Lee played well despite loss

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Pitt wideout Greg Lee slowly walked past Syracuse fans swarming the turf of… SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Pitt wideout Greg Lee slowly walked past Syracuse fans swarming the turf of the Carrier Dome.

The scoreboard above flashed 38-31, in favor of the Orange, but Lee hung his head low and left the field with the rest of his disappointed team.

The unfortunate thing for Lee was that he had just had the best game of his young college career.

“I had a good game,” Lee said. “But that feeling is obsolete when you lose a game.”

Lee saying that he had a “good game,” is an understatement.

He caught nine passes for 188 yards and a highlight-reel-worthy, one-handed touchdown pass.

The play came right before halftime, with the Panthers down 21-6. Following a Syracuse touchdown, Pitt started its drive on the Syracuse 14-yard line with 4:43 remaining on the clock.

One play after a Syracuse pass interference penalty gave Pitt a first down at its own 43-yard line, Pitt quarterback Tyler Palko called for Lee to run a go pattern in the huddle.

At the snap, Lee sprinted off the line of scrimmage, but slowed down, thinking the ball wasn’t coming his way. When he realized it was, he sped up and reached out with two hands. However, he only used one to pull down the 57-yard touchdown catch. After catching the ball at about the 20-yard line, he blew past the Syracuse defender and began a high-step celebration into the end zone.

But that was just one of his nine receptions — seven of which came in the second half.

Of those seven catches, all moved the chains, and five came on third-down plays. All season, Lee had been the big-play receiver, but Saturday he was used when Pitt needed him the most — on third down.

“He’s showing that he can be a consistent football player in crunch time,” head coach Walt Harris said of his sophomore wideout.

Palko said Saturday that he is not surprised by Lee’s performance.

“We expect him to make those plays, and he expects that of himself,” Palko said. “Finally, it’s nice to see him come into his own with all the negativity [about a loss] surrounding him.”

Lee, however, feels like he has just been undiscovered.

“I guess they finally realized,” he said jokingly after the game.

And the conference is slowly realizing as well. Quietly, Lee has risen to the top of the Big East conference in receiving yards per game, with an average of 104. On the year he has 40 catches for 832 yards. In eight games, Lee is averaging 20.8 yards a reception.

Sadly, with all those yards, it was a meager inch that kept him and his team from winning on Saturday.

“It was heart-dropping,” Lee said of seeing the ball come up just an inch short of the first down in the second overtime. The fourth-down play was a toss play to running back Raymond Kirkley.

“We really thought we had the game locked in,” Lee said. “It’s very disappointing to lose the game by a yard or so.”

It’s even more disappointing to lose the chance at a Big East title by a yard or so.