Holstein played poorly, but fans could blame injuries

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein had a rough rematch against the Mountaineers last Saturday. In last year’s Backyard Brawl, Holstein led an improbable 10-point comeback over the Mountaineers, but the roles were reversed on Saturday as West Virginia completed a 10-point fourth-quarter victory.

Throughout the first two weeks of the season, Holstein had some poor throws and made some poor decisions, but his eight touchdown passes in two games were enough to lead Pitt to blowout victories against Duquesne and Central Michigan.

Against the stiffer competition of West Virginia, Holstein had his worst moments. Down 7-0 in the second quarter, Holstein drove the Panthers to West Virginia’s six-yard line in only three plays. Then, for the second game in a row, Holstein threw an interception in the end zone, directly to the defender.

However, the context is important. Two plays earlier, Holstein completed a 22-yard pass to senior wide receiver Raphael “Poppi” Williams Jr. Just after the throw, West Virginia redshirt first-year linebacker Ashton Woods was flagged for roughing the passer and further ejected for targeting against Holstein. I think it’s likely that Holstein was still shaken up — if not worse — from the helmet-to-helmet contact when he threw the interception.

That’s just speculation, especially because Holstein had some inaccurate or poorly timed throws before the targeting penalty.

With 11 seconds left in the game, West Virginia forced overtime. Despite Pitt’s defense spending 25 plays on and only five plays off the field in the final 9:23 of gametime, head coach Pat Narduzzi elected to start overtime on defense. As a shock to nobody, the Mountaineers scored with ease.

When Holstein got the ball, the Panthers couldn’t gain a single yard. On fourth down, game on the line, Holstein’s throw landed harmlessly without a single player within 10 yards — the perfect encapsulation of the 108th Backyard Brawl.

Then the camera cut to Holstein, with stitches on his face and a nose plug up one nostril, and it was clear he was not playing anywhere close to 100%. A loss to their most hated rival stings and it wasn’t anywhere close to Holstein’s best game. But, as Narduzzi mentioned after the loss, West Virginia is an out-of-conference opponent and Pitt is no further away from winning the ACC.

Too many mental errors and coaching mistakes

Electing to start overtime on defense is not a coaching decision I would call a mistake. But, considering the circumstances yesterday, I would argue that choosing to start on defense was the wrong decision. 

Here’s the situation — West Virginia just executed a 12-play, 72-yard drive, and Pitt’s defense held the Mountaineers to only a field goal to keep a 24-17 lead. Then, after only five offensive plays, Pitt and Narduzzi are looking at fourth down with four yards to go at West Virginia’s 37-yard line. Do they go for it or kick a 54-yard field goal with the chance to go up 10 points with under three minutes to play?

Neither — they elect to punt.

There’s a fun X bot that plugs every punt from an NFL team into a formula called the “Surrender Index.” If it’s late in a close game, and a team is on the opposing side of the field and only needs a few yards, the formula will show just how cowardly a decision the punt was. It would be a lot of fun to plug Pitt’s punt into this formula, but I don’t need math to tell me just how bad of an idea it was to put Pitt’s defense back on the field in this situation.

I have to give credit to Pitt senior punter Caleb Junko for pinning West Virginia on its own 13-yard line to start their final drive. But that great placement only set the Mountaineers back 29 yards — an amount West Virginia got back in double six plays later.

In the third quarter, redshirt junior linebacker Kyle Louis and sophomore linebacker Braylan Lovelace picked off the Mountaineers and returned the interception to West Virginia’s 14-yard line and 24-yard line, respectively.

After Louis’ pick, the Panthers got a nine-yard holding penalty and then a 12-yard intentional grounding penalty on consecutive snaps. Looking at fourth-and-24 on the 28-yard line, Pitt kicked a field goal.

After Lovelace’s pick, the Panthers were looking at third-and-one on West Virginia’s 15-yard line. Then, consecutive false start penalties and a subsequent pass short of the sticks forced another field goal.

After two interceptions in the red zone, six points and negative eight yards on the two drives combined is all the Panthers could achieve. These four penalties, especially ones of this nature, after such big plays from the defense, were indicative of a football team not ready for a moment as big as the Backyard Brawl.