You can only play with fire so many times before it burns you, and Pitt wasn’t just burned, it was torched by a quarterback who had never thrown a collegiate pass.
It’s been a season in which the Pitt defense has held its own — and more — for the majority of games, giving the Pitt offense chances to find the end zone and walk away with a win, and once again, Pitt didn’t do enough when it mattered to actually walk off the field with a win.
A questionable call on a 3rd-and-8 quarterback dash as Pitt tried to bleed the clock away very late in the fourth quarter, which resulted in a punt, gave Wake Forest the football right at midfield off yet another poor punt from Caleb Junko. And Pitt was unable to stop the Demon Deacons for the second straight possession, eventually giving up a 15-yard touchdown to Cameron Hite to take the lead with seven seconds left.
And Wake Forest walked off the field at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium Saturday night with a 21-17 win.
It was especially crushing after Pitt put together its second-best drive of the night, driving 75 yards to take the lead with a 22-yard touchdown toss to Bub Means with just 1:30 left in the game. Wake Forest snatched a victory right out from underneath the nose of Pitt.
Veilleux completed 28-of-45 pass attempts (62%) for 302 yards and two touchdowns, C’Bo Flemister ran for a career-high 105 yards and Bub Means set a career-high with nine receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown. And it all resulted in naught.
It was a nearly perfect start for Pitt, which isn’t something that’s been said all that often this season, but — obviously — the feeling of perfection didn’t linger for too long.
Veilleux completed 7-of-8 pass attempts for 66 yards and a touchdown — Kenny Johnson’s first career receiving touchdown, actually, on a nice crossing route in the end zone — on the first possession. But playcalling killed any semblance of momentum throughout the first half.
Whether it was blown-up screens, quarterback keepers that lost yardage or questionable decision-making on certain down-and-distance situations, Pitt managed just 17 more yards on its five drives than on just the opening possession alone.
And while Pitt handled first-time starter Santino Marucci and the Wake Forest offense well in the first half, allowing just 92 yards, but 55 of those yards — and the only touchdown of the first half — came on a two-play drive at the end of the first half to knot the score at seven.
After missing on a couple of RPO opportunities, Marucci hit running back Demond Claiborne for a 23-yard play, helped forward by a Brandon George facemask, and he finished the drive himself with an 18-yard touchdown.
Wake Forest, a fan of the limited play-calling approach, ran it three straight times to open the second half. And Pitt didn’t show much — if any — adjustment of its own.
Pitt mustered third quarter drives of 11, 39 and 4 yards. Two punts, a turnover on downs and very, very, very little offensive cohesion. But even so, the defense gave the Panthers a fourth possession in the third quarter courtesy of P.J. O’Brien Jr.’s first career interception, and while Pitt couldn’t convert with a touchdown, the Panthers regained the lead with a Ben Sauls field goal from 41 yards out.
The defense protected the new-found lead with a run stop on fourth down at the Pitt 32, giving the ball back to Veilleux and the offense, but once again, the offense couldn’t manage to do just about anything.
Caleb Junko punted the ball away with just about six minutes left in the fourth, nursing a three point lead, and Wake Forest put together its most complete drive of the afternoon — capped once again by Claiborne, dashing in from 42 yards out to take the first lead of the night for the Demon Deacons.
Trailing 14-10, with 3:02 left in the game, Pitt had a chance. And, for all of the angst throughout the afternoon, Veilleux and the offense delivered when it mattered. But the offense couldn’t do it twice.
And the third (maybe fourth) poor Junko punt gave Wake Forest the chance to walk off with a win. And Marucci and the Demon Deacons did just that.
Now sitting at 2-5 (1-3 ACC), Pitt will stay on the road next weekend, heading to South Bend, Ill. to take on Notre Dame at Notre Dame Stadium.
That slide call was a joke. The announcers were a joke. ACC is a joke. Pitt is a joke. When does the hockey game start?
A absolute stolen 1st down from what I saw.
Did Hammond do something wrong? Where was he?
Bad call on the slide.
TV announcers for this game were one of the worst.. “Unbelievable talent in Flemister”.. really?
Where as the offense in 2 and 3rd quarter?
I hope this isn’t going to be a week where pitt, pens, and steelers all lose.
Let’s go pens !!!
They called him a legend six times and I’m like he was handed a win against a two win terrible Pitt team that blew it.
It is because the announcers are so limited mentally they can not come up with anything intelligent to say. The guys that broadcast are as articulate as a dementia patient. Turn off the volume.
That game was dull Live, I was in Winston-Salem. Not a real lively crowd. The game action was slow snail pace. That had to be a bad assignment to be on TV, neither Team did anything constructive until 5 minutes Left in the 4th quarter.
Our screen pass plays on Offense have been a hot mess with Slovis, Phil, and Christian.
Phil is big in pads, huge, can the dude Punt?
Cignetti uses Gavin more like WR on route running, hopefully he does more short intermediate middle third of field, sit down turn around.
We can all blame the officials. Bottom line is if he runs out of bounds and does do the silly slide it is game over. The punting was bad. The team discipline was bad with 13 penalties. The defense could not stop a team reeling with a third string qb in the game in the final minute. The team is a coached by a bunch of really low IQ guys. It is scary. Makes you wonder why we bother wasting 3 hours a game we won’t get back.
This season is long over. This team is an embarrassment to this city and university. They seriously lost to a player who has never thrown a pass in college football game. Can’t move the ball. Defense is garbage. We can’t even punt the football. He had a ten yard punt and goes to school for free! What is going on at Pitt??? Narduzzi makes millions and for this product? I’m no hitter but it would be less embarrassing for them to just forfeit the rest of this season.
He’s the third highest paid coach in the acc lol 😂 🤦♂️
Get a new punter, current one wouldn’t make a high school team. Need a new OC, who can be more creative in play calling. Sloppy penalties, poor coaching, just a ver Embarrassing loss., to a QB who was 3rd string and had never throw a college pass before. Narduzzi didn’t have them ready again.