Football: Losses stem from fourth quarter woes

After Saturday night’s 26-23 loss to Cincinnati, the Pitt football team sits with a mediocre… After Saturday night’s 26-23 loss to Cincinnati, the Pitt football team sits with a mediocre 4-5 record, but things might be different if the Panthers could consistently play well in the fourth quarter.

In the Panthers’ five losses, the offense has scored a combined 10 points in the fourth quarter. Of those five losses, Pitt was shut out three times in the final quarter.

The offense has shown that it is capable of finishing games. In contrast to the offensive performance in the team’s defeats, the Panthers’ offense has scored a combined 38 points in the fourth quarter of Pitt’s four victories.

Head coach Todd Graham’s Panthers have held the lead entering the fourth quarter in all nine games the team has played. The loss to the Bearcats marked the third time that Pitt fell in a game it had led by 10 points or more.

“Going into the second half, we had them on the ropes,” Pitt safety Andrew Taglianetti said after the loss to Cincinnati. “I just don’t think we finished all the way through. It’s frustrating to lose a game like that.”

If the Panthers had managed to win the three games they initially led by double digits — against Iowa, Utah and now Cincinnati — they would be sitting at 7-2 and in first place in the Big East standings.

Instead, Pitt must now win two of its final three games just to make a bowl game.

“This is a crazy league and it isn’t over yet,” Graham said in a postgame press conference. “We have three games left. We’ve got to regroup and our guys will do that.”

Pitt’s offensive struggles at the end of games have been the common denominator behind the blown leads.

“We’ve been playing sound football for about 45 minutes and falling off,” Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri said of the offense after Saturday’s loss. “We have to make sure we do it for 60 minutes, keep our composure and execute our plays.”

While the offense has struggled to put points on the board late in games, the defense has also had trouble stopping opponents in the fourth quarter.

The Panthers’ defensive unit has allowed a total of 56 points in the final quarter of Pitt losses this season, which means the team has been outscored by a whopping 56-10 margin in the final 15 minutes of the losses to Iowa, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Utah and Cincinnati.

Pitt defensive end Brandon Lindsey acknowledged that sometimes the defense feels like its job is to go out and win the game.

“We don’t depend on anyone else to get it done but ourselves,” he said after the Cincinnati game. “That’s our mindset from the get-go.”

If the Panthers want to finish the season strong and make a bowl game, the late game struggles must be resolved — and soon.

Sunseri believes that avoiding turnovers might be the key to helping Pitt close out games.

“You can’t have turnovers at your own 30 [yard line],” he said. “I have to make sure that I play turnover-free and keep the ball high and tight. We just have to keep moving forward and learn from our mistakes.”