Recap: Pitt Embarrassed in Blowout Loss to No. 20 SMU

DALLAS — This article originally appeared on PittsburghSportsNOW.com.

Pitt kicker Ben Sauls nailed a 44-yard field goal to bring the Panthers within four of SMU toward the end of the first quarter, and those three points were the highlight of the night for the Pitt Panthers.

Pitt was flat-out embarrassed by No. 20 SMU in a 48-25 loss Saturday night at Gerald J. Ford Stadium, a loss that looks better on paper than it looked on the football field.

Eli Holstein completed 29-of-47 pass attempts (62%) for 248 yards with two turnovers in a performance that wasn’t nearly good enough to beat the Mustangs. Pitt as a whole, offensively and defensively, wasn’t nearly good enough to beat the Mustangs.

Pitt had a chance to prove itself in a big ranked matchup against SMU, the first ranked matchup for the Panthers since 2022, but the Panthers came out flat — and never picked it up. It was a failure across all three phases, but as poorly as the Panthers played, it isn’t the end of the world. Pitt never really had a chance.

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