Moving forward, a winning recipe for Pitt probably won’t include quarterback Mason Heintschel having an off day and the defense beginning to buckle over the course of a game.
The Panthers indeed were one-dimensional offensively Thursday against Syracuse, while the Orange grinded their way to plenty of splash plays through the air and on the ground.
But Pitt’s run game came alive and its defense made up for some chunky gains with two fourth-quarter interceptions, a turnover on downs, two sacks and eight tackles for loss in a 27-13 victory at Acrisure Stadium.
“Our guys did enough to win the football game — some great plays out there,” coach Pat Narduzzi said. “Some great fourth-down stops. Our defense made plays when they needed to. Those two picks in the second half were critical and I thought our offense did a great job running the ball.”
In front of 42,087 fans, Pitt (3-0, 1-0 ACC) won its ACC opener, while Syracuse (1-2, 0-2 ACC) fell for the second straight week to a league foe after suffering a close loss to Cal last weekend.
The Panthers, playing without star tailback Ja’Kyrian Turner for the second straight week, put up a season-high 245 yards on the ground, along with three rushing touchdowns.
True freshman Damon Ferguson Jr. led the way with 102 yards on 10 carries, while La’Vell Wright added 81 yards on 14 rushes.
Heintschel, despite an evening full of missed throws, ran for 41 yards. He, Ferguson and Wright all found the end zone for Pitt, which took a 17-0 lead and never trailed.
Heintschel had a borderline monsoon to blame for a quiet day of passing last weekend against Central Florida, but Thursday the sophomore signal caller was just unable to make routine throws.
He completed 10 of 23 passes (43%) for only 123 yards, no touchdowns and an interception.
“Everybody around me picked me up a ton,” Heintschel said. “Our running game was great today. Super proud of those guys. … I just couldn’t complete a pass, but we were able to run it effectively and thankfully the defense played well too.”
Orange quarterback Steve Angeli had a worse time, throwing back-to-back picks in the fourth quarter when his team was trailing by 14 before being benched with about eight minutes to play.
Raion Strader (Penn Hills) and Braylan Lovelace (Leechburg) recorded the interceptions for Pitt.
The Orange also lived up to their reputation as the most penalized team in the FBS, finishing with nine infractions for 90 yards.
In terms of total offense, Pitt edged Syracuse, 368-347.
Pitt opened up the scoring on its second drive on a 2-yard rush by Wright.
The score put the Panthers up 7-0 with 3 minutes, 16 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Syracuse had itself to blame for extending Pitt’s drive after a failed third-down try as a 15-yard illegal hands to the face penalty advanced the Panthers to the Orange’s 16.
Pitt soon capped a nine-play, 63-yard drive with a touchdown.
Syracuse’s ensuing offensive possession was derailed by penalties. Once Pitt got the ball back, additional infractions by the Orange propelled the Panthers to another touchdown.
On third-and-10 from Pitt’s 36, Heintschel threw incomplete over the middle to Blue Hicks, but the Panthers moved the sticks on a pass interference call.
Orange coach Fran Brown let the officials hear it from the sideline and was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Within moments, Pitt had moved 30 yards upfield.
At the 12:44 mark of the second quarter, Ferguson took a handoff up the middle and bounced outside after being hit, taking it to the house from 32 yards.
The touchdown, Ferguson’s third in as many career college games played, put Pitt up 14-0.
“Once again, my O-line moved guys off the ball,” Ferguson said of the play. “I saw a wide-open hole, said, ‘Let’s hit it,’ and my receivers out there did a great job blocking, Mason even helping out there with a block. After that, it was just God’s work.”
The Orange threatened to cut into Pitt’s lead shortly thereafter, but the Panthers defense held firm and a 29-yard chip shot by Tripp Woody went wide left by a significant margin.
After that, Pitt added three points courtesy of a 42-yarder from Antonio Chadha, which made it 17-0 with 8:06 to go before halftime.
With 3:28 to go in the first half, Syracuse finally got on the board, cutting Pitt’s lead to 17-7 with a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown drive.
Umari Hatcher took a jet sweep for 28 yards and caught a pass over the middle for another 24, putting the Orange at the goal line.
To get that final yard and six points, Syracuse had to run six plays as Pitt blew up several rushing attempts in the backfield.
On fourth-and-goal from the 4, an Angeli pass to Justus Ross-Simmons sailed high, but Strader was whistled for pass interference.
Two plays later, Angeli flipped the ball to Ahmad Miller for a short touchdown.
Late in the second quarter, Pitt suffered its first turnover of 2026 as Heintschel was picked off by Davien Kerr trying to hit Ferguson.
“I’ll take the blame for that. That’s on me,” Heintschel said.
Getting the ball back with 58 seconds on the clock, Syracuse was efficient, using a few big plays to set up a 42-yard field goal try, this time by Shay Barker, which was good, shrinking Pitt’s lead at halftime to 17-10.
Coming out of the half, Pitt fully turned to the run game, embarking on a four-play, 76-yard touchdown drive to take a 24-10 lead about four minutes into the third quarter.
Ferguson had rushes of 18 and 33, Wright ran for a 16-yard gain and Heintschel punched it in from the 9-yard line.
Pitt’s Sean FitzSimmons came up with a big third-down sack to end the Orange’s possession following Heintschel’s rushing touchdown.
Pitt’s run defense began to falter on Syracuse’s next drive as the Orange drove into Panthers territory, but Strader came up with a clutch interception of Angeli at the 33-yard-line.
On the night, Syracuse had two rushes of 20-plus yards and two for more than 10. The Orange completed three passes for at least 22 yards, with a long of 34.
“That’s something that we take a lot of pride in, and that’s something that just can’t happen,” Lovelace said of the big plays.
Ultimately, Pitt was able to parry those blows.
With 11:35 remaining, Angeli threw an interception to Lovelace before being replaced favor of Amari Odom.
This time, Pitt capitalized on the turnover as Chadha sent a 34-yard field goal through the uprights to put the Panthers up 27-10 with 8:16 to play.
With 3:08 left, the Odom-led Orange offense produced a field goal from 30 yards to make it a 27-13 score.
The final offensive possession of the night belonged to Pitt, which drove to the Orange 16-yard line before running out the clock.