Scarlet Knights too much for Panthers
PITTSBURGH – The Panthers (6-2, 2-1 Big East) had hoped to prove they were a top-25 team last night, but it was visiting Rutgers that answered that question as the nineteenth-ranked Scarlet Knights (7-0, 2-0 Big East) remained undefeated by beating Pitt 20-10 at Heinz Field in front of 49,620. “We’re disappointed in this loss but we’re more disappointed that we came out and didn’t play well as a team,” Head Coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We had penalties, dropped balls, and things that gave us no chance to get any field position, momentum, or anything positive.”
Pitt’s run-defense has been questionable against good-running teams, but last night the Panther run defense was extremely porous. They allowed Ray Rice to record a career-high 225 rushing yards (on 39 carries) including a 63-yard crushing blow late in the game. It led to a Rutgers touchdown and a 10-point lead after Pitt had closed the gap 13-10.
“We physically got beat on both lines and we didn’t hold up like we needed to, because when you don’t control the lines of scrimmage on either side of the ball, it’s tough to win,” head coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We had a few mental mistakes, but we really got outplayed on our offensive line by their defensive line’s quickness and physicalness.”
Early in the fourth quarter, Pitt was facing a third and goal at the 8-yard line trailing 13-3. They had just given up a Rutgers touchdown on defense, but Tyler Palko hit Oderick Turner for a touchdown to pull Pitt back into the game, 13-10.
“I missed one earlier that I thought I should have had, and I saw him [Palko] scrambling and just tried to find an open seam,” Turner said. “It’s was frustrating to lose, but even more frustrating the way we lost, because we really hurt ourselves.”
The comeback was short-lived, though. The Scarlet Knights responded on their first offensive play afterwards when Rice tore off the 63-yard run from their own 10-yard line to the Pitt 27-yard line. It was the longest run of Rice’s career.
“Just when we got some momentum in the second half, they busted that long run on us,” Wannstedt said. “We had a chance right there to stop them and didn’t do it.”
Rice tore off another long run for 26 yards two plays later and pounded it in for a 1-yard touchdown with 11:30 left in the fourth quarter to give Rutgers the 20-10 lead and snuffed out Pitt’s hopes to tie the game or take the lead.
With 1:32 left in the first quarter, Rutgers broke the scoreboard first and took a 3-0 lead with a 32-yard Jeremy Ito field goal.
Palko hit Kevin Kinder with a 25-yard strike in leading the Panthers on their best drive of the game up to that point, but Kinder fumbled the ball away on Rutgers 39-yard line.
Ito hit a 21-yard field goal on the ensuing drive with 32 seconds left in the first half to give the Scarlet Knights a 6-0 lead at the break.
Conor Lee booted a 46-yard field goal that just cleared the crossbar on Pitt’s opening drive of the second half to crack the scoreboard for the Panthers and close the score to 6-3. It was the first points Rutgers has given up in the third quarter all season.
Rutgers crossed the goal line first after mounting a 72-yard touchdown drive at the end of the third quarter and took a 13-3 lead. The drive was capped by a Mike Teal 7-yard touchdown pass to Tiquan Underwood.
Teal only threw 18 times, a stat Wannstedt felt was one of the telltale stats of the game.
“We played right into Rutgers’ hands because the way to beat them is to jump on them early and make them throw, but they had the luxury of only needing to throw when they wanted to,” Wannstedt said. “We have a bye coming up and we’ll need it to regroup and get ready to play at South Florida in two weeks.”