Pitt kicker Ben Sauls nailed a 44-yard field goal to bring the Panthers within four of SMU toward the end of the first quarter, and those three points were the highlight of the night for the Pitt Panthers.
Pitt was flat-out embarrassed by No. 20 SMU in a 48-25 loss Saturday night at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, a loss that looks better on paper than it looked on the football field.
Eli Holstein completed 29-of-47 pass attempts (62%) for 248 yards with two turnovers in a performance that wasn’t nearly good enough to beat the Mustangs. Pitt as a whole, offensively and defensively, wasn’t nearly good enough to beat the Mustangs.
Pitt had a chance to prove itself in a big ranked matchup against SMU, the first ranked matchup for the Panthers since 2022, but the Panthers came out flat — and never picked it up. It was a failure across all three phases, but as poorly as the Panthers played, it isn’t the end of the world. Pitt never really had a chance.
SMU struck early, catching the Panthers off guard defensively.
A blown tackle by Rashad Battle, which resulted in a 43-yard chunk play, helped set up a 2-yard touchdown dive by SMU running back LJ Johnson Jr. A blown tackle by Tamon Lynum, which turned a potential third down stop into a 22-yard chunk play, continued a drive in which the Mustangs converted three third downs. SMU wideout Roderick Jones Jr. hurdled Donovan McMillon for a touchdown a couple of plays later.
If not for a 44-yard field goal from Ben Sauls, SMU would’ve led 14-0 early in the second quarter.
But the disastrous first half continued as Sauls missed his first kick of the season, a 47-yarder that was pushed right, and SMU running back Brashard Smith ripped off a 71-yard touchdown scamper on the next play.
21-0, and Pitt needed a break. And it didn’t get it. Eli Holstein was hit on third-and-14 in SMU territory, trying to avoid pressure, and fumbled the ball. SMU recovered and marched to another touchdown late in the second quarter — a 3-yard connection between Jennings and Smith.
A 50-yard field goal from SMU kicker Collin Rogers capped the half, giving the Mustangs a 31-3 lead. And he even taunted the Panthers with the “Sharks” hand sign, to the chagrin of Pat Narduzzi.
Pitt took the second half kickoff, went three-and-out and failed to convert a poorly designed fake punt from its own 25. But the Pitt defense held strong, forcing a 27-yard field goal that stretched the Mustangs’ lead to 31.
And Pitt turned it over on downs again on the next drive, picking up just three yards on a fourth-and-4 in the red zone.
Pitt eventually found the end zone, Desmond Reid diving into the end zone from a yard out to cap a 12-play drive that featured quite a few miscommunications. Holstein carried the two-point conversion into the end zone, making it a 34-11 game at the end of the third quarter. But, as was the case all night, SMU didn’t take long to respond offensively.
SMU scored its fifth touchdown of the night via an 18-yard rumble from Smith, picked off Holstein on the ensuing Pitt possession (a miscommunication between Holstein and Reid) and scored its sixth touchdown on the next play, an 80-yard catch-and-run over the middle of the field.
48-11. Ball game. With nine minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
A couple of late touchdowns, a 13-yarder to Kenny Johnson and a 1-yarder to Malachi Thomas (his first collegiate touchdown) didn’t do anything for the Panthers.
Pitt (7-1, 3-1 ACC) will return home next weekend, looking to rebound from its first loss of the season against Virginia. The time and television network will be announced at a later date.
Set Eli, start Yarnell…use more Carter and Hammond and less Reed in the running game…. Pay NIL to get good OL players….. Cade Bell is reminding me of Cignetti who would not sit Slovis for Patti/Jurkovich for Yarnell.
I totally agree. Don’t waste money on Holstein. Alabama knew enough to let him go. Holstein reminds me of Jerkovic. Big time recruit, size, etc. then goes down hill and by senior year he will suck.
This is a too-quick judgment on Holstein. He has talent and can be coached up by Bell. Sitting him for a game would give him time to observe on the sideline and get a better understanding of defenses.
What a colossal ass kicking. This whole team sucked. Unprepared and unmotivated. Typical Narduzzi trap game. Bates and Bell’s game planning was pathetic. Player execution was awful. The only played that showed up was Reid.
Maybe now they will stop with all the “shark” bullshit.
What happened to the SMU team that had fumbles and interceptions galore against Duke?
Yikes! And how good is Duke? We have to play them this year.
