Turning Point of the Game: No Touchdown

On Saturday, Pitt fell short against Virginia, 24-19, but the second half at least showed Pitt can have some success against very good defenses.

After a tremendous Dontez Ford punt block early in the second half, Pitt pulled within 14 points. From there, the Panther defense rose up again with true freshman Pat Amara hauling in his first career interception to get the ball back for Pitt. From there, the Panthers rolled down to a first and goal situation and James Conner plowed his way to the Virginia 2-yard line.

On second and goal from the two, Conner took the handoff again and spun, rolling his way towards the goal line and extended the ball. Replays seemed to show Conner getting the ball across the goal line at the same time as his knee went down. The play was reviewed and called no touchdown.

This set into motion an illegal snap on third and goal at the one, which negated a Chad Voytik leap that broke the plane. The call was on redshirt freshman Alex Officer on a bad penalty night for the offensive line. That pushed the Panthers back to the 6-yard line and Voytik just missed Rachid Ibrahim in the end zone. Instead of being within one score and having the Cavs completely on their heels, Pitt settled for a Chris Blewitt field goal to pull within a score of 24-13. The sequence of events slowed the momentum of the Panthers just enough to allow Virginia to hold on in the end.

A touchdown there gives Pitt four extra points and with the late touchdown, the game could have been headed to overtime. Safe to say, that was our Turning Point of the Game.

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