Pitt's 76-61 win over Syracuse sets record for most points in an FBS game
Pitt and Syracuse combined for a college football record Saturday.
The Panthers’ 76-61 win is the highest-scoring game at college football’s top level. The 137 combined points eclipses the 136-point game Navy and North Texas combined for in 2007. The Midshipmen won that game 74-62.
Saturday’s game is also the second record-breaking offensive game of the 2016 season. Texas Tech and Oklahoma combined for yardage and first down records in a 66-59 Sooners win in October.
In case you were wondering, Syracuse’s 61 points are 11 more than the school’s basketball team scored Saturday in a 64-50 loss to South Carolina. Pitt’s 76 points match the basketball team’s output Friday night in a 76-63 win over Morehead State.
Oh, Pitt somehow wasn’t even Saturday’s highest-scoring team either. The honor goes to Middle Tennessee State, who had nine rushing touchdowns in a 77-56 win over Florida Atlantic — a game that was just five points short of breaking the record Pitt and Syracuse set hours earlier. And Navy racked up 75 points in a 75-31 win over SMU Saturday afternoon. Madness!
The scoring record really wasn’t in jeopardy as Pitt and Syracuse played until a frantic fourth quarter. The teams combined for 47 points after Pitt entered the final 15 minutes leading 56-34. Pitt quarterback Nathan Peterman was 9-18 passing for 251 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. Yes, nearly half of Peterman’s completions went for touchdowns.
Oh, he ran for another score too. But he was still outdone by Syracuse QB Zach Mahoney, who had seven combined touchdowns. Mahoney was 43-61 passing for 440 yards, five touchdowns and a pick while also rushing for two touchdowns.
[Check out Dr. Saturday on Tumblr for entertaining things you won’t see on the blog]
All five of his touchdown passes went to Amba Etta-Tawo, who had 13 catches for 178 yards. Etta-Tawo finishes the season with 94 catches for 1,482 yards and 14 touchdowns, an incredible campaign even in Syracuse’s heavy-passing offense. The transfer from Maryland had 216 receiving yards in 2015 and less than 1,000 yards combined in his first three seasons.
Pitt running back James Conner ran for 115 yards and two touchdowns and also had a receiving TD. He finishes the regular season with 1,060 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns, a great comeback after he missed most of 2015 with a knee injury and also beat cancer in the offseason.
The crazy high-scoring game also means Pitt games have hit the over on the betting line for combined points 11 times in 12 games this season. The Panthers will find out what bowl game awaits next weekend while Syracuse ends the season 4-8.
[Visit Dr. Saturday on Facebook for stories you might have missed and chat with the writers]
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
