CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Throughout Saturday's contest at Kenan Stadium, North Carolina had tested the Pitt defense. The Tar Heels used trick plays, screen passes, straightforward runs and deep passes down the field. But while the Tar Heels had success at times, the Panthers stood tall when it mattered most to secure a 34-24 victory.
With just over nine minutes remaining in the game, North Carolina was looking to convert a 4th-and-1 situation from Pitt's 8-yard line. The Tar Heels had already converted two of their five fourth-down attempts, but Pitt's defense felt confident. The Panthers received their play call and lined up to try and hand the ball back to their offense with a seven-point lead.
Kyle Louis said North Carolina knew what was coming, but Pitt stayed with its call and executed.
"The other team knew what the play was, I saw the tackle and the guard, they were talking right to me, pointing at me, right in front of me," Louis said. "But, it's not about if you know the play, it's about if you can stop the play. So we felt confident and we kept the play going."
The defense followed through as a combination of Louis, Brandon George, Sean FitzSimmons and Nate Matlack stoned Omarion Hampton, who had rushed for 110 yards to that point in the game and had already tallied seven touchdowns this season, at the line of scrimmage.
Players came off the sideline to celebrate the stop before Eli Holstein and the offense went back to work and put together its longest drive of the game. The Panthers marched 73 yards on 18 plays in 7 minutes, 7 seconds before a Ben Sauls 37-yard field goal sealed it for good.
Some teams might've tried to run the ball on that final drive to kill the clock and keep North Carolina's offense on the sideline, but Holstein passed the ball on nine of the 18 plays. Pat Narduzzi said afterward that they were going for the "knockout punch."
"We threw the ball on that last series in the end, I think we maybe dropped one in the end zone that could've really knocked them out but we really had no fear about putting our defense out there in a two-minute situation because we've been good at that all year. Our guys are really locked into that," Narduzzi said.
Up to that point in the game, the Panthers had only one drive that lasted 10 plays or longer and it came on their previous drive, which gave the Panthers the lead for good. It lasted 11 plays and covered 75 yards before Holstein scampered up the belly of the North Carolina defense for his third rushing touchdown of the season.
Led by Kade Bell, the Pitt offense, which is known for going fast and had scored twice on this day in five plays or less, was able to seamlessly flip a switch, change its tempo and methodically march its way down the field to seal the victory.
"It's all about our tempo," Holstein said about the offense's last two drives. "Our coaches communicated what we need to do, what our objective is that drive, just make sure the ball doesn't hit the ground, kill clock, completions, stay in bounds, and get positive yards. You can't really have any negative plays. But you gotta be able to chew clock when you need to."
With their victory, the Panthers made history as they moved to 5-0 for the first time since 1991. They also secured a win at Kenan Stadium for the first time in program history. Narduzzi said afterward that it was a "big-time win" but he also didn't see the need to share that with his players throughout the week as a source of motivation because: "It's a different year, it's 2024 and again, our kids fought hard. Great effort."
That's the mentality that this team has had this year. After putting together a putrid 3-9 season a year ago, the conversation heading into 2024 was about proving that last year was a fluke. So far, they've done just that.
They've stood tall to complete two miraculous fourth-quarter comebacks and have of the best offenses in the country. Coming into their conference opener, the Panthers had the fifth-highest scoring offense (48.5 points per game) and averaged the sixth-most yards per game (522.8). On this day, they had 520 total yards of offense, seven different players recorded a catch, five different players put points on the board and while they only tallied one sack, which Louis recorded on the final defensive play of the game, they had six tackles for a loss and 11 quarterback hits.
And they aren't done proving what they are capable of.
As the season goes on, their schedule only gets tougher. They play Cal at home on Saturday before facing Syracuse and then traveling to Dallas to take on SMU, who beat No. 22 Louisville 34-27 on Saturday. But, they aren't looking ahead, they are just focusing on proving themselves game by game.
"It feels good, but the 4-0, we already brushed that off, our main goal this week was to go 1-0," Louis said. "Nothing matters if you don't win your conference game. So this was our first conference game and we are 1-0 with that, now we looking to go 2-0. But every week we are just looking to go 1-0 again. Every Monday, it's 0-0. If you lose to one team, that could change your whole demeanor of how your season is going to go. So, we are always looking forward to just going 1-0 every week. We aren't really worried about the past games."
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Pitt (5-0, 1-0) will host Cal (3-1, 0-1) on Oct. 12 at Acrisure Stadium. I'll have all your coverage.
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