The 17th ranked Pitt football team had a chance to move to 7-1 on the season Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, but a 3-4 Miami Hurricanes team came in and upset the Panthers 38-34. The talk surrounding Pitt's chance at the college football playoffs is now effectively over following Saturday's loss. What happened? Where do they go from here? Here are five things that stood out from Saturday's game.

Same old Pitt?

I am not sure if Pitt's season was ever truly going to end with a 12-1 record and a spot in the College Football Playoff. That scenario was on the table going into today and it was an exciting proposition for followers of the Pitt football team. The 17th ranked Pitt Panthers became one of the national media's darlings over the past two weeks with stories and television appearances seemingly every single day. It all felt really new because this has never really happened. Previously, the only time Pitt would get national attention is after pulling a big upset, not as the ranked team with the Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback. It was just a totally different scenario this year.

So the loss we all just witnessed, is this same old Pitt? I'm not sure just yet, maybe I'll know the answer to that question in a few weeks. It has been so long since Pitt has had this kind of hype and attention that it feels hard to pin this loss as something we would have seen last the last ten years. These type of moments just haven't been on the table.

So as it stands now regarding the 2021 Pitt football team, I am not sure if they were simply a bit overrated going into Saturday, or they got caught reading their own headlines, but it is possible that in same old Pitt fashion: they just choked.

I think that all remains to be seen, or at least I'm going to wait it out for now. If Pitt crawls to an 8-4 finish, then yes: this was absolutely same old Pitt. This loss will long be remembered as the breaking point in what could have been a successful season. However, if they bounce back and win the Coastal with a 9 or 10 win regular season, then it's not same old Pitt.

A mixed bag from Pickett

Every game Kenny Pickett plays he breaks a new record or two. It is just the type of season he is having. In Pitt's 38-34 defeat to Miami, the senior quarterback threw for 519 yards. He now has the single-game record for most passing yards by a Pitt quarterback passing Pete Gonzalez's mark of 470. Pickett also threw for three touchdowns on Saturday. As an offense, Pitt finished with 587 yards total. Overall it was a productive day for the Panthers, but also one where they left a lot on the field.

Pickett threw two interceptions on Saturday, which doubled his season total coming into the game. The first pick Pickett seemed to try to force a throw to Taysir Mack, and the Miami player made a good play. It happens and the opponent can make plays too, but Jordan Addison was streaking unguarded down the middle of the field for wha would have been an easy touchdown. Pickett's second interception proved to be even more costly given the time left in the game. It was in the fourth quarter and Pitt was surging to try to take the lead. It appeared the quarterback and Addison just weren't on the same page and the Panthers never got the ball back after that.

Pickett was excellent for the most part, but he did have two unfortunate and untimely turnovers. He also was sacked four times, and the Miami pressure seemed to bother him on some of his other drop backs as well, at least more than it has in the first couple of games this season. Pickett wasn't the reason why Pitt lost - not even close, but two turnovers in a one possession conference game certainly stung the team a bit.

Inexcusable defense

Pitt let a freshman quarterback making his fourth career start come into Heinz Field and throw for 428 yards and three touchdowns. Tyler Van Dyke carved up the Pitt defense from the start, and continued to make plays throughout the game. Van Dyke was sacked a total of three times, and he threw a late interception that gave Pitt the ball with a chance to take the lead. Other than that, he was flawless. Miami kept him upright for the most part, and used a lot of wide receiver screens to get the ball quickly out of his hands and kept the Pitt pass rush at bay.

Jaylan Knighton, another freshman, also had his way with the Pitt defense. The Miami tailback rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns. His 40-yard touchdown run gave Miami a 21-7 first half lead. Xavier Restrepo and Charleston Rambo each recorded seven catches.

The Pitt defense was certainly 'better' in the second half, but the slow start forced the team to play catch up the entire second half. It was a similar script from the Western Michigan loss: missed tackles, unforced penalties, and allowing long plays - it was a mess from start to finish for this group.

An almost safety

Miami had the ball at its own two-yard line. There was 4:07 left in the game, and the Hurricanes were clinging to a 38-34 lead over the 17th ranked Pitt Panthers. Jaylan Knighton took a handoff in his own end zone. He was stacked up by Phil Campbell, then a host of other Pitt defenders. The crowd went nuts.

It was a loss of one: Miami had 2nd-and-11.

It was so much more than that, right? The entire stadium and Pitt sideline thought the Panthers had a safety and cut the lead to two points, and that Kenny Pickett would have one final time with the ball in his hands to take the lead and add another chapter to his already historic senior season.

It didn't go that way. It was ruled on the field that Knighton got out of the end zone - and 'ruled' is an important distinction in this case. It was a close call by the officials, and I think the call on the field played a factor in how it was decided ultimately. Had it been ruled a safety, then perhaps Pitt gets two points and the call 'stands' but it did not work out that way.

Pat Narduzzi declined to comment on his thoughts about the call. Johnny Petrishen believed that the call on the field was the deciding factor, and had it been ruled a safety, maybe it turns in Pitt's favor.

A new goal

The talk about Pitt possibly making the College Football Playoff created a different level of hype around this team in recent weeks. I think the buzz was warranted, at least to some degree. Pitt was winning, they had a good offense, a great quarterback, and a relatively easy schedule on the horizon. Nothing about it was out of the question, but did you ever really feel like that is where this thing was going in the end?

I think Pitt is a pretty good team. Pitt might win the ACC Championship, and I tend to think they will, too. I just think playoff talk clouded everyone's expectations. The fact of the matter is: Pitt still can have a really big season. They can still win 10 games in the regular season, win their division, win the conference, and play in a New Year's Six Bowl. I don't need to remind anyone, but those things don't really happen a lot around here. Those would all still be meaningful accomplishments.

Losing the game can be deflating towards having that dream season for players and fans, I certainly understand that. I just still think there are still plenty of goals for this team, and I wonder how they will take to them. The players had to have been hearing the hype, too. They knew the playoff talk was out there. So does a loss like Saturday linger because they had all their hopes on making the playoffs, or do they take the loss and still chase the program's first-ever ACC Championship? We'll see. Kenny Pickett called this stretch run the 'fourth quarter' of the season. It starts next week in Durham.