It was a tale of two halves in Pittsburgh on Saturday. The Pitt Panthers owned the first half, but the Iowa Hawkeyes were the better team late, coming back from a 10 point halftime deficit to win 24-20.
Iowa vs. Pittsburgh final score: 3 things we learned from the Hawkeyes’ 24-20 comeback win
The Hawkeyes flashed to life with a new quarterback, coming back in the second half to beat Pitt.
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Things looked bright early for Pitt. They controlled the play for the vast majority of the first half, and James Connor could do basically anything he wanted. He capped off an 18 (eighteen!) play drive in the second quarter with a one yard touchdown run that gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead, and they looked firmly in control at 17-7 at halftime.
Then a funny thing happened. CJ Beathard came in for Jake Rudock to start the second half, and the Hawkeyes went on a 17-3 run, finally taking the lead on a one yard Mark Weisman touchdown run with just over six minutes to play. Pitt had a chance in Iowa territory late, but weren't able to come up with a fourth down conversion when they badly needed one. They got the ball back with 31 seconds left, but Anthony Gair picked off Chad Voytik to put the kibosh on their slim chances.
Our sites on these teams
Probably safe to say there will be some discussions in the Hawkeye State this week whether Beathard should keep the starting job or not. There didn’t appear to be a significant injury for Rudock, but there were reports that he was limping on the sideline.
Three things we learned
1. James Connor is really good at playing football. Pitt’s feature back entered the game fourth in the nation in rushing yards per game at 181. The Panthers oddly went away from running the ball in the second half, though, which is a pretty curious decision. Iowa’s run defense absolutely played better in the final 30 minutes, but going away from your strength is still going away from your strength. It’s hard to say a guy with 29 carries and 155 yards should’ve gotten more work, but Connor probably should’ve gotten more work.
2. Do we have a quarterback controversy in Iowa City? Jake Rudock was far from lights out in the first half, but he wasn’t terrible either. The coaches opted to go with CJ Beathard to start the second half, and the offense moved noticably better with him under center. Considering how disjointed the Hawkeye offense has been so far this season, you would think they would want to stick with the hot hand for as long as they can.
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3. Still no real clue what to make of either of these teams. Pitt was touted by some as a potential ACC Championship Game sleeper, and they’ve shown real flashes of ability along the way. They’ve also burped out clunker’s like the second half today. Iowa has looked like a total mess for large stretches this year, but one change at quarterback and they beat a pretty good Pitt team on the road.
Care to make sense of college football so far? Please, be my guest.
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