In college, life can come at you pretty fast. The football team is no exception.
After starting 2-0 and winning both games in convincing fashion, the team is in freefall. In the blink of an eye, the team has lost two straight. They’ve lost their first game of conference play and are coming off two straight gut-punch losses.
There’s no doubt that the sting of the Backyard Brawl loss was worse than this one.
In a game that saw the Panthers blow not one, but two double-digit leads, Pitt is now a shellshocked team at 2-2, having kicked off its conference play with a deflating loss to Louisville. A once-promising season now looks on the ropes in late September.
The turning point in their loss to Louisville was a controversial non-call on a Pitt punt return. With Pitt up 17-0, junior wide receiver Kenny Johnson looked to the sky, trying to catch the incoming punt, but he appeared to be obstructed from making the catch by Louisville senior wide receiver Antonio Meeks, which drew a flag.
However, the flag was eventually picked up after officials ruled that Pitt redshirt first-year defensive back Zion Ferguson had pushed Justin Beadles into Johnson. To rub some salt in that wound, since Pitt had touched the ball during play, Louisville jumping on the loose change proved pivotal, setting them up at Pitt’s three-yard line.
That play alone flipped things dramatically. For a crowd that perhaps didn’t look all that impressive on television, the 45,301 who were at Acrisure Stadium made their displeasure with the referees known throughout the rest of the half. Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi had an animated conversation with the officials a few plays later and continued to express his confusion with the play in his postgame presser.
Louisville, meanwhile, started its mountain climb by scoring a touchdown on a short field and making it a two-score game.
Turning points are not excuses, however. Pitt surrendered 17 unanswered points in the second quarter alone, allowing Louisville to get right back into the game in a matter of minutes. The Panthers were outscored 34-10 after they went up 17-0.
What also isn’t an excuse is the absence of senior running back Desmond Reid, who was out with an injury. Losing Reid certainly creates a void in the team’s playbook, and I wouldn’t blame Narduzzi and offensive coordinator Kade Bell for not feeling the most confident in a position now headed up by two first-years.
But both young rushers did very well in this one. First-year Juelz Goff averaged 4.6 yards a carry and first-year Ja’Kyrian Turner averaged six. But they combined for 13 carries in this game and were iced for large sections.
Pitt’s run game wasn’t stopped by Louisville. It was stopped by themselves. The decision to hinder a running game that performed surprisingly well made the offense incredibly one-dimensional.
Yes, the pass-heavy offense worked initially. It’s what led to redshirt sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein firing a deep-ball to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Blue Hicks for a 39-yard touchdown pass on a pass that only a player like Hicks could come down with. It’s also what led to Holstein finding redshirt senior Poppi Williams on a scramble play, 38 yards to the end zone right before the first half ended.
But as the game went on, the more predictable they got. And the Cardinals were eventually able to snuff it out and make Pitt pay. Holstein was intercepted twice in the second half, and both exhibited concerning patterns for the Louisiana native.
His first was picked off by redshirt junior linebacker Antonio Watts at the two-yard line, marking his third interception inside the opposing two-yard line. Pitt’s decision to continue to avoid the run cost them there.
Holstein was also picked off by redshirt senior linebacker TJ Quinn. It was another instance of Holstein throwing one to the middle of the field and seemingly not seeing the defender in between him and his target.
Holstein has now thrown a pick in each of his first four games this season. Near the end of the game, he watched on from the sidelines as backup senior Cole Gonzales led the final two drives of the game. Narduzzi said he was “looking for a spark” by putting Gonzales in, and stuck by Holstein as the starter moving forward. Even if that’s true — and it probably is — it’s not a good look for anyone involved.
After the West Virginia loss, Holstein said the team needed to focus on their upcoming ACC play and win out the rest of the way.
“We’ve got to win out,” he said in postgame availability that day. “There’s no option now.”
One game into that mission, Pitt blew multiple double-digit leads, and Holstein finished the game on the bench. He did not play well on Saturday — there’s no getting around that. But this loss went far beyond just the play of the quarterback. Several coaching decisions could have gone the other way, but the running game usage still makes no sense to me.
“I don’t know if we ran it enough. I’ll look at the tape,” Narduzzi said after the game.
The tape can certainly help, but I think the answer is pretty clear there. Goff and Turner deserved the chance to make a bigger impact.
This team is getting killed by odd and questionable coaching decisions. This was the kind of game that should have fans and program officials alike worried about the coaching staff moving forward.
And now, suddenly, an early October affair with Boston College looks a lot like a do-or-die game for this Pitt football team.
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