South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
No. 21 Pittsburgh holds off No. 24 Louisville 23-20
Patrick Jones II wants No. 21 Pittsburgh’s defense to be the best in the country. Not just in points allowed. Not just in yards allowed. Not just in turnovers. All of it.
“We want it all,” the senior defensive end said.
The Panthers are certainly playing like it.
Jones collected three of Pitt’s seven sacks, helping the Panthers beat No. 24 Louisville 23-20 on Saturday. The win pushed Pitt (3-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) to its best start since 2014 and adhered to a blueprint the Panthers believe can carry them to the conference title game in December: tough, physical defense and just enough offense.
So far, it’s working. The Panthers held the Cardinals (1-2, 0-2) to 223 yards — less than half of what they had been averaging coming in — and never let Malik Cunningham get comfortable. Cunningham completed just 9 of 21 passes for 107 yards with a touchdown and three picks, the last a fourth-down interception by Pitt’s Jason Pinnock with 1:19 remaining.
Cunningham ended up leaving on a stretcher after the play with an undisclosed injury. Coach Scott Satterfield said the junior had feeling in all his extremities and was being evaluated. The sight of their rising star heading into the tunnel with his head strapped to a board marked a difficult end to a difficult day for the Cardinals. Louisville struggled to generate much of anything offensively thanks to the relentless pursuit of Pitt’s defensive front.
“We’ve played some good D lines, but they were different,” Satterfield said. “They played fast, they played physical.”
And they played exactly the way they knew they would play against the Cardinals. Sporting alternate charcoal grey uniforms inspired by both the architecture on the Pitt campus and the region’s legacy as a leading global steel producer, the defense often resembled a cloud of dust that swarmed anything in a white jersey that happened to come into its path.
“I know the Steel Curtain is the Pittsburgh Steelers but today (we were) dominant up front,“Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi said.
When they weren’t, the secondary picked them up most of the time. Other than a 21-yard touchdown pass from Cunningham to Atwell on a busted coverage in the second quarter that briefly gave Louisville a 17-13 lead, the Cardinals found little room to work.
Three times Louisville had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead. The drives ended with interception, punt, interception.
“Our D-line, they trust that we’re always going to take away the first read,” Pinnock said. “And we trust that they are going to get there. So we can undercut routes, we can do things that maybe, if you didn’t trust your D-line, you couldn’t do. We play well together.”
Bo Nix threw for 233 yards and three second-half touchdowns, including a pair to Seth Williams, and Auburn scored twice in the fourth quarter to pull away from Kentucky in the season opener. The Tigers turned a three-quarter scare into a comfortable win by capitalizing on a late turnover and Kentucky’s failed fake punt in the lone Top 25 matchup of the Southeastern Conference’s opening weekend. Kentucky quarterback Terry Wilson returned from a knee injury that cost him most of last season. He completed 24 of 37 passes for 239 yards and ran for 42 yards.
Kyle Pitts caught four of Kyle Trask’s six touchdown passes and No. 5 Florida spoiled the head coaching debut of Mississippi’s Lane Kiffin with a 51-35 victory. Kiffin, the former Tennessee and Southern California head coach who came to Ole Miss from FAU, had the Rebels’ offense humming with Matt Corral at quarterback. Corral completed 22 of 31 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns passes, two to Dontario Drummond. But they couldn’t stop the Gators.
LSU star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. was hospitalized overnight on Friday the school said in a statement hours before its season-opening game against Mississippi State on Saturday. According to the statement, Stingley became “acutely ill” on Friday night but the condition was not COVID-19 related. He did not play Saturday. 4:05 p.m., Sunday | Chargers by 61⁄ | O/U: 43
Take Christian McCaffrey out of mix and Panthers aren’t the same. Chargers are stout against run. 4:25 p.m., Sunday | Cardinals by 51⁄ | O/U: 56
After getting trampled by Aaron Jones, Lions must corral Kyler Murray and Kenyan Drake. 4:25 p.m., Sunday | Buccaneers by 51⁄ | O/U: 421⁄ Broncos are banged up, and they’re going to have a hard time slowing an improving Bucs offense. 4:25 p.m., Sunday | Seahawks by 5 | O/U: 561⁄ Seattle’s run defense has been swarming, and has to be vs. Dallas. This comes down to Russell Wilson. 8:20 p.m., Sunday | Saints by 3 | O/U: 521⁄
Green Bay’s Aaron Jones and New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara will play big roles in the outcome. 8:15 p.m., Monday | Ravens by 31⁄ | O/U: 541⁄ Patrick Mahomes is phenomenal, but Baltimore is at a comfy cruising altitude and tough at home.