Pitt Football: 3 takeaways from ACC win at Syracuse in Week 8

2. Kenny Pickett had a mistake-free day

Two weeks ago, Kenny Pickett had his second multi-interception game against an ACC opponent. While Pitt took down Duke 33-30 on the road, the quarterback tossed two picks that threatened to allow the Blue Devils to snatch victory. Pickett also threw two interceptions in the season-opening loss at home against Virginia.

Conversely, Pickett avoided interceptions against all three of the non-conference opponents taken on by the Panthers this season. The quarterback finally played his first mistake-free game for Pitt against a conference foe to snatch the victory as a 10.5-point favorite on the road.

Pickett went off for 232 yards and two touchdowns on 18-of-33 passing. He did take several sacks, but Pickett held on to the football whenever he was brought down by an Orange defender. Turnovers can often doom a team, but this week Pickett had no trouble protecting the football and doing everything he could to prevent an upset away from home.

While the coaching staff would like to see more productivity overall from their quarterback, Pickett finally proved that he play well against a high-level opponent. It would have been nice to see more productivity from the passer in the second half, but his downswing was indicative of a bigger cold spell all throughout the 60 minutes.