Pittsburgh 45, Louisville 34

In their final ACC game of the season, Louisville (6-5) fell behind Pitt 42-17 in the second quarter and couldn’t put together a strong enough comeback in the second half and lost 45-34 in Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday. Freshman Qadree Ollison ran for 152 yards and a score against the nation’s 11th-ranked run defense as the Panthers reached the eight-win plateau in the regular season for the first time since 2009 with the victory. Considering he’d just spent large parts of three hours watching his team get pushed around by Pittsburgh, the Louisville coach wasn’t in the mood to explain it away. “I feel like we haven’t done it in a month-and-a-half”.

The Cardinals have steadied themselves despite instability and inconsistent play at quarterback. “I said, ‘Hey, we aren’t anxious about winning this game, it’s just by how many points are we going to win this game?’ That’s kind of the attitude”.

“Their defense is one that loads the box and tries to stop the run, blitz linebackers”, Petrino said. The Panthers took over and ran out the remaining time, Narduzzi and his resilient team spilling onto the field as the clock ticked down. “We just have to finish better”.

Shortly after Pitt kicked off, North Carolina beat Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to end any hope of the Panthers staying alive in the ACC Coastal race.

Louisville’s defense stiffed in the second half and the Cardinals (6-5, 5-3 ACC) cut the deficit to 42-34 early in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by Jackson. “You can’t give up that many long, big drives and have your offense on the sidelines”. The Cardinals turned it over on downs on the ensuing drive and Ollison’s two first-down runs on the final drive sealed the win.

All of that momentum, however, vanished in a stunning first half in which Peterman and the Panthers did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to. “That really hurt us”.

Pitt scored touchdowns on five consecutive possessions in the second quarter alone as Peterman spread it around. After a quick three-and-out by the Cardinals and a poor punt that gave the Panthers the ball at their own 48, Peterman first hit Boyd for 23 yards and then found Dontez Ford for 32 yards and his second touchdown pass over a three minute span. When Avonte Maddox picked off a Bolini throw and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, the Panthers were up 42-17 with 35 seconds to go before the break. But, Louisville’s running game was held in check and the offense started to stagnate, so after Bolin’s interception late in the second quarter, coach Bobby Petrino elected to go with Jackson for the remainder of the game. Yeah, it’s a little weird, but whatever, so is ESPNews… which is the station that is going to be carrying the game.