At the lowest point of Pitt’s trip to Cincinnati on Saturday, the Panthers were in a 21-point hole and raising the shovel to dig deeper.
After a miserable first half that saw Pitt’s passing game fall apart to the tune of 91 yards and an interception on 7-of-17 completions, the Panthers had turned the slightest bit of halftime momentum into more failure when a holding penalty overturned a quarterback scramble that would have moved the sticks. Three plays later, Cincinnati started what would become. 58-yard drive for a touchdown to take an 18-point lead.
Pitt responded with a three-and-out and shanked punt that gave Cincinnati the ball in Pitt territory, and while the Panthers held the Bearcats to a field goal, the resulting 21-point advantage for the home team felt insurmountable.
The step up in competition had clearly exposed warts in Pitt’s offense and defense. Quarterback Eli Holstein was playing like the redshirt freshman he is and the Panthers’ defense simply had no answers for Cincinnati’s offense, either in the run or the pass.
So when Pitt took the ball at its own 25 trailing 27-6 with 4:50 left in the third quarter, the situation seemed bleak enough to feel like it would simply be a matter of watching the clock run out until the final horn sounded and the Panthers’ first loss of 2024 was in the books.
But then Desmond Reid rattled two good runs to get to midfield. And Holstein followed with a pair of scrambles that picked up more than 20 yards. A roughing penalty on Cincinnati helped the cause before, on third-and-goal from the 12, Holstein and Konata Mumpfield made their second touchdown connection of the season.
The extra point cut the lead to 14 - still mostly insurmountable, but at least a little more respectable.
Cincinnati had the ball as the fourth quarter started, but the Bearcats stalled before they got to midfield, and while Pitt started its next possession inside the 20, there was a possibility that the previous drive’s momentum might carry over.
And carry over, it did.
Reid got Pitt out close to the 40 with a nice run and then into Cincinnati territory with a run after the catch. The offense kept moving until it ran into fourth-and-3 from the Bearcats 38. Trailing by 14 in the fourth quarter, Pitt’s offense had no choice but to stay on the field and go for it.
Holstein dropped back, scanned the field and found Mumpfield with space between himself and the nearest Cincinnati defenders.
Holstein delivered the pass and Mumpfield finished the play for another touchdown.
When Pitt followed the analytics and went for two, the attempt failed. But the Panthers were now down by just eight points with more than 10 minutes left in the game.
Once again, Pitt’s defense stepped up, forcing a punt after Rasheem Biles logged a third-down sack. The punt took a long roll before it died at the Pitt 7, giving Holstein and the Panthers’ offense their biggest test of the night.
Pitt’s young quarterback, who had struggled so mightily in the first half, stepped up - literally. On first down from the 7, he stepped up in the pocket to find tight end Gavin Bartholomew for an 11-yard gain. A few plays later, he stepped up to hit Raphael Williams for 14 yards to get close to midfield. And on second-and-10 from the Pitt 44, Holstein found Reid over the middle of the field; the Western Carolina transfer caught the pass, turned upfield and took off for a 56-yard touchdown.
Holstein was sacked on the ensuing two-point try, but Pitt had cut the 27-6 score down to 27-25. And there was still 5:40 left to play.
One more time, the Panthers’ defense stepped up. A huge two-yard tackle for loss from Nate Matlack and Kyle Louis on second-and-1 led to a big pressure from Brandon George on third-and-3 to force another punt, and Cincinnati gave the ball back to Pitt one more time with a little more than two minutes left in the game.
The Panthers took over at their own 20 but ran into trouble when a pair of runs surrounded an eight-yard pass to bring up fourth-and-4. Cincinnati gave Pitt a gift on that one, though, drawing a flag for delay of game due to “disconcerting signals” - a crucial mistake that gave the Panthers five yards and a fresh set of downs.
From there, runs by Holstein and Reid got close to the 50 before Holstein and Mumpfield hooked up one more time. This one went for 34 yards to the Cincinnati 19, and from there, it was a matter of running clock before Ben Sauls connected on his third field goal to win the game.
Holstein ended up with 302 yards, three touchdowns and one interception on 20-of-35 passing, while Reid rushed for 148 yards and caught six passes for 106 yards and a touchdown. Mumpfield added 123 yards and two touchdowns on five receptions, and Pitt put up 498 yards of total offense.
More to the point, the Panthers bounced back from a horrid first 40 minutes of football to overcome a 21-point deficit for an impressive win on the road.
