Pitt stays perfect, improves to 3-0 by grinding its way to a 27-13 win over sloppy Syracuse

PITTSBURGH -- — Damon Ferguson Jr., La'Vell Wright and Mason Heintschel ran for touchdowns, and Pittsburgh continued its perfect start with a 27-13 win over Syracuse on Thursday night. The Panthers (3-0, 1-0 ACC) piled up 245 yards on the ground despite playing without injured starting running back Boosier Turner to make Pat Narduzzi a winner in his school-record 144th game as head coach. “Nice to win when you don’t play your best football on offense or defense,” Narduzzi said. Pitt's running game had struggled a bit coming in, averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. The Panthers nearly doubled that total in their conference opener. Ferguson, a freshman, provided a jolt with a 32-yard sprint to the end zone early in the second quarter that gave Pitt a 14-point lead. “He’s that guy,” Panther linebacker Braylon Lovelace said of Ferguson. “He’s a young guy. But it don’t matter what age you are at this level. If you’re a dog, you’re a dog.” Ferguson finished with 102 yards rushing and Wright added 81 and Justin Cook would have had more on his first-quarter carry if he hadn't pulled up due to an apparent injury during a 23-yard dash. "I feel like we all are explosive in our own ways,” said Ferguson. Syracuse (1-2, 0-2) kept Heintschel under wraps as a passer. The sophomore completed just 10 of 23 for 123 yards and a pick but made up for it with his legs. Heintschel ran for 41 yards, the highlight coming on a 9-yard touchdown scramble in the third quarter that featured a pretty juke past diving Orange linebacker Gary Bryant III. He later capped the win with a spin move on third-and-9 that produced a 10-yard gain and a first down that allowed the Panthers to drain the rest of the clock. Asked if he's now a running quarterback, Heintschel joked his spin felt like it was in “slow motion” but pointedly added he needs to be better at the main part of his job. “To be a dual threat, you’ve got to throw the ball too,” he said. "And we didn’t throw the ball well today.” Syracuse began the night as the most penalized team in the country and was flagged nine times for 90 yards, including a sequence in the second quarter in which the Orange were called for pass interference on third down, leading head coach Fran Brown to get called for unsportsmanlike conduct when he protested. Two plays later, Ferguson bounced outside and down the sideline to the end zone to give the Panthers control. Steve Angeli had for 167 yards passing for Syracuse before being benched in favor of Amari Odom in the fourth quarter after throwing interceptions on back-to-back drives to thwart any chance of a rally. Odom was 7 for 7 against a Pitt defense protecting a three-score lead. Narduzzi's milestone The 60-year-old coach, who arrived at Pitt in late 2014 and was tasked with providing stability after a tumultuous period for the program, briefly turned sentimental after passing Jock Sutherland on the all-time games coached list. Narduzzi pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket that was a copy of a passage by writer Elbert Hubbard's “Loyalty Pledge” that his father Bill Narduzzi, a longtime coach at Youngstown State, often turned to. “My dad was big on loyalty,” Narduzzi said. "And I guess I inherited that from him.” The takeaway Syracuse: If the Orange want to be any sort of factor in the ACC, they have to clean things up. The steady barrage of flags in the first half consistently extended Pitt drives and Brown's frustration on the sideline — while understandable — didn't help. Pitt: The Panthers have won three games three different ways. They blew out Miami (Ohio) in the opener, showed some grit while slogging past UCF in a monsoon last weekend, and rode their ground game to a third straight victory over the Orange. That kind of versatility could play in a league that looks wide open behind frontrunner Miami. Up next Syracuse: travels to UConn on Oct. 3. Pitt: hosts Bucknell on Sept. 28.