After Pitt’s loss to NC St, Season Slipping Away
There probably won’t be a bowl game for the Pitt Panthers this year. This will end a 9 year bowl streak, albeit many of those bowls were attended by 6-6 Pitt teams from the past.
Before the season, to think the 2017 Pitt Panthers wouldn’t be able to even muster up 6 wins is hard to believe. In fact, they would have to win 4 of their last 5 games to do so. Lets face it, that’s not happening.
The Panther 5th loss in 2017 came at the hands of NC State in the form of a 35-17 trashing at Heinz Field.
After stopping NC State their first drive, the teams traded punts. That’s when the Panthers got to work on their second series of the game.
Two-way superstar player (RB/WR/Safety) sophomore Jordan Whitehead first ran for 5 yards before sophomore QB Ben Dinucci completed a screen pass to junior WR Quadree Henderson which resulted in a 2 yard loss.
DiNucci then went to his most trusted WR Rafael Araujo-Lopes for 7 yards before Whitehead lost a yard on another jet sweep play. DiNucci though hung tough and threw a strike to Pitt senior WR Jester Weah for a 33 yard TD. Pitt led early 7-0 over the Wolfpack.
It didn’t take NC State long to exact revenge. Two plays in fact. Wolfpack tailback Nyheim Hines busted an easy run for 83 yards untouched for the game-tying TD. Pitt 7 NC St 7.
Pitt faltered back on offense and senior punter Ryan Winslow (who is having an All-ACC type season) booted a high 53 yard kick deep into NC State territory on 4th down. Fielding the punt, Hines promptly returned it 92 yards to pay dirt. Its the first time in 4 seasons that anyone has returned a punt for a TD against Pitt and namely Coach Andre Powell’s special teams.
The teams would go on to trade 2 punts each before Pitt got back on offense for the 6th time.
Whitehead started the 6th drive with an 8 yard run. Then seldom-used Pitt junior tailback Qadree Ollison rumbled 15 yards to the NC State 46 yard line.
DiNucci then went back to the air and found sophomore WR Aaron Mathews for 4 yards which set up a series of runs. Pitt pound the ball first by Whitehead for 3 yards, DiNucci for 3 yards, Henderson for 15 yards on a jet sweep, Whitehead for 6 yards, Whitehead again for 4 yards before the big screen pass from DiNucci to senior Brian O’Neill (normally an Offensive Tackle who reported in as a TE). O’Neill (who scored 3 times in 2016, once on the exact same play against Ga Tech), scampered 10 yards to the NC State 1 yard line.
Pitt junior tailback Darrin Hall salted the drive with a 1 yard TD burst. Pitt 14 NC State 14.
NC State’s kicker Carson Wise would miss a 34 yard field goal and the game remained knotted at half.
In the second half, it was all Wolfpack as Pitt failed to make any adjustments.
On Pitt’s opening drive of the 3rd Quarter, DiNucci’s pass was intercepted NC State’s Mike Stevens at the Pitt 42 yard line.
NC State would score 3 more times and force a DiNucci fumble on a sack. The lone bright spot for Pitt was a 43 yard field goal but the much improved redshirt freshman kicker Alex Kessman.
NC State 35 Pitt 17 Final
Up Next: Pitt at Duke, 12:20pm EST kickoff, TV: AT&T SportsNet
Pitt is 12-9 all-time vs Duke including 3-1 since joining the ACC in 2013.
2016/11/19 Pittsburgh 56 – Duke 14 W
2015/11/14 Pittsburgh 31 – Duke 13 W
2014/11/01 Pittsburgh 48 – Duke 51 L OT
2013/09/21 Pittsburgh 58 – Duke 55 W
Notes:
• After the season ending shoulder injury to Senior transfer QB Max Browne, true freshman QB Kenny Pickett was inserted into the game for 3 series. At first, he came in with Pitt only down a TD by the score of 21-14. The QB rotation so far has been bizarre to say the least. Pickett would go 5 of 13 for 61 yards while DiNucci finished the day 19 for 32 for 132 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. Many of DiNucci’s passes though were dropped by Pitt receivers.
• Pitt must win 4 of its last 5 games to have any shot of going to a bowl game, a streak of 9 straight seasons.
