Malik Cunningham passed for two touchdowns and Kei’Trel Clark returned a fumble 59 yards for a score late in the game as Louisville defeated visiting, error-prone Pittsburgh 24-10 on Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference dustup.

Cunningham, returning from missing a game with a head injury, threw for 122 yards and ran for 46 more as Louisville (4-3, 2-3 ACC) scored the contest’s final 17 points. His 9-yard touchdown pass to Josh Lifson vaulted the Cardinals to a 14-10 lead with 9:45 to play.

The Cardinals’ James Turner added to that advantage with a 48-yard field goal with 4:21 remaining.

Pittsburgh drove to the Louisville 35 before Yasir Abdullah poured in untouched and sacked Panthers’ quarterback Kedon Slovis, forcing a fumble that was picked up out of the pile by Clark. He sprinted down the sideline for the TD that iced the game.

Slovis struggled, going just 16 of 29 for 158 yards and throwing two interceptions. Israel Abanikanda, coming off a team-record rushing and scoring performance two weeks ago against Virginia Tech, rushed for 129 yards and a TD in the loss, the sixth 100-yard game of his college career.

The Panthers (4-3, 1-2) had four turnovers and 326 yards of total offense, and had a seven-game road win streak snapped.

The first half sported more mistakes than big plays for both teams, with Pittsburgh committing three turnovers and Louisville doing little to nothing to take advantage of the miscues.

The Panthers struck first on a 12-yard touchdown run by Abanikanda at the 3:12 mark of the first quarter, culminating a 57-yard, seven-play drive.

Louisville answered via Cunningham’s 25-yard TD pass to Marshon Ford on the first play of the second quarter. Cunningham accounted for 72 of the 75 yards on the game-tying march.

Ben Sauls put the Panthers back on top with a 37-yard field goal nine snaps after A.J. Woods intercepted Cunningham and returned the pick to the Louisville 47-yard line.

–Field Level Media