Packed into the corner of a cramped room at the bottom of Heinz Field, DaeSean Hamilton struggled to get the words out. But a poor kick and bad coverage late in the game almost ended the game right there.
Advertisement
Penn State’s offense is light years ahead of where it was 12 months ago, but four turnovers and a late start force this grade to be lower. “I didn’t even know where I was, but my teammates were on me and I knew right there and then, it was over”. “But I’ll never forget that”.
The 42 points that Pitt racked up on Saturday are the most that they have scored on Penn State over the now-98-game series.
But that wasn’t easy after this one.
The mistakes helped Pitt score its first two touchdowns within 47 seconds in the opening quarter, and its second two TDs in a span of 1:44 early in the second. Barkley’s fifth score, a 2-yard dive with five minutes to play, drew the Nittany Lions within three. “Not being able to come through for my team”. I think he’s learned from watching Bis and seeing Bis’ work ethic and how he came up through. “The more and more we do it, the better we’ll get”. Down 28-7 it didn’t look like anyone on this side of the ball had much of a clue what was going on.
Quadree Henderson took the ensuing kickoff back 84 yards to the PSU 10. Trying to convey decades of antagonism to players who were in preschool the last time the Nittany Lions and Panthers shared a football field is another matter. But he fumbled four times, lost two of them, and threw a key pick late. He snagged the ball with one hand and set up Barkley with his fourth score of the game. “We all went up to him and told him that it doesn’t”. Quarterback Trace McSorley threw an interception in the waning minutes, which put the Panthers into victory formation to seal the win.
“The fact it was this close at the end of the game speaks volumes for us in the second half”, Penn State coach James Franklin said. Aston missed the opener against Villanova with an injury and it was obvious the difference he made for the running game.
“We had some guys on the field that aren’t typically on the field and we ran a wrong route”, coach James Franklin said.
Hamilton, who had a game-high eight catches for 82 yards, said after the game that the play would haunt him “forever”. “I’ve gotta run faster. I would love to play this game in perpetuity”. Everybody needs to be held accountable on that play.
Utilized mainly as a special teams player in the three years after he redshirted, Lewis made 24 total tackles over 38 games heading into the season. The Panthers should be able to improve their run game this week.
There’s also the increased emphasis on scheduling one marquee opponent among the three nonconference games, a need Penn State presumably has filled through 2025 with home-and-home series with Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Auburn. They played as well as you could have asked of them, except a few returns here and there. Narduzzi, clearly, was sacked up, and he had a ready-made motivational peg; he closed practices this past week, so the Panthers didn’t have to worry about what they said. If they can do that, Penn State will manage Pitt’s running game just fine and Conner will find tough sledding against one of the best linebacking corps in the country.
Who happened to be Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett. But now Reese is a Panther, and there’s no going back.
“We wanted the run downhill”, Pitt running back James Conner said. This grade is so bad because it should be, but it’s saved from being a rung lower because the unit improved enough by the end of the game that Penn State could have won.
“All week during practice we weren’t really practicing that”, Brown said of the jet sweeps.
“It was a big surprise because we were expecting we had them figured out”, Brown said.
Advertisement
But all jokes aside, the Pitt-Penn State rivalry, which was revived Saturday after a 16-year drought, is a mostly good-natured one.
