On Friday, Pitt was the better team

The Hurricanes were 10-0. Pitt was 4-7. The Hurricanes were statistically superior in virtually every category. Miami was one of the best teams in the Power Five conferences. Pitt was decidedly not.

But on Friday, the home team was the better team.

Pitt had better quarterback play. Pitt had better defensive play. Pitt was better in every respect - even punting. And the result was a 24-14 win for the Panthers, the kind of victory that sets a tone for an offseason and a program, not so much for the fact of the win as much as the context of it.

Miami had every expectation of victory on Friday, and yet it was Pitt that played better from start to finish. The Panthers scored first, kicking a field goal to take a 3-0 lead with less than seven minutes left in the first quarter. Miami reached the end zone eight minutes into the second quarter to take its only lead of the game, but before the first half ended, Pitt had scored.

The Panthers wouldn’t trail again in the game. And even when they were behind, the home team was still in control. Pitt’s defense forced a three-and-out on the drive after Miami scored a touchdown, and on the next possession, the Panthers marched 68 yards to the end zone.

Pitt added a second touchdown on another drive of 60-plus yards and did it again on the clear and definitive Best Drive of the Season when the Panthers marched 90 yards in the fourth quarter, killing clock and scoring a game-sealing touchdown. By then, there was no denying what had become more and more evident all afternoon:

Pitt was the better team.

“It’s hard when you’ve got four wins going in against the No. 2 team in the country,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said after the game. “But our guys believed and that kind of tells you what we have in that locker room.”

That wasn’t always the case this season. The players may have believed in the previous 11 games, but Pitt wasn’t always the better team. Penn State, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech and N.C. State thoroughly outplayed Pitt, while the Panthers couldn’t take wins against Syracuse, North Carolina and Virginia Tech despite having multiple opportunities to do so.

On Friday, they took those opportunities. Powered by 64 rushing yards in the fourth quarter, Pitt outgained Miami 152-45 on the ground. The Panthers also out-threw the Hurricanes 193-187, but the more notable number was 232: that was Miami’s total yardage, which stands as the team’s worst performance of the season.

The Panthers’ defense was one of the stars of the show on Friday, recording four sacks and breaking up 11 passes in the win. And, of course, Kenny Pickett was the other star, as the freshman quarterback threw for 193 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 60 yards and two more scores.

Pickett was better than Miami’s Malik Rosier, just like Pitt’s defense was better than the Hurricanes. Because overall, Pitt was the better team on Friday.

On Thursday, Miami might have been better. On Saturday, Miami might be better. Next Saturday, when the Hurricanes take on Clemson in the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte, they might once again be the better team.

But on Friday, they weren’t. On Friday, the 4-7 Pitt Panthers became the 5-7 Pitt Panthers, with a win over the No. 2 team in the country, a burgeoning star at quarterback and a young but impressive defense generating a whole lot of optimism going into the offseason.

“It was a win that we needed, something that we can grow with after the season and through the offseason and I just couldn’t be happier with our kids,” Narduzzi said. “They made a ton of plays out there today.”

Hasn’t been the case all season.