Finish the Block, Break the Run: Inside Pitt's Standout Rushing Game

Pitt has now shown it can win in more than one way through three games.

The passing game carried the opener. The defense carried the second game. On Thursday against Syracuse, it was the running game, with tons of timely defensive plays mixed in, that got the job done.

And it wasn't close.

The Panthers piled up 245 yards on the ground, their best rushing output of the season by a wide margin, more than double what they managed against Miami (OH) and UCF.

Damon Ferguson Jr. and La'Vell Wright took turns breaking off chunks of yardage, and the offensive line spent the afternoon setting the tone up front.

Ferguson led the way with 102 yards, an eye-opening number for a true freshman going up against an ACC front seven. His signature moment came late in the second quarter, a 32-yard touchdown run where he made a cut that left a Syracuse defender grasping at air, stayed on his feet and walked into the end zone to put Pitt up 14-0.

It was the kind of run that gets rewatched.

"My O-line got off the ball, I saw a wide open hole, and said let's hit it," Ferguson said. "And my receivers out there were doing a great job blocking. Mason [Heintschel] even helped out there with the block. After that it was just God's work."

Wright got in on it too, scoring his first touchdown of the season on a two-yard plunge that capped a drive kept alive by a pair of Syracuse penalties on fourth-and-8.

He added 16 yards on Pitt's next touchdown drive, a four-play, 76-yard sequence that also featured an 18-yard Ferguson run, a 33-yard Ferguson run and a nine-yard touchdown scramble from quarterback Mason Heintschel.

Cook chipped in an explosive 23-yard run of his own, one that likely would have gone the distance had he not gotten hurt on the play.

"We all are explosive in our own ways," Ferguson said. "Everybody in that running back room can do whatever they put their mind to."

For all the flash from the backs, the story up front was more about discipline than highlight reels.

Head coach Pat Narduzzi pointed to one specific phrase after the game: finishing blocks.

"One of the big emphasis and keys to victory going into that game was we got to finish blocks, not just get a hat on a hat, but finish them off," Narduzzi said. "That's what we did today. I think we'll watch the videotape and go, 'We finished blocks.' That's how you break runs."

It's a small distinction that shows up in big ways. Getting a hand on a defender is one thing. Driving him out of the play long enough for a back to find the crease is another, and Narduzzi credited his offensive line for doing exactly that.

The performance carries extra weight given who wasn't on the field. Ja'Kyrian "Boosie" Turner, Pitt's RB1, missed the game, and the running back room behind him had been viewed as a question mark coming into the season.

One touchdown through the ground game in the opener didn't do much to settle those nerves. Thursday was the answer. Whatever the concerns had been about depth, this was Pitt showing it had plenty of it.

Heintschel, who had an uncharacteristically quiet day throwing the ball, said as much when asked about the balance Pitt showed. He described the win as exciting, not just because of what the backs did but because of what it revealed about the offense as a whole. When the run game clicks the way it did Thursday he said, it shows how much better this team can be.

He didn't hold back his praise for Ferguson specifically, calling him a special player and pointing to the touchdown cut as proof.

"He's a great player," Heintschel said. "I'm excited for the country to start realizing how good of a player he is. La'Vell was running his tail off too.We came out in the second half and ran really well. I couldn't throw the ball. I just couldn't complete a pass. But we were able to run it effectively. Thankfully the defense played well too."

Linebacker Braylan Lovelace, watching Ferguson's emergence from the other side of the ball, put it about as plainly as it can be put.

"He's a young guy, but it doesn't matter what age you are," Lovelace said. "If you're a dog, you're a dog. As y'all can see out there, he's a dog. He came in, put his head down and just began to work. Expect a lot more out of him."

Turner's absence was supposed to be a stress test for Pitt's backfield. Instead it turned into a showcase, one built behind a line that's finishing what it starts and a room full of backs who, in Ferguson's words, can all be explosive in their own way.