Not a major issue but a point of contention: Why does Key Williams 38 see the field? He’s absolutely horrible. They have George and about 5 young LBs on the roster that have proven themselves solid players. But Nard has to play some insignificant loser 26 year old transfer that absolutely stinks. Why?? What causes him to make these types of personnel decisions? He was a disgrace tonight. When he ball is snapped he stands there and watches. Didn’t he learn from Deshields? Awful.
Embarrassing
You could see this coming.
Holstein and the offense have been struggling the last few weeks and it continued tonight.
Holstein is a bust. Reminds me of Jurkovec when he was a new recruit. All kinds of hype. Me results.
You nailed it.
The OL has been unable to protect QB’s nor open running lanes. While Eli has not been sharp with Phil like short throws in the ground, but playing lesser talented, speedy opponents this was mostly masked.
Opposing coaches are watching film, game planning on what they see and honing into the schemes and tendencies.
Where are the bigger backs that previously stepped up when given opportunities?
In the end SMU was the better team.
Not the worst defeat but in the top 5. #1 ranked and leading PS 14 – 0 in Three Rivers Stadium, were defeated 48 – 14. No easy games from here on out. Just ask Clemson.
The PSU 48-14 game wasn’t at 3 Rivers, it was at old Pitt Stadium – I was there for that disaster. You’re right, that was much, much worse!!! Kinda reminded me of last night’s play. Just plain un-prepared and un-motivated.
Not sure why Eli isn’t throwing the ball to WRs more. Teams are keying on his short passes to RBs and TEs. And he’s running very slow on scrambles now. Hopefully we learn from this!
H2P!!!
Throw to Kenny Johnson. He gets open. He made some great catches in this game
For me, the #1 worst loss ever was the Bowl game against Houston. The most gigantic late game choke loss of all time for Pitt FB!
They got punked by the kicker at the end of the half and they came out for the second half flatter than they did to start the game.I’ve seen some duds in my time cheering fir this program.This has to probably be the top of the list.Complete embarrassing ass whoopin..
6 TD’s total in the last 4 games by the offense led by Eli is the problem
he isn’t developing, and it’s not all him as the O-line has been regressing also
They were getting by with Eno’s filling in at left tackle but he doesn’t seem up to the task against teams like SMU and Clemson and Louisville. Ryan Baer needs to take over at left tackle for the remainder of the season. I knew losing Branson Taylor would hurt at some point against better teams. Not to pin things on Eno’s but he’s not ready for prime time yet.
Add a tight end to the line and/or a full back to the backfield. Got to keep our QB looking downfield.
Eli is a fraud.
Its only one loss, but, the O-Line has been bad for a few years. Eli looked like a deer in head lights all day and the db’s still cannot tackle oh yeah Coach Narduzzi you don’t have the talent to stay in this defense all day every game,
Could the tackling be any worse than it was last night? But then again, all aspects of the game were crap. I know they aren’t this bad but still, embarrassing when it had a national spotlight on it.
Well at least they weren’t playing on a real TV channel where more people could have seen that embarrassment. Now we will see what kind of team this really is in how they respond to this ass kicking the last four games.
I get the reaction, and yeah it might be worth taking a look at Yarnell and letting Eli sit. But the defense did nothing to keep them in the game. As a team they were unprepared and I’m starting to think they are over coaching Holstein, he has not looked right since Cal, and it’s starting to look like he’s trying to only focus on the short passes. You can see receivers open on most plays. But if they are more than 5-10 yards down field he looks them off. Couple of times he should have tucked and ran or… Read more »
If the season was over today, I would be happy with how this team improved. The fact that this game was over in the first quarter was very concerning. Eli has hit a wall and some of his throws were not even close. The offense has regressed. The tackling on defense was just ridiculous. That was the same defense that played a week ago which had no resemblance to the one that played last night. Poor execution, poor coaching on both ends. I think they lose last 3 out of 4 because the offense is losing their identity and the… Read more »
Why is Pitt NIL paying this guy over $200,000 or more???
Eli had two decent halves of football all year. If he was any good Alabama had plenty of money to keep him. He is a waste of NIL money. Cut your losses now!
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Well said. I think we need to add that it’s pretty inexcusable for the coaches to not have replaced Junko/Punter after sooo many team damaging terrible punts last year. It’s a horror show watching him choke so frequently. Massive coaching decision F-up.
Junko goes bad at the worst times.
It is what it is! What a difference a week can make in college football. 7-1 so far still looks good to me.
They bought him a truck before he even played one conference game…