PITTSBURGH — If you ask Pat Narduzzi, Pitt beat two opponents in one game Saturday.
Pitt came from behind to beat West Virginia, 38-34, in dramatic fashion Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, and it took a 10-point fourth quarterback comeback — the second double-digit fourth quarter comeback in as many weeks.
Pitt certainly wasn’t perfect, but Pat Narduzzi felt like Pitt had to beat West Virginia… and the officials.
“Some of the calls we got — late hit out of bounds, they catch a ball with a hands in the face and I’ve never seen anything like it, you know? Wow,” Narduzzi told ESPN after the game. “We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, and we beat the officials, too, in one game.”
Narduzzi declined to get into the officiating in his postgame press conference, half an hour after the game concluded, but said that he wanted to watch the videotape of some of the penalties throughout the game.
Pitt was flagged 12 times for 112 yards while West Virginia was flagged seven times for 67 yards. There were some questionable calls on both sides of the ball, but the game wasn’t decided by the officials. It was decided by the Panthers’ fourth quarter comeback.
Pitt erased a 10-point deficit with just under five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. West Virginia wasn’t able to stop Eli Holstein and the Pitt offense after limiting the Panthers to just four yards in the second half prior.
A 1-yard touchdown dive by Derrick Davis Jr. with just over 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, with Holstein on the sideline after having his helmet ripped off, clinched the massive win for the Panthers.
Regardless, Pitt redeemed a bad loss to WVU in the Backyard Brawl last season, a 17-6 showing in Morgantown, W.Va.
Don’t know what he’s talking about regarding these two plays. Brandon George clearly hit Greene out of bounds & our DB could’ve just as easily been called for pass interference on WVU’s last TD. Why take away from everything his kids accomplished by focusing on the officiating.
He should be more worried about how undisciplined some of his defensive players (George, McMillon & Neal) are & when and where to use his timeouts late in the game.
Such a moron.
He is an idiot.
I think he’s making the point that an obvious offensive pass interference call wasn’t made at an absolutely crucial point in the game. People are human but that atrocious non call can’t go without being rightfully commented on and called out for how ridiculous it was.
The entire time we were down by 3 points I kept thinking about the decision just before halftime to go for the first down and giving WVU that gift of a field goal. I’m very thankful that we’re not here examining that decision and play call in the event we would have come up short by three points.
Thankfully that’s not an issue now but it very well could have been.
I was thinking the same thing, Jeff. At that point our OL was getting lit up and we decided to not only go for it, but a run play in the middle was very stupid!
H2P!!!
When Pitt wins it’s always in spite of Narduzzi, not because of him. Personally even if we go undefeated I’d like to see him gone. His mouth is way bigger than his brain.
And get who??? Good coaches are very hard to find (ask FSU), and Pitt isn’t exactly the mecca of college sports. I don’t like his personality, but overall he’s done a pretty good job.
H2P!!!
It’s more than his personality. His bad decision at the end of the first half, and his wasting a timeout at the 2 minute warning don’t merit his salary of $5-6MM per year. He’s too old to be making rookie mistakes.
This canned answer is old. Bell came from FCS. There are plenty of good coaches out there. Is Pitt gonna poach a P4 HC – maybe not. But there are an abundance of good coaches who are looking to take a step up. Eli Drinkwitz went from App St to having Missouri in the top 15 in the SEC. The coaches are out there – go find them.