10/6/2019 football Edit

Game of extremes goes in Pitt's favor

Chris Peak • Panther-lair

Publisher

DURHAM (N.C.) - It was a night of extremes at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday, from the extremely sparse crowd to the extreme oddity of Duke hosting a primetime game.

On the field, Pitt and Duke played a game of extremes, with eight touchdowns, 19 penalties, 10 interceptions, an inadvertent signal, a targeting ejection and a game-winning drive in the final minute.

That game-winning drive was engineered by the Panthers, led by quarterback Kenny Pickett and completed by running back V’Lique Carter, and it gave Pitt a 33-30 win over Duke, a 4-2 overall record and a 1-1 mark in the ACC heading into the team’s bye week.

And while the result of the game - a win for Pitt, a loss for Duke - was very much cut-and-dried, the three hours and 55 minutes between kickoff and the final horn was anything but. That was clear from the way Pat Narduzzi talked after the game, when he went from calling it “an incredible win” to an “ugly game” in the span of just a few seconds.

Early on, Pitt was firmly in control. The Panthers got their first touchdown when redshirt sophomore safety Paris Ford intercepted Duke quarterback Quentin Harris and ran 26 yards for a touchdown. They added three more points when Ford intercepted Harris’ next pass attempt, and they topped out at 19 points in the first half off a second field goal and a touchdown pass from Pickett to receiver Taysir Mack.

When, in the third quarter, Pickett connected with tight end Nakia Griffin-Stewart in the end zone for a four-yard touchdown - a score set up by a Duke fumble - the Panthers’ lead extended to 26-3 and the outcome seemed to be in the bag.

But just as the Panthers’ 21-0 lead over UCF was not safe, nor was the 23-point lead on Saturday night in Durham. Late in the third quarter, the team embarked on a string of mishaps that did, for a time, sink the ship.

First, Ford fumbled a punt return at the Pitt 4; Duke scored one play later. Then receiver Dontavius Butler-Jenkins fumbled on the Panthers’ next offensive snap; the Blue Devils put that one into the end zone after nine plays. And on Pitt’s next possession, Pickett misread coverage and fired a pass into the arms of Duke defensive tackle Edgar Cerenord; the Blue Devils went 25 yards in seven plays to score a touchdown after that one.

They seemed to have converted the two-point attempt to tie the score, too, but in one of the game’s many extreme and weird occurrences, the play was run a second time after an official created an “inadvertent signal.” The second attempt was no good.

No matter, though, since Duke drove 86 yards in the final three minutes to score a go-ahead touchdown.

And there was Pitt: trailing by four with 85 seconds left on the clock and an offense that hadn’t scored a touchdown drive of more than 19 yards in the game. But in a matter of four plays, all passes, all completed, Pickett and company went 82 yards, culminating with a pass to Carter on third-and-4 that took advantage of a Duke blitz to open a lane to the end zone.

“It was just time to step up,” Pickett said after the game.

It wasn’t the first time Pitt’s offense has had to step up. Two weeks ago against UCF at Heinz Field, the Panthers trailed the Knights 34-28 in the final five minutes before they marched 79 yards on 12 plays to score the game-winner. And last week against Delaware, Pitt was trailing in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter until they went 90 yards on eight plays to go ahead for good.

“Week by week, our kids continue to just show how much character they have as a football team,” Narduzzi said.