Pitt fails to preserve 4th-quarter lead again
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Pitt's Andrew Taglianetti gets pressure on Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees even as Todd Thomas is upended early in Saturday's game at Heinz Field.
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Pitt coach Todd Graham has preached the importance of winning close games and continually said the story of this season will be written by how the Panthers fare in games decided in the final minutes.
If that is true, the Panthers season is turning into horror story because they are 0-2 in games decided by a touchdown or less.
Pitt let another fourth-quarter lead slip away Saturday afternoon and lost to mistake-prone Notre Dame, 15-12, before a sellout crowd of 65,050 at Heinz Field.
PG SLIDESHOWIt was the second game in a row that the Panthers (2-2) surrendered a fourth-quarter lead. It also was the second game in a row they were unable to answer a late score with one of their own.
Unlike the total meltdown at Iowa a week earlier when the Panthers squandered a 21-point lead, this was a case of the Fighting Irish making a couple of good plays on the winning drive.
That's why Pitt's disappointed players and coaches were able to take many positives out of the game.
"It's disappointing," said Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri, who completed 22 of 30 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. "We have to learn to finish, and we're going to. We're so close. That's the thing that is so frustrating right now in our locker room.
"We feel like we are inches away from really busting this open and really being an up-tempo offense and understanding it and being able to put points on the board."
Safety Andrew Taglianetti, who caused a fumble that led to an early Kevin Harper field goal, added, "I wouldn't say this fourth quarter was like Iowa, I still think we played really well. It was just one of those drives, but, if you think about the rest of the game, we contained them.
"I wouldn't say this was a fourth-quarter collapse, we just needed to execute a little better on one drive."
First Published September 25, 2011 12:00 am
