PITTSBURGH — Neal Brown’s first trip to Acrisure Stadium resulted in the Mountaineers losing a late touchdown lead and a 38-31 contest to Pittsburgh to start the 2022 season.
In a return trip Saturday, West Virginia led the Panthers by 10 points with inside 4 minutes remaining, only to allow a pair of touchdowns over the final 3:06 that amounted to a crushing 38-34 loss.
“Should never lose a game when you’re up 10 with under 5 [minutes] to go,” said Brown, WVU’s sixth-year head coach. “Credit Pitt, they made plays at the end of the game and we did not. We did some real positive things, but the game was there to be won and we didn’t win.”
The result leaves WVU with a 1-2 record ahead of Big 12 Conference play, while Pitt improved to 3-0 on the strength of its second close call in as many weeks.
“This one is probably as bad or worse,” Brown said comparing Saturday’s result to the 2022 loss at Pitt.
After scoring 22 unanswered points in the final 16 minutes of last week’s 28-27 win at Cincinnati, the late-game heroics continued for the Panthers, starting with a 40-yard touchdown on a second-and-30 pass from Eli Holstein to Daejon Reynolds, who made his only reception a pivotal one.
That allowed Pitt to pull to within 34-31, and with the home team having all three timeouts left, the Mountaineers needed multiple first downs to preserve the victory. Instead, they immediately went three-and-out, with a pair of handoffs to CJ Donaldson resulting in a total of 4 yards, before Garrett Greene was sacked by Jimmy Scott on third down.
“We had a good play on the first down. We missed the block at the point of attack that would’ve been a made first and put them in a really tough spot,” Brown said. “We missed a crack block that we should make 10 of 10 times and we didn’t make it.”
Pitt took over at its 23-yard line with 1:59 remaining and within three plays, the Panthers had gained 47 yards, including 23 on a pass from Holstein to Konata Mumpfield to get to the WVU 30.
“We have to assess it. When you don’t cover very well three weeks in a row, it’s an issue,” Brown said. “I’m not hiding from it.”
Holstein’s 17-yard run moved the ball into the red zone, and after Brown called the Mountaineers’ last two timeouts in an effort to preserve time, Derrick Davis Jr. plunged into the end zone on a 1-yard run with 32 seconds remaining.
WVU had one final chance, but Greene threw three incomplete passes before his fourth down throw was intercepted by Kyle Louis to seal the verdict.
“It sucks losing to Pitt no matter which way it is,” Greene said. “Disappointed how we finished in all phases. We were up 10 with 5 minutes to go. We shouldn’t lose games like that.”
The Mountaineers grabbed the early lead courtesy of Greene’s 4-yard touchdown pass to CJ Donaldson, before Pitt answered in the form of Ben Sauls’ 31-yard field goal.
WVU was unable to make its lead hold up through the opening frame, with Panthers’ quarterback Eli Holstein throwing a 9-yard touchdown pass to tailback Desmond Reid with 30 seconds left in the quarter for the first of five Panther TDs.
West Virginia responded to its first deficit in strong fashion, traveling 75 yards on eight plays and regaining its four-point lead after Jahiem White’s 5-yard touchdown run at the 11:54 mark of the second quarter.
Pitt countered with a touchdown drive of its own to go back in front, capitalizing on separate defensive holding penalties on third-and-15 and second-and-20, before scoring on Holstein’s 19-yard pass to Reid.
Following Greene’s first interception of the season, the Mountaineers came up with a timely stop on fourth-and-1 from the Pitt 49 when Holstein’s pass to Kenny Johnson went for a loss of 1 yard.
That led to Michael Hayes’ tying 44-yard field goal 21 seconds before halftime and the contest went to the intermission knotted at 17.
After forcing a Pitt punt on the opening second-half series, the Mountaineers were set to boot it back, but punter Oliver Straw took off on fourth-and-3 and gained 12 yards, allowing his team to maintain possession.
It appeared to be especially pivotal when Greene threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Hudson Clement on a well-designed play, only for that to be negated by a holding call on left tackle Wyatt Milum.
Brown was irate with the call.
“I 100 percent disagree that was holding. I thought that was a really good block by Wyatt Milum on pass protection,” Brown said. “That play is going to have to be explained to me. Extremely disappointed we had that called.”
It proved to be a big swing when WVU was forced to punt moments after, and Straw had that one blocked by Maverick Gracio. The Panthers’ Brandon George recovered the loose ball and dashed 24 yards to the end zone to leave the home team with a 24-17 lead at the 8:27 mark of the third.
For as tough as that sequence was, Brown’s team answered immediately and pulled even at 24 on the strength of an 81-yard drive that was capped by Donaldson’s 4-yard TD run with 4:54 left in the third.
The score remained tied at 24 through the third quarter despite Pitt finishing the period with minus-2 yards to WVU’s 142.
The Mountaineers went in front early in the fourth, though on somewhat of a sour note after their drive stalled inside the Panthers’ 5 and they settled for Hayes’ 23-yard field goal.
When the WVU defense stopped Pitt consecutively on second-and-1 and third-and-1 of the ensuing series, it allowed WVU to get the ball back with a three-point lead and 9:49 to play.
West Virginia put together a quality drive that featured Greene’s 7-yard pass to Traylon Ray on fourth-and-4, and then made it a two-score game for the first time in the contest when Justin Robinson made a high-level 28-yard touchdown pass on third-and-10.
Leading 34-24 with 4:55 remaining, WVU appeared to be in control, but the Panthers got to the Mountaineers’ 20 in four plays, and scored on their next one following consecutive holding penalties.
Pitt totaled 159 yards in the final frame and averaged 10.6 yards per play.
“We were good, not great,” Brown said of the WVU offense. “That’s how I would assess it. I thought we could’ve won it on offense as poorly as we played on pass coverage.”
Greene finished 16-of-30 with 210 yards, a pair of touchdowns and two interceptions. Donaldson rushed for 79 of the Mountaineers’ 188 yards on the ground, while Greene and White added 49 and 46 yards, respectively.
WVU had five of the game’s seven sacks, including 1.5 from T.J. Jackson, who filled in for the injured Edward Vesterinen as a starter on the defensive line. Jackson recorded four tackles for loss.
“After watching film all week, I kind of had a beat to know I could beat them with speed and not too much power,” Jackson said.
Holstein hit on 21-of-30 passes for 301 yards and three TDs. He also rushed for 59 yards on 14 attempts.
“The disappointing thing is we had him in our hands several times and didn’t get him down,” Brown said.
Reid, the nation’s leader in all-purpose yardage through two weeks, was limited to 26 rushing yards on 11 carries.