The Backyard Brawl lived up to its name after the game ended on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Following the Panthers’ 38-34 victory at home over the West Virginia Mountaineers, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi told ESPN, “Some of the calls we got. Late hit out of bounds. They catch a ball with a hands to the face. I ain’t never seen anything like it. We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. And we beat the officials, too.”
In the post-game press conference, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was asked about Narduzzi’s comments, and responded, “That’s bullshit… we’re the one that got a long TD called back.”
Both head coaches had their complaints about the officiating, but the reality is that in crunch time, it was the Panthers who were able to get it done.
WVU was in position to win the game, but on Pitt’s final two drives, Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein became WVU’s nightmare. After nearly an entire second half keeping Holstein bottled up, the WVU lost contain on the edge and he just took over.
Scrambles of 10, 4 and 24 yards helped set up his 40-yard touchdown pass to Daejon Reynolds with 3:08 left. Then, after the Pitt defense forced a three-and-out, he was at it again. Scrambles of 7, 17 and 5 yards set up Derrick Davis Jr.’s touchdown run with 33 seconds left to win the game 38-34.
“You should never lose a game when you’re up 10 late,” added Brown during his postgame press conference. Brown was also brutally honest on his secondary, saying, “let’s just say what it is, we haven’t defended the pass really good”.
Pittsburgh was flagged 12 times for 112 yards while West Virginia was flagged seven times for 67 yards.
West Virginia fell to 1-2 with the loss, while Pittsburgh improved to 3-0. WVU is back at home next week to host Kansas.
