Just what the doctor ordered
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There’s never a bad time to beat the No. 2 team in the country on the road, but Pitt’s 43-42 toppling of previously-undefeated Clemson on Saturday at Memorial Stadium scratched the Panthers right where they itched.
After all, this was the team that was driving for a game-winning score only to have both sides of the ball fail to finish at Oklahoma State, who entered this weekend ranked No. 13.
These were the players who had their guts ripped out when they saw their lead disappear in the final two seconds at North Carolina, who entered this weekend ranked No. 17.
This group was the same that watched as Virginia Tech - No. 14 coming into the weekend - played a game of pitch-and-catch that bordered on diabolical in both its simplicity and its effectiveness and still had a chance to win.
Three games against ranked opponents and three one-score losses - all wins that were in Pitt’s reach, and all losses that came as the opportunities slipped away.
And when Pitt got blown out at Miami last week, it looked like the Panthers’ resilience had finally faded. The constant habit of keeping it close - even in wins - had finally taken its toll; the team could no longer produce the emotion necessary to play in and have a chance to win those types of games.
So facing Clemson, with its bevy of NFL talent and its 9-0 record and its No. 2 ranking and its top-20 offense and its top-12 defense and its 21-game home winning streak and its five-year run of wins over unranked opponents, was not what the doctor ordered at all for the Panthers.
Until Chris Blewitt’s 48-yard field goal gave Pitt a one-point lead in the waning seconds - then it became exactly what Pitt needed.
After a season of heartbreaking losses and gut-wrenching close calls, the Panthers finally made the one extra play and came out on top. And while no one - locally or nationally - gave them much of a chance, Pat Narduzzi’s group took inspiration from, among other things, a presumed underdog’s win in the presidential election.
“I couldn’t be happier for our football team,” Narduzzi said after the game. “We’ve had some tight, tight games, whether it was out at Oklahoma State or North Carolina where we thought we could win it.
“We went into the week talking, we were going to shock the world. We talked about the upsets that happened this week and our kids believed. They fought back through adversity. We told them there were going to be ups and downs.”
Pitt maximized the ups and withstood the downs at Clemson. As a result, a year that was set to be defined by “what could have been” will be defined by what was: one of the legendary wins in program history.