College Football Game of the Week: No. 20 vs. Pitt

Just a couple of weeks ago, both Clemson and Pitt seemed destined to have their matchup decide a real contender for the ACC title.

That is not necessarily the case as both of these teams had blowout losses in Week 10 and Pitt lost again last week to Virginia at home.

Coming into this season, people didn't really expect much from Pitt. Then redshirt freshman quarterback Eli Holstein came in and got off to an amazing start to the season with 15 TDs to only three interceptions through the first five games of the year.

Holstein hit a brick wall when Cal came to town and Pitt’s offense just hasn’t found anything since then.

The defense has been pretty good with Donovan McMillan and Kyle Louis leading the way with 70-plus tackles at this point in the season. Kyle Louis also ranks fifth in the nation among linebackers with four interceptions.

Pitt’s secondary has been good this season as well ranking second nationally in defensive touchdowns and pick sixes with four.

The loss to SMU was a bad one as it was an absolute blowout, but the loss this past weekend to Virginia was even worse.

Holstein was 10/23 for 121 yards before he went down with an injury and frankly never looked good in that game either.

Obviously, Pitt hasn’t looked good these last two games dropping two in a row but there is another opportunity to go out there this Saturday and write the ship with a big win over Clemson.

Clemson enters Saturday’s matchup 7-2 (6-1 ACC) and ranked No. 20 in the latest CFP poll.

Just one ACC contest is left for the Tigers who haven’t looked great coming into this game either so there is absolutely no margin for error.

They’re coming off of a 10-point victory at Virginia Tech where they were shut out in the first half, but got smacked the week prior against Louisville.

After the Georgia game in the first week of the season, Clemson looked pretty good, lighting up the scoreboard every week. Then in their toughest test since that game they got destroyed.

They beat up on all the ACC bottom-dwellers on their schedule, but once it starts to get tougher they lose.

Clemson goes as quarterback Cade Klubnik goes. When he is on the team can go places, but if he struggles you might as well throw in the towel.

Phil Mafah has been another driving factor in Clemson's offensive success all season long.

The senior running back is 12th in the nation in rushing yards with 981 and he's taken on an especially massive workload over the past two weeks, with 56 carries for 299 yards on 176 total snaps.

The defense has been solid again this season and they will be counted on to make a big impact in this game.

A win on Saturday would push the Tigers to 7-1 in the ACC, but Clemson would still need to hope for a slip-up from SMU or another one from Miami if they want any shot at the conference title.

This is a very interesting game because the loser is eliminated from ACC title contention and obviously any shot at the College Football Playoff.

Eli Holstein is questionable for this game, but even if he ends up playing, I believe Cade Klubnik will make more plays and end up winning the game.

Prediction: Clemson 27-21.

Austin Moran is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acm6506@psu.edu.