Saddled: No. 20 Mustangs race past No. 18 Pitt for the Panther’s first loss of the season

Pitt football is no longer flawless after a late-night road trip to SMU where the Panthers fell 48-25 — a final score much closer than the game felt. Not one Pitt unit performed up to par as SMU ran past their first ranked opponent of the season.

Redshirt first-year quarterback Eli Holstein completed 60.4% of his passes for 248 yards and an interception. The loss is Holstein’s second game of his young career with zero touchdowns. Junior running back Desmond Reid rushed for 49 yards on 13 attempts and a touchdown. Sophomore wide receiver Kenny Johnson caught eight passes for 81 yards and a touchdown and senior wide receiver Konata Mumpfield added six catches for 68 yards.

“Well, that was not the football game that we all expected,” head coach Pat Narduzzi said after the loss. “I’ll start off by giving SMU credit. Coach [Lashlee]’s got a good football team, a really good football team. They made plays and we didn’t. 

SMU’s sophomore quarterback Kevin Jennings completed 68% of his passes for 306 yards and two touchdowns. Senior running back Brashard Smith rushed for a season-high 161 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries. Senior tight end Matthew Hibner had 108 of his season-total 178 yards against the Panthers in the win. 

Explosive plays gashed Pitt early and the Panthers never stopped bleeding. SMU recorded seven plays of 20 yards or more – several due to poor Panther tackling. On the Mustangs’ second play of the game Jennings found senior wide receiver Key’Shawn Smith 43-yards down the left sideline. That was all the momentum the Mustangs needed for redshirt junior running back LJ Johnson Jr. to get into the endzone and start the scoring bonanza.

“You know, obviously we didn’t have our football team ready to go today. We didn’t execute like we have,” Narduzzi said. “A lot of missed tackles on defense, we gave up too many explosives, and again, it starts with me and ends with me and I’ll take full responsibility for the loss.”

The Panthers couldn’t effectively answer. A pass interference flag on SMU extended Pitt’s drive into SMU’s territory, but Holstein took a sack on third-and-four, forcing Pitt to punt. Third down struggles have maligned Pitt’s offense in recent weeks. The Panthers have converted only seven of their 35 third-down tries over the last three games.  

The first quarter contained very few positives for the Panthers. Two seven-yard Reid runs and two Holstein completions got Pitt right outside the red zone. Although a successful drive, the Panthers could only answer with a 44-yard field goal from redshirt senior place kicker Ben Sauls, his 15th consecutive make, cutting Pitt’s deficit 3-7.

Pitt’s poor tackling helped kickstart Smith’s night. The senior averaged 4.1 yards on nine carries. That effective ground game made defending Jenning’s aerial assault much tougher. Jennings eclipsed 100 yards passing in the first quarter. Senior wide receiver Roderick Daniels Jr. extended SMU’s lead 14-3 with a three-yard run capping off a 15-play, 75-yard drive highlighted by two 20-plus-yard Jennings passes.

Down 11 points, Pitt needed to answer. Holstein was sacked on the first play of the series. But Holstein drew roughing the passer and kept the drive alive. That hit must’ve woke Holstein up as the redshirt first-year completed three straight passes, leading Pitt to the red zone. 

Then the unthinkable happened. Sauls missed a 47-yard field goal – his first miss since Nov. 16, 2023. Nothing could go Pitt’s way.

“We got to protect [Holstein] better,” Narduzzi said. “Whether we got to put six guys in there, whatever, max protect, we got to find a way to protect him. We gotta get the ball out and then we got to catch the ball. I think we had more drops today than in the seven previous games all together.”

SMU’s Smith broke off a 71-yard touchdown on the first play of SMU’s series, extending the Mustangs’ lead 21-3. Making matters worse for Pitt, Holstein could only muster a three-and-out with the game slipping away. Pitt’s defense responded by forcing a three-and-out of its own, but the Panthers needed points.

Holstein started to breed life into the offense with four straight completions to Johnson, the longest a 24-yard connection. Even with the Holstein-Johnson connection excelling for the drive, the Panthers continued to struggle elsewhere. Pitt was flagged for holding then Holstein was strip-sacked, killing the drive. Still, few positives for the Panthers.

Possibly out of frustration, Pitt grabbed a facemask on the first play of its defensive series and then couldn’t recover a Johnson Jr. fumble. Everything was coming up Mustangs. Having avoided the bad beat, Jennings found Daniels Jr. for a 25-yard completion to get into the red zone. Then, Jennings found Smith three yards out for the running back’s second touchdown of the day and extended the Mustangs’ lead 28-3.

