20 thoughts on a Monday morning...
1. What else is there to say right now? Pitt’s offense has been a mess this season, offsetting the fleeting moments of consistency and effectiveness with long spells of struggle that occasionally boil over into abject disaster. The Panthers are 4-3 right now instead of 6-1 because their offense has been terrible. It’s really that simple.
2. Fixing it is far more difficult, of course, and it starts with a question of where the blame should fall? The players take their share, to be certain; but the instances where the blame falls on the players are just that - instances. A bad play here, a missed opportunity there. Those things have happened far too often, but they’re not the biggest problem, in my view.
3. The biggest problem, and this is something I’m going to say a lot, is that I think the roster has talent. Proven talent. Kedon Slovis has done it. Konata Mumpfield has done it. Gavin Bartholomew and Jared Wayne have done it. The offensive line has done it. They’ve all done it, and yet, here they are, the horses in a four-win offense looking like they forgot how to play the game. Or, at the very least, looking like they are nowhere near as good as they’ve been earlier in their careers.
4. Here’s the wild thing: I think there was some promise in Pitt’s offense for most of the first half Saturday night. I really do. I liked some of the things they were doing, and I thought, ‘Hey, the offense figured some things out on the off week.” And I think that was actually true. I think the offense was doing exactly what it should, and it looked like an effective offense.
5. Consider the first drive. The first snap was a play-action dump to Daniel Carter in the flat for eight yards. The second one saw Israel Abanikanda run for 10 yards. Then Slovis threw to Gavin Bartholomew for 18 yards before Abanikanda broke a 15-yard run to get the ball to the Louisville 29. Abanikanda was stuffed for no gain on first down, but on second down Slovis rolled out to his right and threw another short one to Carter, who caught it and ran for a first down inside the 20.
6. Wait. That last play didn’t happen. Slovis threw past Carter on a shot to Konata Mumpfield near the end zone. The pass was under-thrown and easily intercepted, and a pretty-close-to-perfect drive ended with no points.
7. That was disappointing, but they made up for it on the next drive. Abanikanda ran on first down, but a penalty on second down resulted in second-and-17. Slovis chipped away with a five-yard pass to Mumpfield and then converted with a clutch catch by Jared Wayne. Abanikanda lost four yards on the next first down but made up for it by a lot with a perfect running back screen play - the kind we haven’t seen many of this season. And then Abanikanda cashed it in with a 12-yard run from the brand new Wildcat formation.
8. Two pretty well-designed drives to open the game. High-percentage throws, a good mix of run and pass and a bad decision by Slovis standing as the only fart sound in the first 15 minutes. Oh, and Abanikanda had 73 yards of offense and a touchdown on seven touches.
9. The third drive was a waste, picking up one first down before punting, but the fourth possession of the half was another good one. This time the Panthers went with the Wildcat as a base offense and used both Abanikanda and Rodney Hammond. And Louisville had no answer, as those two rattled off 42 yards on four carries. Of course, the drive ended inside the 20 when Hammond fumbled, but it was another good possession - albeit one that didn’t get points.
10. And one more time down the field Pitt went. The Panthers got bailed out by a roughing penalty on a failed third-and-10, but they still managed to drive inside the 30 before Slovis made another tragically bad decision.
11. Three drives killed by terrible decisions/bad luck. While I am developing some serious concerns about the overall direction of the offense, I can’t deny that those plays were absolute killers on Saturday night. Pitt should have had at least 21 points and as many as 28 by halftime; instead, they were stuck in a 7-7 game. For all that we say about the offense - and there’s a lot to say - without those mistakes, the Panthers probably have a three-score lead going into the locker room. And I imagine that lead would hold up, given how Pitt’s defense was playing.
12. I’ll get into the defense in a second, but there’s one other question to address: Should Pat Narduzzi have benched Slovis at halftime? Slovis had gone 9-of-13 for 112 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions to that point; that stat line would seem to merit a change. But the reality is, there haven’t been too many instances of Narduzzi benching a starting quarterback during a game. He rotated Chad Voytik and Nathan Peterman in 2015 before going with Peterman full-time, but when Peterman struggled later in the season - he had three completions in the first half of a loss to Notre Dame - Narduzzi didn’t make a change. He did swap Max Browne in for Ben DiNucci at Georgia Tech in 2017 after DiNucci replaced Browne a week earlier at Penn State, but those back-to-back in-game benchings are just about all I can think of.
13. Does that mean Narduzzi refuses to make a change? Not necessarily. But I think he looks at the quarterback situation and says, “Slovis is the best quarterback on the team; we’ve determined that by observing countless hours of practice and game film. So we’re going to keep playing the best quarterback.” I think that’s the mentality, and to be fair, Narduzzi hasn’t exactly had a lot of practice in making quarterback changes since 2017.
14. One other thing: for all the talk of personnel and coaching and coordinator and quarterback changes, it’s simply unacceptable for Pitt to make the simple mistakes that have been made, especially on Saturday night. The Panthers had three false start penalties in front of a less-than-intimidating crowd, including one on center Jake Kradel. There were multiple instances of needing to call a timeout because the play clock was winding down. Slovis seemed to be constantly yelling at his teammates to move because they were lined up wrong. There was even a play where the right tackle never moved on the snap due to some kind of miscommunication with the cadence (that one led directly to a touchdown for Louisville). That stuff is unacceptable, and it’s reflective of a team that isn’t nearly as focused as it needs to be.
