PITTSBURGH — In Pitt’s first game of the season, coach Pat Narduzzi wanted to show that his team was different from some of its more underwhelming predecessors.
In their second game, the Panthers showed that — while talented and, most important, victorious — they still have some work to do before they prove that’s truly the case.
A promising Pitt defense again showed its strength, racking up seven sacks and holding Syracuse to just 171 total yards, all of which was enough to allow the No. 25 Panthers to overcome a number of frustrating penalties and a series of special teams miscues in a 21-10 win Saturday at Heinz Field.
With the victory, Pitt has started a season 2-0 for the first time since 2016.
Though it entered the game as a 21-point favorite, the closer-than-expected final result perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the recent matchups between the two former Big East foes. Prior to Saturday, the previous five games between Pitt and Syracuse were decided by an average of seven points, with none having a margin smaller than 15 (which came in a game that finished with a combined 137 points.) Over the past few years, the series has, if nothing else, been wonderfully and unapologetically weird.
The way the most recent of those contests transpired does raise some questions about where the Panthers are at this early point in the season.
They finished the afternoon with seven penalties for 70 yards, an array of mistakes that included two separate illegal formation calls on punts. Senior placekicker Alex Kessman missed two field-goal attempts — from 37 and 45 yards — that would have made the Pitt win slightly more comfortable. On a third kick attempt, holder Kirk Christodoulou mishandled the snap, preventing Kessman from trying a 46-yard attempt right before halftime, with his team up, 14-10.
For all those stumbles, though, the Panthers still earned the win. That can be attributed in some part to another excellent showing from their defense, which limited Syracuse to just 2.9 yards per play and 1.9 yards per rush. Excluding a 69-yard touchdown pass from Rex Culpepper to Taj Harris in the second quarter — a play on which Narduzzi said his secondary failed to defend over the top — the Orange ran 57 plays for just 102 yards (an average of 1.8 yards per play).
In a 31-6 loss last week at No. 12 North Carolina, Syracuse allowed seven sacks and averaged just 2.8 yards per play.
Two of Pitt’s seven sacks came from standout defensive lineman Rashad Weaver, who returned this week after being one of seven players not in attendance for last week’s 55-0 rout of Austin Peay due to “COVID-related protocols.” Lineman Keyshon Camp, who was also not present at the stadium last week, was back, as well. Safety Paris Ford had his second interception in as many games, the most recent of which halted a Syracuse drive at the Pitt 34 in the third quarter with his team up just four.
Offensively, quarterback Kenny Pickett was solid, completing 25 of 36 passes for 215 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, along with a rushing touchdown on a one-yard sneak. The senior signal-caller was, yet again, able to showcase a reliable and productive rapport with newcomers Jordan Addison (seven catches for 57 yards and a touchdown) and DJ Turner (five catches for 48 yards), as well as sophomore Jared Wayne (five catches for 59 yards and a touchdown).
Moving forward, whatever stumbles Pitt exhibited Saturday will need to be rectified rather quickly, as it hosts No. 18 Louisville next Saturday in what will be, by far, its stiffest test of the young season.
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