Football: Fourth quarter struggles continue

The Pitt football team just hasn’t been able to win the close games this season.

Friday’s… The Pitt football team just hasn’t been able to win the close games this season.

Friday’s 21-20 defeat in the Backyard Brawl at West Virginia was simply a case of history repeating itself for the Panthers in 2011.

The game marked the fourth time this season that Pitt — now 5-6 and 3-3 in the Big East — jumped out to a double-digit lead, only to see it slip away and result in a loss. Coach Todd Graham’s team led by 17 against Iowa, 14 against Utah, 10 against Cincinnati and 14 against West Virginia, yet lost all four games.

This weekend’s one-point margin of defeat also takes the Panthers’ record to 0-4 this season in games decided by five points or fewer.

“It hurts,” sophomore defensive tackle Aaron Donald said after the West Virginia game. “We had it, but we just couldn’t finish it off.”

Most of the team’s struggles in crunch time during close games can be directly connected to the offensive play and, ultimately, to junior quarterback Tino Sunseri.

Since becoming the starter at the beginning of last season, Sunseri has had seven opportunities to tie or win a game by leading a scoring drive in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter. Only once has he succeeded — in a game against Utah in his very first start to begin the 2010 season. But Sunseri then threw an interception in overtime that gave Utah the win.

The numerous sacks conceded in late-in-the-game situations are the main reason the offense hasn’t been able to sustain late drives.

“You can’t take sacks the last drive of the game,” Sunseri said. “You have to be able to get the ball out of your hands and get it over to people, and we just weren’t able to.”

But taking sacks is exactly what Sunseri has done.

At West Virginia on Friday, Sunseri was sacked an incredible 10 times, including four times in the last drive of the game alone.

“Puzzling, head-scratching, don’t understand it,” Coach Graham said when asked about the number of sacks taken late in the game. “That’s obviously not what we’re trying to execute. It’s a two-minute situation, and we practice it all the time. You can’t take sacks, and we sat there and just took one right after another.”

The offensive struggles have occurred during more than just the final drive, too.

In Pitt’s six losses this season, the Panthers have only scored a combined 10 points in the fourth quarter — a mere field goal against Iowa and a touchdown in the blowout loss to Rutgers.

For as poor as the offense has been, however, Coach Graham said the defense has done more than enough to win games.

“Our defense has played well all year long,” he said. “We are playing so good in so many areas, and then there are just a few areas which are absolutely killing us.”

“It’s frustrating,” safety Andrew Taglianetti said. “But I think on defense and special teams we did our job, and that’s all I can speak for because those are the only units I’m on.”

Even the quarterback acknowledged the lopsided performance following the West Virginia game.

“Our offense let down our defense,” Sunseri said.