DETROIT — Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi held up three fingers pretty quickly from the sideline.
Gavin Bartholomew had sent a pass intended for defensive tackle Isaiah Neal a tad too high, unable to be hauled in by the big man, it brought up fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the second overtime of the GameAbove Sports Bowl.
Pitt had just held Toledo to a field goal, which meant a touchdown would’ve sealed the win. But Narduzzi opted for a 19-yard field goal. And the game continued.
It continued on for some time, through a third, fourth, fifth and eventual sixth overtime — the most in any bowl game in NCAA history. And unfortunately for the Panthers, an incomplete pass on a two-point conversion attempt in the sixth overtime capped off a 48-46 Toledo win.
Pitt had few chances to ground the Rockets, but perhaps none were better than the fourth-and-goal from the 1.
Narduzzi didn’t go for it then, playing for a tie and getting one. And he defended the decision following the eventual loss.
“No — coach makes a call, I’m not for that,” Narduzzi said after the game. “I don’t care on the road, at home, I want our players to go make plays. To me, they had the field goal in the first part of that overtime, I don’t even know how many overtimes there were, I’m just focused on that moment, I think there were six.
“But fourth-and-1, if you don’t get it, you lose the game. I don’t want it to end like that, I want our kids to make plays, always put it in the kids’ hands. For the coach to make a decision to lose the game or win the game, I’m not for it. I think the overtime’s a great system and that’s kind of the ways it goes.”
Narduzzi, by his logic, decided to let the game come to him. In taking the points and putting the defense back on the field, keeping the ball out of the hands of his fourth-string true freshman quarterback, it gave the Panthers a near sure-fire chance to continue fighting. But it took away a chance for someone to make a play.
And he also just forced his fourth-string true freshman quarterback to continue to make plays, which he did to the very best of his ability.
It was a brutal loss for the Panthers, considering the scope of the season and the chance a fourth-and-goal gave the Panthers to walk off as winners — and Julian Dugger as a hero. Pitt lost its sixth game in a row, killing a whole lot of momentum that had been built earlier in the season, and it brought more scrutiny on Narduzzi himself.
It’s old news now, but Pitt probably would’ve been better off taking advantage of a killshot.
