SportsDirect Inc. staff
Nov 23, 2013
Pittsburgh 17, Syracuse 16: Isaac Bennett rushed for the go-ahead score and Tom Savage passed for 218 yards and a touchdown as the visiting Panthers edged the Orange.
Savage went 28-for-41 and hit Manasseh Garner with a touchdown pass for Pittsburgh (6-5, 3-4 ACC), which reached bowl eligibility. Tyler Boyd caught 10 passes for 82 yards and Garner finished with 61 yards on seven catches to lead the receiving corps.
Terrel Hunt completed 18-of-28 passes for 159 yards and a score for Syracuse (5-6, 3-4), which will get one more chance to gain bowl eligibility in its regular-season finale against Boston College next week. Jerome Smith ran for 88 yards and a score but a failed extra point haunted the Orange.
Syracuse jumped on top early when Smith took a draw play straight up the middle and broke for a 36-yard touchdown less than four minutes into the game, but the extra point was blocked. The Panthers got on the board with a 43-yard field goal early in the second and took a 10-6 lead on Savageกฏs 7-yard TD pass to Garner.
The Orange cut it to 10-9 at the half and took the lead back on Huntกฏs 42-yard pass to Alvin Cornelius with 6:25 left in the third. Pittsburgh put together its longest drive of the day later in the third, marching 88 yards before Bennettกฏs 5-yard go-ahead score, and Syracuse had a last gasp fall short when Hunt failed to complete a fourth-and-8 pass on the Panthers' 36 with just over a minute remaining.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Syracuse still has not allowed a 100-yard rusher. Bennett led Pittsburgh with 28 yards on 11 carries. กญ Boyd's 68 receptions are one shy of Larry Fitzgeraldกฏs mark for the most by a freshman in school history. กญ Pittsburgh has taken eight of the last nine between the schools, which have met in every season since 1955.