No giant-killers this time

Central Florida, owners of the nation’s longest winning streak, self-declared national champions and one of the most dynamic and versatile offenses in the nation, were in no way interested in joining the list of Miami and Clemson:

Top-ranked teams who fell prey to an upstart Pitt team.

Instead, UCF joined a different list, one populated by the likes of Penn State and Oklahoma State:

Top-ranked teams who, thoroughly and convincingly, beat Pitt into submission.

The problem is, that latter list, the one with teams who were expected to beat up on Pitt and did, is the more recent one - and it’s growing.

“Our kids tried and it wasn’t enough to beat a good football team,” Pat Narduzzi said after the game, a loss that dropped his career record as Pitt’s head coach to 23-20 overall and 19-20 against FBS opponents.

Maybe Pitt came into Saturday’s game against the No. 13 UCF Knights with something of a chance. Vegas didn’t think much of that change, installing the Panthers as underdogs residing north of two touchdowns. And most fans and media who watched Pitt’s defense crumble in the path of North Carolina’s previously-underwhelming offense feared the worst.

Here was one of the best offenses in college football getting ready to tear into a very suspect defense. That was the case two years ago, when eventual national champion Clemson, with DeShaun Watson and Mike Williams and a host of talented skill players, was likely salivating at the prospect of going after a very vulnerable Pitt defense.

But unlike that game, when the Tigers’ offense dominated but Pitt’s offense was able to keep up, the expected outcome on Saturday was, in fact, the actual outcome. The Panthers’ defense had no answer for UCF’s offense, which gained 31 first downs and 568 yards, including 240 on the ground.

The difference this time was that Pitt’s offense had no hope of keeping up. Whether it’s the protection, the play-calling or the quarterback play - and it’s really all three of those, plus other issues - the Panthers’ offense in 2018 is a far cry from what it was when it knocked off Clemson. Against the Knights, who had given up 486 yards to Connecticut and 447 to FAU, Pitt managed a grand total of 272 - and didn’t cross the 200-yard mark until the fourth quarter.

You can win with good offense and bad defense, and you can win with bad offense and good defense, but when both sides are struggling, then the result is probably going to look like the final scoreboard at Spectrum Stadium:

One team with a whole lot of points and the other team with very few.

And now Pitt heads into the final seven games, six of which are against ACC opponents, with a pair of blowout losses among its first five games. Salvaging the season is a goal that could quickly fade out of reach, especially if the players take those losses to heart.

“I’m not worried about the points; I’m worried about the losses,” Narduzzi said. “They all count as a win or a loss in the column, and the points don’t matter to me. As a matter of fact, last week was harder than this week when it’s a close one.

“So it’s a good football team, it will be a top-ten team at the end of the year, they won’t lose a game all year, I doubt, but we have a tough schedule. There’s no slouches on our schedule the rest of the way. So we’re going to have to buckle up and stop hurting ourselves and we have to do a better job coaching.”