Pitt Run Defense Stood Tall Against Clemson, Until It Didn’t

PITTSBURGH — Pitt football’s run defense was as stout as it’s been all season through the first 58 minutes of it’s matchup against the 20th-ranked Clemson Tigers, limiting the opposition to 0.3 yards per carry.

However, when it mattered the most, Pitt had no answer for a quarterback draw on second-and-3 from the 50. It was a genius play call when Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and the Tigers needed a touchdown to survive in Pittsburgh and it caught the Panthers off guard.

Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik took the snap, paused for a moment and then proceeded to hit the jets for a 50-yard game-winning touchdown with 1:16 left in the contest to lift the Tigers to a 24-20 win over the Panthers.

“We pitch a shut-out defensively in the second half until 1:36 in the game and the quarterback draw, which they’ve run quarterback draws. They got us in a good coverage for it. Our stunt up front probably wasn’t as clean as you’d like,” head coach Pat Narduzzi said following the loss.

The play of the game saw Klubnik break through the line as he was then one-on-one with safety Donovan McMillon, who he motored right around. Both P.J. O’Brien and Kyle Louis slowed up, watching as the quarterback rolled past McMillon as Klubnik then picked up a block near the perimeter from wide receiver T.J. Moore before finding the end zone.

CLUTCH KLUBNIK!!

Tigers retake the lead after the 50-yard QB run!

📺 @ClemsonFB x ESPN pic.twitter.com/sOkZHMPchy

— ACC Football (@ACCFootball) November 16, 2024

Louis relived the play following the game while speaking to the media.

“We was playing two-dog man coverage, I had [9], he did a curl. Based off the concepts they was running, they probably knew that we was going to do two-dog and they baited the QB draw. Next time we just got to be better watching and containing the QB,” Louis said.

Entering the game, Clemson averaged 198.7 yards on the ground, 25th-most in the country. Running back Phil Mafah ranked 13th in FBS play with 981 yards, while averaging 6.1 yards per touch.

Pitt knew it needed to shut down the 6-foot-1, 230-pound Mafah in order to set the Panthers up for a chance to win, and they did just that. Mafah was suffocated all afternoon, recording just 17 net yards on 17 attempts. On 26 rushes prior to Klubnik’s touchdown, Clemson registered just eight yards on the ground, good for an average of 0.3 yards per touch.

“Georgia held them to 38; that was the low on the year, so that tells you what kind of performance our kids did,” Narduzzi said. “Mafah really couldn’t get anything going all day. It was a great performance by our defense in rush defense, and then you give up a quarterback draw, which was the one. They got 58 total yards, and they got 50 on the last play.”

Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Brandon George (30) November 16, 2024 David Hague/PSN

Pitt’s run defense now owns an average of 93.6 yards per game, which sits near the top in the country.

While Pitt’s run defense sold out against Clemson, the pass defense was susceptible early in the game. In the first half, Klubnik completed 20 passes, 12 of which went for 10 or more yards.

The two first-half touchdowns for the Tigers came on passes of 14 and 28 yards to Antonio Williams. From there, Pitt settled in and held the Tigers scoreless until just over a minute left in the game.

“You look at the defense, played their tails off the entire game, on the field for almost 35 minutes. They had one drive at the end of the second quarter where they hit two big posts on us. Our guys tightened down, we made some adjustments and fixed it,” Narduzzi said.

As Pitt’s run defense stood tall and the Panthers buckled down in the second half, it was all for naught as the Tigers converted on the biggest play of the game with the Klubnik touchdown.