Pitt's resilient defense guts out 30-23 OT thriller over North Carolina

Good teams find different ways to win, even when their bread and butter isn't working.

That's what happened in Pitt's 30-23 win in overtime against North Carolina at Heinz Field Thursday night. It was a must-win kind of night, as the Panthers needed to win to keep Virginia and Miami from catching up in the race for the ACC Coastal division. The win propels Pitt to be 8-2, and 5-1 in the ACC. And it came in the most unusual of ways.

Pitt's offense led the country with 45 points per game coming into Thursday night, but couldn't score a single point for the Panthers in the final 34:40 of play. It was the first game this season they were shut out out for an entire half. That led to Pitt giving up what was a 17-0 lead in the middle of the second quarter, as North Carolina tied the game at 23 with a 20-yard field goal with 57 seconds left.

When the game went to overtime, Pitt got the ball first in front of its student section. And Pitt's best player, Kenny Pickett, took the field in a huge drive on national television. Pitt had a 3rd and 2 in overtime where North Carolina had every receiver covered, but Pickett scrambled for six yards to convert.

Then, on the very next play, Pickett motioned tight end Lucas Krull to line up as a split-end to his left, where he ran a post pattern in front of the cornerback guarding him, and Pickett waited just long enough for Krull to get behind a linebacker over the middle so he could make the 11-yard touchdown catch to make it 30-23.

"It's something we've practiced for a really long time," Pickett said of his touchdown pass to Krull. "It feels great after we've put in a lot of work to see that. I've probably thrown that ball to him a hundred times, and I'm not exaggerating. But that's why you work hard and put the hours in, so we can come up big in moments like that."

"That's a play we've been oiling up for months," Krull said of his touchdown. "It was a perfect opportunity to use it in the red zone. Kenny did a really good job to wait for the linebacker to drop in the hole. He did a real good job letting me get through that and hit me with a great ball so I could bring it down."

In addition to throwing a game-winning touchdown, Pickett also continued to smash records for the Panthers.

Pickett finished completing 25 of 43 passes for 346 passing yards and three passing touchdowns with one interception. The performance was his 15th career game with more than 300 passing yards, the most in Pitt history. He also finished with 11,501 career passing yards for Pitt, passing Alex Van Pelt for most in the program's history. His 3,517 passing yards ranks second for a single season with Pitt, just behind Rod Rutherford's 3,679 passing yards in 2003. He also now has 32 passing touchdowns, third-most in a season for Pitt behind Dan Marino and Rutherford having 37 in 1981 and 2003. Pickett also now has 71 career touchdown passes, second only to Marino's 79.

That last touchdown pass became the most important of Pitt's season thus far, as it gave the Panthers seven-point lead over North Carolina with the Tar Heels set to get their chance in the first overtime.

Despite giving up ten points in North Carolina's final two drives that tied up the game to get to overtime, Narduzzi saw Pitt's defense take the field with confidence that this was their moment.

"After our offense scored," Narduzzi recounted after the game. "I told the defense and (Mark) Whipple, ‘they will not score a touchdown. There's no way.’ I knew there was no way they were going to score on our defense. Had a lot of faith in how our kids were playing."

Pitt's defense then took the field knowing it just needed one last stop in a game that it already had forced three turnovers on downs from North Carolina. Facing Sam Howell, a quarterback highly regarded as one of the best in the country, the defense stuffed a run by Ty Chandler and then forced two incomplete passes from Howell.

"It was crazy," super senior linebacker Phil Campbell said about Pitt's final defensive drive. "It was raining. The crowd was screaming. We couldn't even hear our checks so we had to scream at each other. But we were all on our jobs and we played together. I'll remember that for the rest of my life."

Then with North Carolina having the ball on Pitt's 26 for 4th and 11, Pat Narduzzi and Randy Bates dialed up an all-out blitz of six players with linebacker Cam Bright coming in free on Howell. Howell spun out of Bright's rush, but the pursuit of Calijah Kancey forced Howell to throw up a prayer to the goal line where the Aliquippa-native M.J. Devonshire made the interception to close out the game.

