Miscues Doomed Pitt Time and Time Again vs. Clemson

The Pitt Panthers miscues doomed them against Clemson.

Nov 16, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Clemson Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik (2) runs on his way to scoring a game winning fifty-yard touchdown during the fourth quarter to defeat the Pittsburgh Panthers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers suffered a devastating loss against No. 20 Clemson at Acrisure Stadium, which saw the home team commit a slew of mistakes throughout. 

Even with the mistakes, Pitt managed to take its first lead with 96 seconds left, but would throw it away just 20 seconds later, resulting in the 24-20 defeat on Senior Day. 

Clemson junior quarterback Cade Klubnik led a three-play, 75-yard drive that short time span. Klubnik completed two passes for 25 total yards on the first two plays of the game-winning drive and then scrambled for a 50-yard touchdown rush to silence Acrisure Stadium completely.

On the 50-yard score, Pitt ran a coverage susceptible to runs, but efficient against the pass — a two dog man coverage. 

This leaves the middle of the field open because there are two deep safeties and the linebackers are in man coverage. 

The quarterback draw Clemson ran with Klubnik was the perfect play at the perfect time, exploiting the weaknesses in the Pitt defense, as they failed to adjust until it was too late. 

“Based off the concepts they was running they probably knew that we were going to run two dog,” Panthers redshirt sophomore linebacker Kyle Louis said. “[Clemson] just baited the QB draw. So, next time we just got to be better on containing [the] QB.”

Despite Pitt playing in the two-dog man coverage against the quarterback draw, head coach Pat Narduzzi was upset that his team didn’t make a play, but he took some of the blame himself as well.

“We didn't rally and make a play on the quarterback,” Narduzzi said. “We've got to get him down. He took it to the house. At least let them kick a field goal and tie it up, whatever. We just didn't get him down. It's on us as coaches.”

The Panthers coaches had a bad game altogether. Narduzzi and the coaching staff let four precious seconds bleed off the clock before he called a timeout with 12 seconds remaining in the game. But that wasn’t the only timeout mismanagement Panthers fans saw against the Tigers.

On third-and-goal at the one-yard line, Pitt redshirt junior quarterback Nate Yarnell received the snap and handed the ball off to redshirt junior running back Derrick Davis Jr. Davis dove into the endzone for what seemed like a touchdown, but Narduzzi called a timeout prior to the snap, that wiped off the touchdown. 

“I was just worried about that clock going down,” Narduzzi said. “We were tight on time, and I didn't want to be backed up five yards for a delay of game.”

But after the timeout call, Pitt still backed itself up on third down. Pitt didn’t just back itself up just once, not twice, but three times. Pitt had an illegal formation penalty, a delay of game penalty and a false start all on third down. What was once a third-and-goal at the one-yard line became a third-and-goal at the 16-yard line.

Impressively, this wasn’t the only time the Panthers had three consecutive penalties on one singular down. 

The defense had three consecutive offside penalties in the second quarter on third-and-21. The Panthers' defense made a third-and-21 turn into a manageable third-and-six for the Tigers, but, luckily enough for the defense, they still stalled the Tigers' offense.

Narduzzi argued that the Clemson center may have committed a penalty himself to draw Pitt offsides, taking the blame of his defense on that drive. 

“Three in a row, center was moving his shoulder and getting us to jump,” Narduzzi said.

The Panthers committed 13 penalties against the Tigers, amassing 100 total yards, and last weekend, against the Virginia Cavaliers, they committed 11 penalties for 75 yards. 

The coaching and fundamentals have declined for Pitt the last few weeks. Something has got to change and the star of Pitt’s defense was definitely frustrated with the current streak Pitt is on, with three consecutive defeats to then ranked No. 20 SMU in Week 10, Virginia and now Clemson.

“We just got to stop,” Louis said. “We just got to stop all of this losing, losing, losing. We gotta stop that. We lost three in a row no more.”

Pitt will work on their discipline this week, as they prepare to face No. 19 Louisville on the road in Week 13.

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