PITTSBURGH _ Over the past six years, little has come easy for the Pitt football program, which has had five head coaches (not including interims) and clawed for attention in a crowded sports market that is home to three professional teams.
In its 2016 regular season finale, everything, at least offensively, seemed impossibly easy.
What was already the most statistically prolific offensive season in program history became that much more decorated Saturday, as the Panthers rattled off 644 yards in a 76-61 victory against Syracuse at Heinz Field that, at times, defied reality and set a Football Bowl Subdivision record for most combined points. With the win, Pitt has won at least eight games in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2008-09.
The point total was the Panthers' highest in a game since 1977, when they also scored 76. After last week's 56-14 victory against Duke, it also marked the first time Pitt (8-4, 5-3 ACC) had scored at least 50 points in consecutive weeks since 1975. The combined points between the two teams _ 137 _ surpassed the number of points the schools' basketball teams combined to score in both of their meetings last regular season.
Seven different offensive players scored for Pitt, as well as cornerback Dane Jackson, who scored on a 20-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter. In what could be the final home game of his college career, James Conner rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns while Quadree Henderson, the team's do-everything breakout star, added 103 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Quarterback Nate Peterman threw for 251 yards and four touchdowns, two of which went to Jester Weah, who finished with a team-high 99 receiving yards. Peterman also ran for 79 yards and a score.
As a team, Pitt averaged 10.9 yards per play.
With the teams tied at seven near the end of the first quarter, Pitt began a scoring onslaught that, until the final horn blared, showed no signs of slowing down.
On the Panthers' final four drives of the first half, they gained 233 yards on 23 plays, averaging 10.1 yards per play, and scored four touchdowns. The offense, as has been the norm under first-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada, scored in a variety of ways, getting touchdowns on a long touchdown grab from a running back, a rushing touchdown from a fullback and an acrobatic rushing touchdown from a quarterback.
That offensive outburst only continued in the second half. By the time Maurice Ffrench took a jet sweep 77 yards for a touchdown halfway through the third quarter, Pitt was averaging a touchdown every 4.6 plays. Ten of the Panthers' final 13 possessions, excluding its final one when it took a knee, ended with a touchdown.
The 76 points were the most the Orange (4-8, 2-6) had allowed in a game in program history, breaking a record set in 1891.
