Reliving 2016: Clemson’s Luck Runs Out, or Did It
By: Ashby Mixon November 12, 2026

Pitt 43, No. 2 Clemson 42

Editor’s note: Each week, the Clemson Insider honors Clemson’s 2016 National Championship Team by reliving that week’s game on the schedule. Follow all season long as we talk to players and coaches who lived through the ups and downs of a dramatic season that brought Clemson its first national championship in 35 years.

CLEMSON – The best directors, authors and screenwriters are all familiar with a narrative trope that has permeated storytelling for centuries.

This trope, fondly dubbed ‘plot armor,’ refers to the decision to keep a character written into a story simply because the tale would no longer make sense if the individual left the narrative. 

A comic book superhero may be outmatched by a formidable villain.

A silver-screen spy may be discovered by hostile enemies.

A television show about high school should probably conclude with graduation.

But with plot armor, these characters find ways to stick around– not by their own strengths, necessarily, but because there seems to be a greater force at work keeping them in the fray.

Through the first two months of Clemson football’s 2016 season, the Tigers and their undefeated record seemed to have plot armor.

After losing to Alabama in the 2015 national championship game, it seemed that there was a greater force keeping Dabo Swinney’s Clemson team charging back onto the sport’s biggest stage. 

Through the first nine games of the 2016 season, Clemson had narrowly defeated Auburn, squeezed out a single-score win over Troy, used a last-minute drive to best Louisville, escaped with an overtime victory over NC State and rallied from behind to defeat Florida State.

The Tigers’ undefeated hopes had been in persistent peril as the South Carolina summer creeped into fall, but quarterback Deshaun Watson and his band of championship-hopefuls had always found a way to win.

That’s just what Clemson did.

At least until Pat Narduzzi and his Pittsburgh Panthers transformed into a pebble that found its way through a crevice of the Tigers’ plot armor one November day in Death Valley of all places.

Entering their game against No. 2 Clemson on November 12, 2016, Narduzzi’s unranked Panthers were coming off of a loss to a Miami team that finished the season with four defeats. Pitt was out of ACC and College Football Playoff contention for all intents and purposes after notching zero ranked wins and suffering three one-score losses. 

That could have given Pitt an easy gateway into mediocrity and a low-level bowl game entry.

But on that fateful day at Memorial Stadium, the scrappy Panthers had something tangible to play for.

They wanted to take down the reigning ACC Champions.

And quickly, as Tiger fans learned, Pitt asserted its dedication to that mission.

Panthers quarterback Nathan Peterman opened the game with a 44-yard pass and completed two more to put the Panthers up 7-0 within the first two minutes of play. Watson and the Tigers responded with a quick drive into Pitt territory, but all momentum was severed when the Heisman contender threw an interception on the Panthers’ 13-yard line.

From there, Clemson and Pitt traded touchdowns to cap off the first quarter. In that span, Watson threw two passes of 30 or more yards and running back Wayne Gallman punched in two scores. Pitt’s score came off of a 46-yard touchdown pass to James Conner.

Both ACC foes remained in a high-powered stalemate through the second quarter, as each team scored two more touchdowns before the halftime break. Watson threw both touchdown passes but also gave away another interception that gave Peterman the ball in favorable field position.

After the third quarter, the Tigers finally gained a firm, eight-point lead thanks to a blocked extra point by defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, but after the fourth quarter hype video echoed through Memorial Stadium and Clemson fans held up four fingers, the game was far from over.

With around six minutes left to play, Watson led the Tigers down the field in an attempt to put the game on ice. However, right as it appeared Pitt’s internal fire had been extinguished and Clemson made it all the way down to the Panthers’ three-yard line, Watson threw his third interception of the night and defender Saleem Brightwell returned it 70 yards.

Just like that, Pitt was right back in the game.

A 20-yard rumble into the end zone by Pitt running back James Conner cut the lead to one point, but Clemson still had a chance to march down the field and secure another close victory. 

However, the Tigers could not get one more necessary yard on third and fourth down attempts and turned the ball over on downs for the first time in the entirety of the contest. Pitt, led by Peterman, drove down the field over the course of the next minute.

“Third-and-1 and fourth-and-1, we need one yard and we did not get it,” Swinney said in the postgame press conference. “We had an opportunity to win the game right there and we did not get it (done) and they did. They made the play.”

Pitt kicker Chris Blewitt makes a last second 48-yard field goal to beat No. 2 Clemson 43-42 at Memorial Stadium on November 12, 2016 in Clemson, S.C. The loss snapped Clemson’s 21-game home winning streak in Death Valley. (Rex Brown/The Clemson Insider)

The Panthers made it into field goal range with six seconds left.

Tiger fans, players and plot armor believers held their breath everywhere.

Kicker Chris Blewitt lined up, took a deep breath and drilled a 48-yard field goal.

The Panthers defeated Clemson, 43-42, ending a 21-game home-winning streak that dated back to 2013. Until that moment, only eight Tiger players had ever experienced a loss at Death Valley. But now, thanks to Pitt’s tenacity, the ACC’s giant had been slain.

“We made a lot of plays and did a lot of great things, but at the end of the day, we made a couple mistakes that kind of kept them in the game,” Watson said. “Give credit to Pittsburgh, They came down here and earned it after a tough loss last week down at Miami. They came here and did not shy away from the challenge. You have to give them credit. They came in and outplayed us and made more plays at the end of the game.”

In a befuddling turn of events, Watson set a new ACC record with 580 passing yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver Mike Williams had a career day with 15 catches for 202 yards and two touchdowns. Gallman also found the end zone twice.

“It’s all good, but at the end of the day my main focus is trying to get the W,” Watson said. “I could have went 0-for-30 with zero passing yards and if we get the W, that’s all that matters.”

In a turn of fate later that evening, No. 3 Michigan and No. 4 Washington also suffered losses on that Saturday, which kept the Tigers’ national championship hopes alive in the College Football Playoff rankings. It marked the first time since 1985 that three top 5 teams in the AP Poll lost on the same weekend.

As for Clemson Tigers, it helped them stay in the CFP’s top 4 the following week at No. 4, giving them a chance to get into the playoff’s four-team field if they could win out.

“I’m glad it is not a habit around here to lose and it is not going to become one,” Swinney said.

With all notions of plot armor or fairytales disemboweled, it would be all up to Clemson to make sure that was the case.