PITTSBURGH — The silence in the Pittsburgh locker room was deafening. The anger, unmistakable.

The team intent on shedding its “Same Old Pitt” label had instead appeared to reinforce it following a stunning and staggering 44-41 home loss to Western Michigan on Sept. 18.

The Broncos lit up the Panthers for 517 yards and controlled the clock for 40 minutes, dimming a dazzling afternoon from quarterback Kenny Pickett and his six touchdown passes.

Coach Pat Narduzzi stressed accountability and calmness in the aftermath, pointing out all of his team’s preseason goals — an ACC Coastal Division title and a spot in the conference championship game — remained very much on the table.

Behind closed doors, Pickett took control. He helped organize a players-only meeting the following day and laid out the stakes.

“You can’t waste a day, you can’t waste a game,” Pickett recalled last week. “You can’t go out there and not give your best effort and not try to put out your best performance. I think that’s kind of the motto we took from that meeting.”

A motto the 17th-ranked Panthers have taken to the field. A month after that cathartic get-together, Pitt is rolling. The Panthers (6-1, 3-0 ACC) have won four straight, all of them by double digits, including an emphatic 27-17 victory over reeling Clemson on Saturday that sent Pitt to its highest ranking during the season since 2009.

Pickett was in elementary school back then. Now he’s a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate with 23 touchdowns against one interception. Yet the masterful leap forward he’s made with his right arm hasn’t diminished an ounce of the toughness that won over Narduzzi when Pickett was a freshman in 2017.

Twice in the fourth quarter on Saturday the Panthers faced third-and-long. And twice Pickett tucked the ball and bolted for the first-down marker. His head-first dive toward the sticks to convert a third-and-7 was reminiscent of his sprint for the end-zone pylon during his first collegiate start, an upset of then-No. 2 Miami in the 2017 season finale. Pickett did it again three plays later, bullying his way for 7 yards on third-and-6 on a designed run.

A few minutes later Pickett was taking a knee as the clock ran out after the kind of watershed performance the Panthers have hinted at but rarely delivered for the better part of four decades.