College Football | Top 25 result | Thursday

No.

19 Pittsburgh 41, Syracuse 13 PITTSBURGH Rasheem Biles, Kyle Louis and Braylan Lovelace returned first-half interceptions for touchdowns and No.

19 Pittsburgh breezed past Syracuse.

Pitt improved to 7-0 for the first time since 1982 behind a defense that harassed Kyle McCord from the first snap and never relented.

The Ohio State transfer threw picks on each of Syracuses first three possessions, with Biles and Louis scoring on two of them.

The other came with linebacker Brandon George lying on his stomach and plucking a deflected ball out of the air just before it hit the ground.

The Panthers were hardly done.

Lovelace weaved 33 yards for a touchdown with 1:12 left in the first half after another ill-advised throw by McCord to put Pitt up 31-0, making the Panthers the first team since USC in 2022 to have three pick-6s in a game.

The defense was so dominant it hardly mattered that the Panthers high-powered offense was rarely on the field.

Eli Holstein passed for 108 yards and two touchdowns, but also left in the fourth quarter after taking a hit at the end of a designed quarterback run.

Pitt picked to finish 13th in the new-look ACC in August improved to 3-0 in the league and remained in the mix for a spot in the conference championship game as November begins.

McCord finished 35 of 64 for 327 yards with five interceptions as Syracuse (5-2, 2-2) hit its first major speedbump under first-year head coach Fran Brown.

The Orange dominated in time of possession (41:12 to 18:48) and total yards (327-223) but were undone by McCords mistakes and an inability to tackle Pitt defenders as they raced to the end zone..

This article has been shared from the original article on avpress, here is the link to the original article.