The first half couldn’t have felt longer for Pitt. A holding penalty set back Pitt’s first snap of the series. Then, on third-and-17, Holstein was sacked again and the Panthers had to punt. With 49 seconds in the half, SMU got into field goal range and knocked in a 50-yard try as the half expired.

Pitt trailed 31-3 going into the half with only 143 yards of total offense and 1-7 on third down.

“I apologize to our fans out there,” Narduzzi said. “I know we all expected to get it done. It’s hard to win every week. It’s harder on the road. And when you don’t play great, and you don’t coach great, this is what happens.”

Narduzzi echoed that nothing could go right today, proving to himself that the coaches were to blame.

“We didn’t punt the ball well when we had to punt it. I think we had a 31-yard average and that’s not where we’ve been.”

The second half didn’t start any differently for Pitt. Holstein connected with Reid and senior tight end Gavin Bartholomew for short gains, but the Panthers turned it over on downs as Bartholomew couldn’t reach the sticks after Pitt desperately tried a fake punt in its own territory on fourth down.

On the opposing end, the second half started no different for SMU – Smith rattled off a 12-yard run on the Mustangs’ first play. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Kyle Louis made a play for the Sharks with a sack on Jennings, but that wasn’t enough to keep the Mustangs out of field goal range. SMU led 34-3 with 9:39 left in the third quarter.

It was do-or-die time for the Panthers. With their post-season viability arguably on the line, Holstein needed to perform. Holstein connected with redshirt senior tight end Jake Overman for 16 yards and two more times with Johnson to get inside SMU’s ten-yard line, getting so close to their first touchdown.

But close doesn’t count outside of horseshoes and hand grenades. On fourth-and-six, Holstein found Johnson, but Johnson was brought down short of the endzone and the Panthers turned it over.

Pitt’s defense forced a three-and-out with its outstanding field position, but the Panthers’ morale was low.

With the game almost out of reach, senior running back Rodney Hammond Jr. got four of his 12 carries this season helping the Panthers get down the field. Holstein scrambled for 24 yards, accelerating the drive which led to a one-yard touchdown run by Reid — Pitt’s first of the day. Holstein even got in for the two-point conversion. But it was too little too late.

Deja vu struck for Pitt when Key’Shawn Smith caught another 43-yard pass leading to SMU’s other Smith knocking in another touchdown on a six-play, 75-yard drive, extending SMU’s lead to 41-11.

Finally, the Panthers marched, but it wasn’t easy. Reid recovered a Holstein fumble, saving the drive, but Holstein completed five passes of ten-plus-yards to make up for it. Then, on SMU’s five-yard line, Holstein threw an interception into the endzone, and the Mustangs capitalized with a one-play, 80-yard touchdown, extending their lead 48-11. Although time was still on the clock, the game was over.

“We gotta make plays. It’s hard to win when you’re minus two in the turnover ratio,” Narduzzi said. “We didn’t get any on defense and we didn’t tackle well. That was the most disappointing thing.”

Redshirt junior quarterback Nate Yarnell entered the game late in the fourth quarter in an attempt to give Pitt a spark, but it was too late. Yarnell completed nine of his ten pass attempts for 99 yards and led two late touchdown drives, leading to a final score that looked much closer than the game ever was.

“It’s a team game,” Narduzzi said. “It takes 11 guys out there running the right routes, it takes protection, you got to trust your protection and you got to get the ball out. We’ll look at it, but it’s one of those games. [Holstein]’s played well all year. We just wanted to get him out of there at the end just to protect him and to make sure we didn’t lose him late in that game. You can’t be great everyday. We’ll bounce back.”

Pitt is no longer flawless, and it came in a complete disaster of a game against its first-ranked opponent. Next, Pitt fans hope to see their team bounce back next week when they host Virginia.

“The message is, ‘it’s one game.’ It’s hard to win every week,” Narduzzi said in his message to the team after the loss. “It’s hard to be on every week. Maybe as a team, and as a staff, we didn’t handle success. Our guys handle adversity, and this is adversity. Our guys will bounce back. You can see them in the locker room. They’re not discouraged. I told them I loved them. I loved them as much as I did game one through game seven. We win as a team and we lose as a team. We’ll bounce back and be ready to roll.”