Pittsburgh Sums Up ACC Football Season By Throwing Away Armed Forces Bowl

Up 31-6 early in the fourth quarter and 34-13 with less than seven minutes to play, the Pittsburgh Panthers pulled off one of the most elaborate choke jobs in recent bowl memory, giving up 22 points in 2:42 and losing to the Houston Cougars 35-34. Pittsburgh failed to recover not one, but two onside kicks, and allowed Cougars quarterback Greg Ward Jr. to throw three touchdown passes and a two-point conversion in the final four minutes.

One day after the ACC had its football reputation shoved into the mud by Oregon‘s 59-20 demolition of league champion Florida State in the Rose Bowl, the conference could have saved some face with Pittsburgh taking care of business. It looked like the Panthers (6-7) were going to do just that, rightly handling a Houston team that entered the game 7-5 but didn’t really have any great wins and, like Pittsburgh, will have a new coach next season.

Then, the Panthers absolutely went to sleep in the final seven minutes or so. Unable to make any plays on defense and without the ability to even get a possession due to Houston’s successful onside kick, Pittsburgh was unable to put a game away that it had no excuse to lose. The lack of possessions meant Pittsburgh’s best weapon, running back James Conner (21 carries, 90 yards), couldn’t even be used to try and hold off Houston’s push.

This type of loss will make the job much harder for incoming head coach Pat Narduzzi, the outgoing defensive coordinator at Michigan State.

If there’s any takeaway from this loss, it is perhaps that Pittsburgh has done the right thing by bringing in a respected defensive mind as the new head coach. Clearly, work needs to be done on that side of the ball when a 25-point lead in the second half isn’t enough to earn a victory.

The ACC finished just 4-7 in its 11 bowl games. While Georgia Tech scored a high-profile Orange Bowl win over Mississippi State and Clemson routed a suspect Oklahoma team, the conference didn’t do itself any favors with this weak postseason performance. Not that 5-6 would have been that much better, but Pittsburgh’s inability to put away Houston caps off what has been a rough couple of days for the ACC.

Ed Morgans is an ACC Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @writered21 and add him to your network on Google.