Pitt Football: 3 takeaways from Week 3 victory over Syracuse

Pitt football was hoping to build on a Week 1 blowout win, but Syracuse gave the Panthers all they could handle. What’d we learn?

Syracuse is not off to a good start in this 2020 season but whenever you open against a couple of potential ACC title contenders on the road, that’s bound to happen.

Pittsburgh handled the Orange on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, 21-10, as the Panthers improved to 2-0 on the season and should rise from No. 25 in the polls while Syracuse falls to 0-2 and won’t sniff the AP Top 25.

Kenny Pickett and Co. didn’t have the best day offensively, but the defense saved the day.

What’d we learn about Pitt’s win over Syracuse?

3. Special teams was a nightmare

Sometimes, special teams can decide the game. Often, it comes from botched field goal attempts, return touchdowns or just losing the field position game with poor punts. For Pitt, if it did lose to Syracuse on Saturday, it would have looked at three missed scoring opportunities with three failed field goal attempts.

Alex Kessman is one of the best kickers in the country and he has a rocket for a leg, so when he pulled the field field goal attempts from 37 yards out on Saturday, it was pretty clear he was going to have a bad day. Then the field goal unit lined up for an attempt right before halftime and the hold was botched so that knocked three easy points off the board.

And then he missed another field goal in the second half.

Pitt also had zero kick return yardage (all touchbacks and fair catches) and one punt return for -6 yards. It was a nightmare day for the Pitt special teams units.