Klubnik Celebrates One of His Three Touchdowns Today
by Bo Marchionte
Published November 16, 2024, 05:47 PM
Pittsburgh, PA – Clemson narrowly defeated Pittsburgh 24-20 at Acrisure Stadium in an exciting ACC matchup that lasted four hours. While the other noon games were showered and on the bus to the airport both the Tigers and Panthers were still in the cage.
The Panthers tied the game at 17 late in the fourth quarter with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Nate Yarnell to Gavin Bartholomew. A field goal by Ben Sauls gave Pitt a 20-17 lead with under two minutes to play. However, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik responded with a late-game touchdown drive to seal the victory.
“No, it just creased,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said postgame. “They play a lot of man coverage. They kind of do what they do. They become very committed to stopping the run. And you know, they’ll, they’ll give up some big plays.”
That’s exactly what transpired as Klubnik sealed the Tigers’ eighth win of the season with the game winning touchdown. Klubnik delivered a clutch performance on the final drive to secure their 24-20 victory over Pittsburgh.
After the Panthers took a late lead, Klubnik orchestrated a methodical march down the field, culminating in a decisive touchdown run with just over a minute remaining. He escaped the Panthers defense which held Clemson to .3 yards per carry prior to his 50-yard scamper to victory.
The highlight of the drive came on a critical 4th-and-2, where Klubnik faked a handoff, kept the ball, and sprinted to the outside for a 15-yard gain. This play extended the drive and set up his eventual touchdown—a perfectly executed quarterback sneak through the middle of Pitt’s defense. Klubnik’s poise and decision-making under pressure showcased why he’s regarded as one of the ACC’s top quarterbacks
“That’s the type of moment, type of experience when you do stuff like that,” Swinney said that leads to bigger things to come. “It does stuff inside of you all of a sudden you start to expect that, you know, got to go experience those things. That’ll be a moment that you’ll never forget, it’ll be a moment that will grow him.”
Klubnik, who threw for 288 yards and accounted for three total touchdowns, and Antonio Williams, who caught two touchdown passes for Clemson. The prolonged game allowed both teams to feel that they’d won it, but in the end Clemson found a way to prevail as the clock struck 4 o’clock eastern time.
Despite their efforts, Pitt was hurt by turnovers and a missed field goal attempt earlier in the game. The Panthers had 13 penalties in total for 100 yards. It was one of those games where the Panthers will look at what could have been despite playing a game simply filled with mental miscues.
“We had a holding call early,” Pat Narduzzi said in front of a packed media room. “We had a false start down on the goal-line. I believe we had legal formation and a delay of game on third and goal. We had two false starts by our guards out there. We had an unnecessary roughness on PJ O’Brien. We had three offsides on defense. We had a face mask on the sideline, which is kind of nit-picky. We had just too many unforced errors.”
The Panthers had 13 penalties in total for 100 yards. It was one of those games where the Panthers will look at what could have been despite playing a game simply filled with mental miscues.
For Pitt, quarterback Nate Yarnell had an impressive 350 passing yards, and running back Desmond Reid contributed 176 total yards.
“It’s way too early,” Narduzzi said if Yarnell will keep hold of the job with Elli Holstein missing the game. “We will see how Eli is feeling. It’s a coach’s decision. We have a lot of confidence in Eli, and he has played well all year as well. So, I think I told you all year that Nate Yarnell is a good football player. You guys saw it out there today.”
Pittsburgh loses its third straight game after starting off 7-0, but in the bright side this team was winners of just three contests last season. Both the Rose Bowl and Pop Tarts Bowl members were in attendance. That doesn’t happen when you finish 3-9.
The Panthers lost an odd game.
“It’s a special special win,” Swinney said “I’ve been a part of a lot of these types of games. They’re hard, but you get to be part of it when the team finds a way to win. That’s what they did tonight.”
Watching this game intently from the press box, monitoring every play, taking notes and writing down tidbits of information to use in the game recap. I feel if this was a boxing match it would have been called a draw by the judges.
However, football isn’t played that way and Clemson got to taste the sweet taste of victory while Pitt aims to snap their current three-game skid and win next week against No. 22 ranked Louisville.
