There’s a worst-case scenario for Pitt football in 2023, at least in the early portion of the season, and it came to fruition in Saturday’s 27-20 loss to Cincinnati at Acrisure Stadium.

In that scenario, Pitt’s defense, featuring six new starters and giant holes left by some of the Panthers’ most productive players in years, struggles to make consistent stops.

And at the same time, Pitt’s offense, featuring a new starting quarterback and plenty of unproven players in key positions, struggles to score enough to offset the defensive issues.

That was one of the biggest concerns heading into the 2023 season, and it landed full force on the Panthers Saturday night.

The first half was basically 30 minutes of the worst fears being confirmed.

Defensively, Pitt couldn’t even stop Cincinnati’s rushing attack. The hallmark of Pat Narduzzi’s defenses with the Panthers and dating back to his days at Michigan State, run defense has been the foundation on which the entire enterprise has been built - even to the point of creating vulnerabilities in the pass defense. But the Bearcats, who had rushed for 229 yards against Eastern Kentucky in Week One, gashed Pitt’s defense for 180 rushing yards in the first 30 minutes Saturday night. Junior running back Corey Kiner had 120 of those yards himself, and he did it on just eight carries.

The result was 20 points, gained on two touchdowns and two field goals. But those 20 felt like 200 because of the other part of the equation:

Pitt’s offense.

Despite scoring 45 points to beat Wofford in Week One, the Panthers entered Saturday night with a fair amount of questions about Phil Jurkovec, the receivers and the rest of the offensive unit, but the answers provided by Saturday night’s game were far from encouraging.

Jurkovec completed just four passes in the first half. One of his completions was a prayer heaved on third-and-9 that Konata Mumpfield caught like a punt; that one picked up 30 yards, and Cincinnati gifted an extra 15 on the play for roughing up Jurkovec after the pass.

Those 45 yards moved Pitt into Cincinnati territory for the first time in the game, and the Panthers eventually - finally - got into the end zone after five plays from the red zone.

Pitt crossed midfield a few more times but never reached the end zone, and the Panthers seemed to be dead in the water as they walked to the locker room amid a minor chorus of boos from the announced crowd of 49,398.

Things improved, of course. Pitt’s defense stiffened in the second half, forcing four punts and an interception on five of Cincinnati’s first six possessions, never allowing a drive of more than 36 yards and only giving up one touchdown, which came as a result of the Bearcats getting the ball on a short field after a Jurkovec fumble.

The offense got better in the second half, too - at least a little. Jurkovec completed six passes - an improvement over the four he completed in the first two quarters - and Pitt scored two touchdowns in the final 15 minutes to make the score a little more respectable.

But when Marquis Williams intercepted Cincinnati quarterback Emory Jones to give Pitt the ball at the Bearcats 14 with 5:44 left to play, the offense stumbled again, picking up one first down before Jurkovec missed receiver Bub Means on back-to-back passes and then got crushed on a fourth-down blitz from Cincinnati linebacker Jack Dingle.

Even then, the Panthers could have gotten one more shot if the defense had come up with one more stop. But Cincinnati converted a third-and-4 (through the air) and a third-and-3 (on the ground) to put the game away.

The valiant efforts at the end were too little and too late, but those missed opportunities were outweighed in their significance by the shortcomings of the first half.

With a better run defense and at least something approaching a competent offense, Pitt likely doesn’t go into halftime trailing by 13 points and the game looks very different in the second half.

Instead, things followed the course of the worst-case scenario, and the result was a loss.

Chances are, Pitt’s defense will improve. That unit was much better in the second half than it had been before halftime; if that improvement can carry over, the Panthers should be more stout on that side of the ball.

The offense is another question, and it’s one that Pitt’s staff will have to find answers for in a hurry before the 2023 season takes an even worse turn.