No. 23 Pittsburgh welcomes Virginia eyeing a bounce back after first loss of the season

Updated Nov. 7, 2024 9:40 a.m. ET

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh safety Javon McIntyre would have preferred a different wake-up call after getting drilled on the road at SMU, a game in which the 23rd-ranked Panthers were outplayed from start to finish.

“It wasn't ideal,” McIntyre said. “We didn't want to get punched in the mouth.”

It happened anyway, although the Panthers (7-1, 3-1 ACC) are trying to spin it forward heading into Saturday's visit from Virginia (4-4, 1-3). There remains a path to the ACC Championship game if they win out, and the College Football Playoff committee ranked Pitt 18th in its initial poll, a sign that the CFP has paid attention to the program's best start in decades.

Yet McIntyre is well aware none of it matters if the Panthers can't find a way to bounce back.

“It's how do you respond,” he said.

Pitt is about to find out. While the Panthers were falling behind by 30 early in the second half, the Cavaliers were regrouping during their bye week following a blowout loss to North Carolina. Virginia has dropped three straight despite having the lead at some point in each game.

“It was a tough day at the office last time out,” Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott said. “That’s who we are right now until we fix it. So either we can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves and hope that it’s just going to change, or we can own it and be honest with ourselves, be honest with each other, and go back to work.”

It's the same for the Panthers, who have won seven of their nine meetings with the Cavaliers since joining the ACC in 2013. The offense that hummed so efficiently through their first five or so games has slowed a bit. And against the Mustangs the defense that had regained some of its bite was buried under an avalanche of missed tackles.

Yet Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi is confident it was just one shoddy performance after a string of solid ones. The proof came in a quiet team room less than 24 hours as the players and coaching staff took a deep dive into their first loss.

“I think it hurt them,” Narduzzi said. “I don’t think they were happy. ... I want them to be hurt. You better be hurt. We all work too hard to have a negative outcome. There better be some pain involved. When it hurts a little bit, it means something to you.”

Pitt remains in the ACC mix but can ill afford to get caught looking past the Cavaliers and toward a visit from No. 19 Clemson next week. Virginia needs to win at least two of its final four games if the program wants to head to a bowl for the first time since 2019.

Elevating Eli

Narduzzi playfully bristled when asked this week if he was sticking with redshirt freshman Eli Holstein at quarterback. The Alabama transfer has thrown two touchdowns and three interceptions over the last three games after passing for 15 scores against three picks over Pitt's first five contests.

“When you win, Eli is going to be the rookie of the week,” Narduzzi said. “When you lose, which obviously it’s our first, it’s not on Eli. We didn’t protect him well enough, run the ball well enough. We played a really good defense.”

Virginia comes in with the ACC's 15th-ranked defense, though Narduzzi fully expects the Cavaliers to tweak their game plan to slow Pitt's up-tempo approach under first-year offensive coordinator Kade Bell. SMU threw looks at the Panthers that the Mustangs hadn't played all season.

“You’re trying to play chess and it’s hard because you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Narduzzi said. “That’s coaching.”

Reality check

Elliott wonders if his team got a little ahead of itself during its 4-1 start. Elliott thinks there's a chance the Cavaliers lost a little bit of the “connectivity” that helped them during September.

“That leads to adversity, failure,” he said. “The question is, is this group going to allow that to continue to take place or are you going to say, ‘You know what, we’re going to take ownership of our failures and turn it into success.’”

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