Uhh no, unfortunately the holder did not fulfill his duties.
Also Pitt had several technical and tactical errors that came back to bite them in the end. They had a few opportunities to put the game away but were not able to due to these errors.
Pitt was far superior upfront, ran all over Cincinnati, had the better defense, and in my opinion the better team (although I think the course of the game changes if it is played at a neutral site and in mild weather conditions)
From my view, there was nothing as far as physical preparation goes that directly caused this defeat.