Devonshire saw a bump up in Pitt's cornerback depth chart for the game as A.J. Woods, the team's third cornerback, was unable to play due to injury.

"I watched him roll out," Devonshire said of Howell on the last play. "As soon as I saw him throw it, I saw the ball go in the air and just knew I had to high point it before anyone else could get it."

"It's big time," Narduzzi said of Devonshire's stepping up. "I think he's sitting in the (waiting) room right there. Everybody gets their opportunity. When you get an opportunity you take advantage of it. That's great for his confidence, he's been playing well of late. He's been playing good all year. With A.J. Woods out, and I expect him to be back this week, M.J. took over as a third corner and got some quality reps today. I'm happy for him. And he's an Aliquippa boy. Good to see the Quips get it done today."

The win wasn't pretty as the Panthers gave up a lead late and ran the an inexplicable ball nine times for -5 yards in the second half. In fact, it was the first of Pitt's eight wins this season where the Panthers gave up a fourth quarter lead and had to answer back. Narduzzi's players did so with an emphatic touchdown in overtime and a dominating final drive on defense to close out the Tar Heels.

"We've got a great football team," Narduzzi said. "I think we've got a championship football team in that locker room. When you talk about the explosive offense we have and have had all year. And again our defense keeps getting better every week, I think. It says a lot about those guys in there. They work hard. And we've got a good football team in that locker room."

Pitt limited Howell to completing 22 of 33 passes for 296 yards for two passing touchdowns with an interception, and just 17 carries for 28 yards and a touchdown. It's the rushing yards that made a huge difference, as Howell, a quarterback, was the ACC's sixth-leading rusher with 699 yards, eight touchdowns on 135 carries. Pitt held him 49 yards short of his 77.7 rushing yards per game averaging going into Thursday.

"We did a great job," Narduzzi said of Pitt's job against Howell. "He ran a quarterback draw early and we stuck him. When you talk about pure quarterback runs, I think we handled them better than anybody did. He got us on some scrambles, I think it was poor pressure, just angles and letting them get out of the pocket. That's where he got his yards at least in the second half on scrambles where we didn't have good ratio as far as our pressure goes and just keeping him -- we just didn't do a good job pressuring."

The ending was exciting and the win was inspiring, but how Pitt got there was a wild rollercoaster ride.

Pitt's offense came out humming in the first half despite turning the ball over on downs in its first drive. The three following drives resulted in 17 points with Vincent Davis punching in a two-yard touchdown and Pickett finding Gavin Bartholomew on an RPO-quarterback option pass in the red zone.

"That kid is going to be special," Krull said of Bartholomew. "He's a young true freshman and he's doing things that I'm not sure if anyone else that's a true freshman is doing. A lot of people don't understand what he does in the trenches for us as an extra fullback. He's strong as an ox. He's also in there everyday watching extra film with me and doing extra reps. I'm so proud of him."

It looked like it would be another big offensive showing for the Panthers, who came into the night with the country's highest scoring offense that averaged 45 points per game. But after Pitt went up 23-7 with 4:40 left in the second quarter on a 32-yard strike from Pickett to Jared Wayne, North Carolina would keep the Panthers off the board until overtime.

That was surprising considering the Tar Heels averaged giving up over 33 points per game coming into the night. That put pressure on the Panthers' defense to get several stops against an offense that just put up 58 points last week in North Carolina's win over No. 9 Wake Forest.

But in what's been Pitt's biggest game this season, the defense stood tall for most of the game.

Outside of a busted coverage where a cornerback fell down on a 76-yard touchdown, Pitt held North Carolina in check. The Panthers' pass rush tallied five sacks on Howell on the night, with Habakkuk Baldonado leading the way with 1.5 sacks. SirVocea Dennis, Calijah Kancey and John Morgan III each had one sack while Phil Campbell split a half-sack with Baldonado.

Dennis, though, was all over the field for Pitt. He led the Panthers with nine tackles on the night, including three tackles for loss. 

"He was outstanding," Narduzzi said of Dennis. "He's taken over that mike position. And he makes a lot of plays in there, too. He makes them wherever he is. And I was happy with the effort he put out there today."

