Mistakes cost Pitt in season finale

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Pitt entered its final game of the 2013 regular season Friday with little to play for aside from a potential marginal improvement in which bowl game the Panthers will attend later this month. On the other hand, the Miami Hurricanes came to Heinz Field with a chance to win the ACC’s Coastal Division.

The differences between the two programs emerged only four minutes into the game when Miami (9-3, 5-3 ACC) led Pitt (6-6, 3-5 ACC) by two touchdowns. Lafayette Pitts fumbled the opening kickoff, Matt Yoklic’s partially blocked punt traveled 9 yards and set up short fields, which the Hurricanes turned into touchdowns.

“It’s really hard,” receiver Tyler Boyd said about facing an early deficit. “Especially fumbling the first kickoff, there, [it] makes us have to work even harder.”

Miami maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game and defeated Pitt 41-31 to seal the Panthers’ third consecutive 6-6 regular season and a losing season in their first year as a member of the ACC. The Panthers played a part in the losing season, according to head coach Paul Chryst’s own admission. 

“We did too many things to hurt ourselves,” Chryst said. “I’m proud of the way our guys fought and did some things, but if we’re going to beat a good team like that, we can’t hurt ourselves like we did.”

Miami’s 10-point victory is one that reflects Pitt’s mistakes. 

Pitts’ fumble led to a score from quarterback Stephen Morris to Stacy Coley, one of three touchdowns Coley scored Friday. Then, two penalties on Pitt’s defense for pass interference and an illegal substitution resulted in a Miami field goal instead of a stop by Pitt’s defense. 

“We didn’t play smart,” Chryst said. “We got a stop and then the penalty, that was big, they got points out of that.”

From the short fields to penalties, Pitt’s defense didn’t stand much of a chance against a Miami offense that scores nearly 36 points per game.

“It can be frustrating,” junior linebacker Anthony Gonzalez said. “You’ve just got to keep your mind straight.”

Gonzalez and the Panthers eventually were able to settle in once the game’s hectic beginning passed, and Pitt held the Hurricanes scoreless for more than 12 minutes. But Pitt was already down 24-7 at that point, and the team mustered just another field goal the rest of the half.

If Pitt had kept the deficit at two touchdowns and prevented a 73-yard touchdown run by Coley in which he took an end-around handoff through all 11 of Pitt’s defenders, the game’s outcome might have been different. 

“That’s the game,” Chryst said. “There’s never a game where it’s going to go all your way.”

Pitt was unable to dig itself out of the hole from the game’s opening minutes. The Panthers came within 10 points on a touchdown pass from Tom Savage to Rachid Ibrahim with 7:38 to play in the fourth quarter, but the defense allowed Miami to possess the ball for nearly four minutes and score a touchdown to seal its victory. 

Senior defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who played his last game at Heinz Field in a Pitt uniform, echoed Chryst’s sentimentst. 

“It’s hard to beat a good team with a lot of mistakes early,” Donald said. “You just can’t win a game like this.”

When Pitt eventually rises above the 6-6 watermark in a regular season, the Panthers must be the ones who capitalize on others’ mistakes as opposed to being the victims of their own devices. Compared to a Miami program that pulls in more four-star high school recruits in one class than Pitt does over the course of five years, the margin for error is wafer-thin. The Panthers responded  to the challenges presented  by their lackluster start and outscored Miami 31-27 in the final 55-plus minutes of Friday’s game.

“I think we responded pretty good, just not strong enough,” Boyd said. “I think if the team was more together, more connected, we’d be a real good team in the future.”