COLLEGE FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : ACROSS THE NATION : 5-0 Start Has Turned Sour for Pitt

If football games were 59 minutes long, Pittsburgh might be 7-1 and a top 10 team. They are not, and Pitt isn’t.

Pitt (5-3) has tumbled out of the top 25 after three consecutive losses, the last two to No. 17 East Carolina and No. 18 Syracuse in the final minute of the game. Either the games are too long or Pitt is too short on talent.

“We’d be 7-1 if we eliminated one minute in the last two games,” Coach Paul Hackett said Tuesday. “I don’t know whether it’s youth, confidence, inexperience or what . . . but we’ve got to find a way to win when we’re leading with three or four minutes to go. We’ve got to finish as strong as we start.”

Hackett hopes that same philosophy applies to Pitt’s season.

The Panthers were one of the surprise teams in college football for more than a month, rebounding from a 3-7-1 season and several off-season player defections to go 5-0.

But the Panthers have taken a step backwards the last three weeks, mostly because they can’t seem to get that extra yard or two to get them into the end zone. Consecutive losses to No. 5 Notre Dame (42-7), Syracuse (31-27) and East Carolina (24-23) all featured a succession of unsuccessful Panthers’ possessions inside the 25.

In their first five games, the Panthers scored on 11 of 12 possessions inside the opponent’s 25. In their last three games, they have scored on barely half, 11 of 21. Six of those scores were field goals.