Football in Pittsburgh had the good, the bad and the very ugly Thursday night.
In a country already being torn apart by anger and crime, the college and pro football teams from Pittsburgh played nationally televised games simultaneously on ESPN and FOX.
Pitt and Carolina fought hard at Heinz Field, where the Panthers edged the Tar Heels in overtime on critical plays one team made and the other didn’t. Mack Brown’s newest UNC edition had its ninth game in ten settled by seven points or less, dropping to a 4-6 record after making a gallant fourth-quarter comeback to force overtime.
The good for Pitt was snapping a six-game losing streak to UNC and moving to 7-3 on the strength of its pressure defense, which leads the nation in sacks and bothered Sam Howell’s fourth-down pass on the final play that was headed for an open Dazz Newsome in the end zone but fell short to seal the 34-27 defeat.
Howell had already thrown three TD passes, giving him an ACC-leading 29; but he also missed several receivers who had beaten their defenders long. Howell completed his first nine throws and got hot again late to bring the Tar Heels back from a 24-10 deficit before UNC lost for the 41st consecutive time when behind by 14-plus points to start the fourth quarter.
(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
The bad in this game was a Carolina defense that let Pitt off the hook too many times, including giving up a third-and-14 in conversion in overtime. The Panthers scored three plays later when skilled quarterback Kenny Pickett ran it in for his second touchdown of the game.
The Pitt players celebrated along with those in the sparsely-filled stadium, from where thousands of fans had stayed away to watch the permanent tenant NFL Steelers play at Cleveland on Thursday night football. Those who did saw a horrific end to their team’s 21-7 loss, when a Browns player ripped the helmet off Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph and bashed him over the head with it.
See it online, but only if you can stomach the worst of American sports.
For the Tar Heels, their season both exhausting and amazing has two games remaining, when they can still gain bowl eligibility. Perhaps poetically for two programs going in opposite directions, Carolina will have to win at N.C. State on November 30 to gain bowl eligibility after an expected victory over Mercer on Senior Day at Kenan Stadium the week before.
Brown posted his ninth straight win over Duke recently, dating back to his first stint in Chapel Hill. He beat the Wolfpack in his last five tries, and making it 6 straight over State would end this roller-coaster regular season with a bowl bid.
All in all, that would exceed anything most of us expected.
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What, no mention of UNC’s hideous helmets?