The Backyard Brawl lived up to its expectations on Saturday night with a hard-fought rivalry game going down to the wire and Pittsburgh pulling off the 38-34 victory at home.
But after the game, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was not thrilled, despite the victory.
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.”
Here’s the video.
WVU dominated time of possession (36:17), had five sacks, 11 tackles for loss and outgained Pitt, 401-379. The Mountaineers had a 75-59 advantage in total plays and were up by 10 points with roughly five minutes left.
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 Mountaineers 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.
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.