"SirVocea is a super hard worker," Campbell said of Dennis. "He's super smart and he's a leader. He's come into that role as a mike linebacker who runs the show. He gives us pregame speeches and he's a great football player. It's really fun playing next to him and knowing we're going to get it done."

But Pitt's defensive victories came from a team effort. North Carolina went for it on fourth down four times during the game, and Pitt only allowed one conversion. It's been a theme for the Panthers this season, as those four stops now bring the Panthers' opponents to converting only 3 of 17 fourth down attempts this season for a percentage of 17.6. That's the best in the country with the next closest team being Georgia Southern at 20 percent.

One of those stops came on a 4th and 1 in the third quarter when North Carolina was driving at Pitt's 23. Instead of opting for a field goal, Mack Brown kept Howell in the game for a quarterback option run for the 6-foot-1, 220 lbs. running quarterback to get the conversion himself. Campbell recognized the option from his film study leading into the game, and delivered a big hit on Howell that stopped his momentum immediately and got Pitt the ball back.

"We called a blitz," Campbell recalled. "They came out in a different formation, but I recognized it on film. As soon as he came to the line of scrimmage I saw he was holding the ball like he was going for an option. I knew he really wanted to keep it, so I went right at him and tried to get the stop." 

Pitt looked ready for each of North Carolina's fourth down attempts. The only one that was converted was 4th and goal at the 1 where Howell ran another keeper. He was met at the line, and stopped short initially, but pushes from his teammates getting behind him helped him regain momentum and get over the goal line. Still, it as an impressive performance for Pitt's defense being challenged so many times.

"I think we're number one fourth-down defense in the country," Narduzzi said. "I think people should probably just punt or do something else. Give our players credit, our coaches credit. They've done a great job all year long and they did it again today. Those are some huge stops. And, again, they played lights out in the first half. I counted four or five three-and-outs early, maybe out of the first six or seven series."

Campbell said Narduzzi had been feeding the defense lines all week about how many thought the defense wouldn't be able to stop North Carolina, and that it made an impact on their preparation this week.

"It was everything," Campbell said about what motivated the defense this week. "Even coach Narduzzi came up to us before the game and told us people didn't respect us and that all that was getting talked about was the offense. He told us, 'defense wins championships.' We took that as a personal challenge today, and I think it showed." 

The defensive performance was inspiring against an offense that ranked third in ACC scoring coming into Thursday by averaging 38.9 points per game. Holding Howell and the Tar Heels to more than two touchdowns short of that average showed a big win for Pitt's defense to say it's made progress. 

This was supposed to be the game that could only be won if Pitt's offense put up points close to it's 45 points per game average and that if Pickett and company weren't perfect, the Panthers would fall and their ACC Coastal division hopes would be crushed. It looked like it could've gone that way late when Pickett missed on a screen pass to Israel Abanikanda that was tipped and intercepted. North Carolina had the ball at Pitt's 35 just one play after scoring a touchdown against a Pitt defense that looked gassed.

But after forcing an incomplete pass and stuffing a run, Pitt held up on third down by tackling Ty Chandler at the three-yard line to force the field goal that tied the game. It was a big stand that also saved Pitt's season.

"There was talk about letting them score and we would go down and score," Narduzzi recalled of the possession as North Carolina was chewing up the clock. "I was, like, I can't do that. We're going to stop them here, even when they got down close to the one-yard line. Just incredible efforts by a bunch of guys."

It's a resilient performance on a short week of practice when Pitt took it easier on its players and focused on walkthroughs instead of intense practices. That approach was something Narduzzi took from advice given by Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

"We didn't practice much this week," Narduzzi said. "We had to keep them fresh and I got that from Coach Tomlin. I appreciate coach Tomlin and how they deal with it in the NFL. It's nice to have neighbors like that."

The win gives Pitt eight days to rest before it's showdown with Virginia at Heinz Field next Saturday. It also sets the stage for Pitt getting a win to eliminate Virginia as a threat to win the ACC Coastal and set up the Panthers with a Syracuse team that's 5-4, 2-3 in the ACC, as the last opponent in their way of winning the division and making the ACC Championship Game.