One thing that was present in the Pitt Panthers impressive start to the season was the Panthers ability to get to opposing quarterbacks.
Under head coach Pat Narduzzi, the Panthers have sacked opposing quarterbacks 22 times through eight games this season. That’s impressive, considering that they got to the quarterback only 19 total times last season.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, mostly all of those 22 sacks came during the first five weeks of the season as getting pressure on the quarterback has been an issue the past three weeks. It proved especially costly in Thursday night’s loss to North Carolina as Tar Heels quarterback Marquise Williams had way too much time to find receivers. Those receivers eventually broke wide open for huge plays as the Panthers’ defensive backs had to cover for sometimes six and seven seconds at a pop.
“The last three weeks, we have missed sacks,” Narduzzi said. “Somehow, we have got to get a guy loose and get to the quarterback. Sometimes the pressure was good and we missed tackles. Sometimes it was awful. You can’t cover their receivers forever.”
Pitt has been winning close games up until this point in the season, and if it plans on beating Notre Dame on Saturday, it is going to have to do a much better job in terms of rushing the passer.
The Panthers also need better play from their secondary, but it all starts up front and if Pitt isn’t getting to the quarterback, Saturday could be another long afternoon.
“We weren’t getting there,” Narduzzi said to describe the pass rush against UNC. “When we did get there, we didn’t finish it. Sometimes we didn’t get there fast enough and held our DBs out to dry. I always say there’s some times where we should have some coverage down there and we don’t get it and there’s times where we have to make a tackle and help the DBs out. So, it takes 11. It takes 11 guys on that field. It’s never just the pass rush and never just the secondary. It’s a combination. I think of their 271 total yards they really had five plays for 201 yards. In five plays. If you pull those five plays up and say it is 11 guys not doing their job.”
One thing that has been missing the past few weeks, and give the Panthers credit as they have won two of their past three, despite not playing great football, has been the big play from the defense. In terms of sacks, turnovers and TFL’s, there haven’t been enough splash plays to go around.
“It’s called make a play,” Narduzzi added “M-A-P. That’s one of the things we talked about. We have to make a play. If we get a sack three out of the four times we missed, or five times that we missed? We had opportunities and we have them every week. We just need to get those and clean it up and make the plays.
Narduzzi has been especially displeased with the team’s poor tackling of late, and that is another chore that needs to be fixed immediately with the Fighting Irish coming into town.
The tackling has cost the Panthers not only points, but in general just the ability to get off the field on third down.
“We’ve got to be locked in on defense each and every play,” said linebacker Matt Galambos. “We have to eliminate the explosive plays. We’ll go back and watch it and try to get better from it.”
Another big issue plaguing the Panthers the past couple of weeks has been the slow start.
The Panthers defense played very well in the second halves against both Syracuse and North Carolina. However, getting off to slow starts nearly cost them a pair of games.
It did cost them one and who knows, if Pitt comes out and plays better from the opening kickoff on Thursday night, they may be sitting at 7-1 today.
“Just inconsistency,” Narduzzi said. “Again, North Carolina has a good football team, but we’re not doing the little things right. It’s stuff that we’ve done since day one that we have to do. Does the emotion get to you? We should be through that after the games we’ve been through. So it’s doing the little things right. If you don’t do the little things right then you’re not going to be a very good defense. That’s what we’ve showed the last couple of weeks. Just not doing the tiny, little things right. We should be able to stop the run better than we have. That’s the frustrating thing. If you throw a 71-yard pass, I’m okay with that. But you better stop the run. So that will be a major focus this week.”
Pitt is in a very good position heading into the Notre Dame game, but it could be in a better spot if not for a few little things here and there.
We will find out Saturday if Narduzzi’s message is received by the Pitt defense.
If you see them getting to the quarterback early and often, it will be a very good sign.
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