In a Rut — Pitt falls to Scarlet Knights

PISCTAWAY, N.J. – With time running out and Pitt needing to convert a fourth down to keep an… PISCTAWAY, N.J. – With time running out and Pitt needing to convert a fourth down to keep an improbable comeback bid alive, one of the Panthers’ most unlikely candidates to complete an 18-yard pass found the ball, and the game, in his hands.

Throwing a sky-high, incomplete pass was punter Adam Graessle, whose toss downfield on a fake punt attempt proved to be Pitt’s last gasp of air, as a strong second half was all for naught in a 37-29 loss to Rutgers in the Big East opener for both teams Friday night.

“It’s difficult to take,” said Pitt wideout Derek Kinder, who had a game-high 10 catches for 78 yards and a touchdown in the contest. “You want to start conference play off real good, and we didn’t.”

“A furious comeback? Yeah, but what’s that mean, a nice effort?” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said after watching his injury-plagued offense run for -11 yards. “That’s not what we’re all about. We are just so inconsistent at doing some things. We dug ourselves a hole early.”

With just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Panthers trailing by eight, Tyler Palko completed a six-yard pass to Raymond Kirkley to set up a second-and-four from the Scarlet Knight 15. Momentum was on the Panthers’ side; they were almost all the way back from a near four-touchdown deficit. Rutgers was tired, Palko was making the right reads and his receivers were getting open.

These were the kind of drives the Scarlet Knights (3-1 overall, 1-0 Big East), who have lost six-straight contests to the Panthers (1-4, 0-1), were used to giving up.

Pitt, however, just never finished things off.

A penalty, nine-yard sack and an incomplete pass regressed the Panthers’ drive and reduced Wannstedt’s team to one final play. Rutgers sniffed out the fake punt from the start, knocking the errant pass to the turf, much to the approval of a roaring crowd of 37,514.

“They didn’t even have a returner back!” Wannstedt said emphatically of the ineffectiveness of the fake punt, a play that the team had been working on in practice. “What’s frustrating is I thought we were making some headway. We just fell behind so fast, we fell out of sync.”

Rutgers, on the contrary, couldn’t have been more in sync for the opening 30 minutes. Behind senior quarterback Ryan Hart, who became the school’s all-time leading passer in the game, the Scarlet Knights moved the ball with surprising ease. Behind several big plays, Rutgers opened up leads of 17-0 and 27-0 after the first two quarters, amassing 303 yards of offense along the way.

Pitt, however, had nothing go right in the first half. Blitzes were picked up instantly, Hart was barely touched and a turnover on the kickoff following Rutgers’ first score of the game left the team in shock.

Filling in for the injured LaRod Stephens-Howling, Pitt’s Marcel Pestano received the kickoff after Rutgers went up 7-0 in the first quarter. The redshirt freshman got only 10 yards before Rutgers’ Glen Lee swooped in from the left side at full speed and, without letting up, laid a bone-crushing hit on Pestano, jarring the ball loose instantly. The Scarlet Knights recovered and eventually opened up a double-digit lead when Jeremy Ito’s 22-yard field goal split the uprights.

“There’s no excuse,” Wannstedt said. “Marcel’s got to hang on to the ball. He got hit, but you know, you’re gonna get hit.”

Hitting is something that may have stopped Rutgers’ Willie Foster two possessions later. The speedy receiver took one of Grassele’s punts 71 yards back the other way for a score, going untouched until Grassele’s desperate attempt to stop him failed, and Foster celebrated a 17-0 lead by falling into the end zone.

Hart and Leonard connected for a second time with 44 seconds left in the half to give Rutgers a 27-0 cushion, the Scarlet Knights’ largest halftime lead over any opponent in more than five years. Palko came back in the second half and threw two quick touchdowns to start the rally, but the Scarlet Knights extended their advantage to 34-14 before things really started to get wild.

Palko hit tight end Steve Buches for an 18-yard score to trim the lead to 13 with 13:38 remaining. Pitt responded to a Rutgers field goal by driving 72 yards for another touchdown and two-point conversion to get within a single possession for the first time since early in the game. Rutgers appeared ready to fold, and the ensuing possession further fueled that speculation.

A mind-boggling drive with 7:20 left ended quickly with a sack, fumble out of bounds, incomplete pass and then a one-yard pass that ultimately stopped the clock when Brian Leonard was pushed out of bounds. While most teams would try to run the ball in that situation to kill the clock, the Scarlet Knights lost seven yards, ran only 34 seconds off the clock and were forced to kick the ball back to the Panthers as a shell-shocked crowd stood in silence.

Pitt followed that perplexing drive by moving deep into Rutgers territory, only to freeze on second down and set up the eventual punting debacle. Pitt would get the ball back with 2:30 left, but the Panthers never crossed midfield, and Palko’s 58th pass attempt of the game was picked off by Brandon Renkart. It was the Panthers’ third turnover of the game and the second miscue from Palko on the night.

“Football is a team game, and when even one person makes a mistake on any play – like when I fumbled – it costs the whole team,” Palko said of a third-quarter fumble he lost. “That’s why this is the greatest game ever invented. You depend on every one else. You can’t sit here and finger point because it is everybody.”