ALSO INSIDE
Despite struggles, playoff still possible with ACC final win.
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Pitt game recap,
PITTSBURGH — The Cardiac Canes finally went cold.
Trying to secure its first perfect regular season since 2002 and remain near the top of the College Football Playoff rankings, Miami couldn’t overcome a Pittsburgh team with little to play for and playing a true freshman making his first start at quarterback.
The Hurricanes (10-1, 7-1 ACC) recovered an onside kick with 2:13 remaining, after Braxton Berrios caught a 39-yard touchdown pass from Malik Rosier, but it was too little, too late.
The final: Pitt 24, Miami 14. The Hurricanes’ 15-game winning streak, longest in FBS, is over.
Five takeaways:
Can Miami still make the playoffs? Short answer: yes.
The selection committee looks at a complete résumé, not their most recent game. After all, No. 2 Clemson lost to Pitt in Week 12 last year, fell to No. 4, and eventually won the national title.
The fact the Pac-12 doesn’t appear to have a playoff contender helps. The fact that Alabama and Wisconsin enter the weekend as the only unbeatens helps Miami as well. UM should hope everyone but Alabama loses this weekend; if the top-ranked Crimson Tide stay undefeated, they’re in, and it would mean the SEC has a lesser shot of getting two teams in.
The Hurricanes need to beat Clemson next Saturday in the ACC title game, obviously, but they aren’t out of it. They’re just among a slew of one-loss teams hoping to hear their names called, rather than a team that controls its own destiny.
“Everything was in front of us,” senior wide receiver Berrios said. “To give that up is terrible.”
Pitt, giant-slayer: This was the best game of the year for the Panthers (5-7, 3-5), who will go into the offseason happy. It was also the highest-ranked team Pitt, in Year 128 of playing football, has ever defeated at home.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi, who started third-stringer Kenny Pickett — the first true freshman to start at quarterback for Pitt since 2007 — outschemed Miami with fakes and end-arounds and well-timed pitches. The Panthers broke up 11 passes, several at the line. The play that sealed it: Cornerback Avonte Maddox sacked Malik Rosier and forced a fumble with 1:45 left, and defensive end Dewayne Hendrix recovered.
In a halftime interview with ESPN, Narduzzi referred to his program’s two previous late-season wins over second-ranked teams. The Panthers beat West Virginia in 2007 and Clemson last year. He called his shot.
“It happened at West Virginia where we knocked off No. 2, it happened in South Carolina, and it’s happening in Pittsburgh today,” he said, walking off.
In that 2007 game, Pitt was also 4-7. They knocked WVU out of the BCS championship picture.
Friday, Heinz Field was less than half-full, but the home fans were fired up. The Hurricanes seemed to grow increasingly more nervous as the game wore on. They were likely resigned to defeat after, in the fourth quarter, a third-down pass slid through the hands of UM’s Trajan Bandy and right to a waiting Quadree Henderson for a 19-yard first down.
Miserable game for the offense: Now that we can look ahead to Clemson: Will the Hurricanes’ season-long run of slow starts burn them when it counts most?
If they play like they did Friday, oh, it certainly will. Miami turned a slow start into its worst offensive performance of the year.
Rosier (15-for-34, 187 yards) was off-target and pulled for a non-injury for the first time in his first season as a starter, Miami’s backs couldn’t find a lot of room (45 yards, 23 carries), and UM scored one lonely touchdown off two forced turnovers.
“The throwing and catching part, we struggled,” coach Mark Richt said. “Some of it was protection . ... We just missed too many opportunities.”
Against the 99th-ranked defense (6.13 yards per play), which was allowing 411.5 yards per game, Miami put up 3.9 and 232.
When Pitt scored to go ahead 17-7 with 1:47 in the third quarter, Miami had 129 yards of offense.
Richt even tried backup Evan Shirreffs at 9:58 of the fourth quarter. The drive: batted pass at the line, shortarmed throw to what would have been a wide-open tight end, and a sack.
“He was struggling hitting his target, I thought,” said Richt, who returned Rosier to the game afterward. He hit Berrios for a 36-yard touchdown with 2:16 left.
The only touchdown of the first half: Ahmmon Richards’ toe-tapping catch of 23 yards came after Rosier hit Dayall Harris, Berrios and Chris Herndon on screens. That made it 7-3, with 7:03 left in the second quarter.
And after that nine-play, 80-yard drive lasting 3:51, Miami had one drive lasting longer than two minutes, and none lasting longer than 2:25.
No Chain reaction: What hurt most: Miami couldn’t capitalize off turnovers.
On the first play of the second quarter, Pitt fumbled a bad snap and linebacker Michael Pinckney recovered, waving the Turnover Chain at the Miami fans who made the trip to Pittsburgh. UM went three-and-out.
After Miami’s second fumble recovery, by safety Jaquan Johnson after a booming hit by Sheldrick Redwine, Rosier had Berrios open down the field on third down, but threw behind him. Punt.
Hard-hitting D showed up: It’s hard to fault Miami’s defense for this performance.
Redwine had an outstanding game: career-high 12 tackles, forced fumble, pass breakup in the end zone and several other hard hits. Defensive tackle RJ McIntosh had two tackles for loss.
Miami had one sack and five tackles for loss, below its usual standard.
But not enough players made defensive plays against Jester Weah, who had 80 yards on six catches. Miami couldn’t get enough stops against Pickett, who completed 18 of 29 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown, and no turnovers.