than 50 percent of his passes (11-23) with two interceptions thrown and 0 touchdowns.
There is still time for the Clemson Tigers to pull off the upset. However, given the way they’ve looked throughout the season and in this game, those chances are slim at best.