The Pittsburgh Panthers played unbeaten Notre Dame extremely tough on Saturday, but their dreams of an upset faded with a truly perplexing call.
Looking at a 4th and 4 from their own 45 yard line, the Panthers sent graduate transfer Jeff George Jr. onto the field in a fake punt formation. The Notre Dame defense was not at all fooled, having apparently expected something, and shut down the play immediately.
Then easily the stupidest fake punt in the history of the known world. Ballgame. Drive home safely Domers. @PatMcAfeeShow #ForTheBrand pic.twitter.com/2hf414QIVe
— Robert McKenzie (@TheRobert1288) October 13, 2018
What was Pitt thinking? Notre Dame was either expecting them to go for it or the fake punt was extremely obvious, because they were set up defensively. Moreover, in that situation, if the Panthers were going to go for it, they should just send the offense on the field and take the chance rather than overcomplicating things with a fake punt that looked doomed from the start.
Though the Panthers actually got the ball back again, they couldn’t capitalize, and Notre Dame survived. In the future, if Pitt is going to insist on running fakes like that, they might want to take some pointers from someone who actually knows how to do it next time.