15. Okay, let’s talk defense for a minute, simply because I know we’re going to spend all week talking about the offense. Pitt’s defense was good on Saturday night. Really good. Good enough to win. Yes, Malik Cunningham made some plays, but that was inevitable; he’s a really good player and a dangerous playmaker. The throw-back trick play was well-designed, well-called and well-executed. You’d like to think Pitt will be prepared for anything and everything, but from time to time, the other team makes plays. For most of the night, the Panthers’ defense was in control.
16. I said that Cunningham is a good player and dangerous playmaker, but he threw for 122 yards and rushed for 46; that’s a pretty good performance by the defense. So is allowing 312 yards of total offense, 4-of-13 on third down, two sacks and six tackles for loss against a mobile quarterback. That was good - good enough to win.
17. SirVocea Dennis did play some outside linebacker. He didn’t do it a ton, but he was lined up at Money linebacker as early as the second Louisville drive in the game, and I think I noticed him playing there a few more times throughout the night.
18. Dayon Hayes also made his return to the field, playing for the first time since Week Two against Tennessee. He didn’t record any stats - Pro Football Focus credited him with a pressure - but he played 20 snaps, which was helpful for the defensive end rotation to get back to its original lineup.
19. The defensive end rotation doesn’t really matter, though, if you can’t score more than 10 points. Pitt should be 6-1 right now. I believe the overall talent of this team, offense and defense (I’m going to leave special teams out of this, because that unit’s struggles are getting overshadowed by the offense), is good enough to be 6-1 with the lone loss coming against a current top-five team in overtime. The talent is being wasted, though, and I have to believe Pat Narduzzi sees that. He has to see that his team is more talented than a 4-3 squad with losses to the likes of Georgia Tech and Louisville. Pitt’s better than those teams. Or, at the very least, the Panthers should be.
20. But the reality is, of course, that they haven’t been. Pitt wasn’t better than Georgia Tech three weeks ago and wasn’t better than Louisville on Saturday night. And while there were plenty of instances where the players made mistakes or blew assignments or otherwise screwed up, there’s a bigger issue with this offense that seems to merit a bigger solution than simply changing the starting lineup. Narduzzi’s challenge is finding a way to cobble together a few more wins this season and then taking a hard look at things in the offseason.
1. What else is there to say right now? Pitt’s offense has been a mess this season, offsetting the fleeting moments of consistency and effectiveness with long spells of struggle that occasionally boil over into abject disaster. The Panthers are 4-3 right now instead of 6-1 because their offense has been terrible. It’s really that simple.
2. Fixing it is far more difficult, of course, and it starts with a question of where the blame should fall? The players take their share, to be certain; but the instances where the blame falls on the players are just that - instances. A bad play here, a missed opportunity there. Those things have happened far too often, but they’re not the biggest problem, in my view.
3. The biggest problem, and this is something I’m going to say a lot, is that I think the roster has talent. Proven talent. Kedon Slovis has done it. Konata Mumpfield has done it. Gavin Bartholomew and Jared Wayne have done it. The offensive line has done it. They’ve all done it, and yet, here they are, the horses in a four-win offense looking like they forgot how to play the game. Or, at the very least, looking like they are nowhere near as good as they’ve been earlier in their careers.
4. Here’s the wild thing: I think there was some promise in Pitt’s offense for most of the first half Saturday night. I really do. I liked some of the things they were doing, and I thought, ‘Hey, the offense figured some things out on the off week.” And I think that was actually true. I think the offense was doing exactly what it should, and it looked like an effective offense.
5. Consider the first drive. The first snap was a play-action dump to Daniel Carter in the flat for eight yards. The second one saw Israel Abanikanda run for 10 yards. Then Slovis threw to Gavin Bartholomew for 18 yards before Abanikanda broke a 15-yard run to get the ball to the Louisville 29. Abanikanda was stuffed for no gain on first down, but on second down Slovis rolled out to his right and threw another short one to Carter, who caught it and ran for a first down inside the 20.
6. Wait. That last play didn’t happen. Slovis threw past Carter on a shot to Konata Mumpfield near the end zone. The pass was under-thrown and easily intercepted, and a pretty-close-to-perfect drive ended with no points.
7. That was disappointing, but they made up for it on the next drive. Abanikanda ran on first down, but a penalty on second down resulted in second-and-17. Slovis chipped away with a five-yard pass to Mumpfield and then converted with a clutch catch by Jared Wayne. Abanikanda lost four yards on the next first down but made up for it by a lot with a perfect running back screen play - the kind we haven’t seen many of this season. And then Abanikanda cashed it in with a 12-yard run from the brand new Wildcat formation.
8. Two pretty well-designed drives to open the game. High-percentage throws, a good mix of run and pass and a bad decision by Slovis standing as the only fart sound in the first 15 minutes. Oh, and Abanikanda had 73 yards of offense and a touchdown on seven touches.
9. The third drive was a waste, picking up one first down before punting, but the fourth possession of the half was another good one. This time the Panthers went with the Wildcat as a base offense and used both Abanikanda and Rodney Hammond. And Louisville had no answer, as those two rattled off 42 yards on four carries. Of course, the drive ended inside the 20 when Hammond fumbled, but it was another good possession - albeit one that didn’t get points.
10. And one more time down the field Pitt went. The Panthers got bailed out by a roughing penalty on a failed third-and-10, but they still managed to drive inside the 30 before Slovis made another tragically bad decision.
11. Three drives killed by terrible decisions/bad luck. While I am developing some serious concerns about the overall direction of the offense, I can’t deny that those plays were absolute killers on Saturday night. Pitt should have had at least 21 points and as many as 28 by halftime; instead, they were stuck in a 7-7 game. For all that we say about the offense - and there’s a lot to say - without those mistakes, the Panthers probably have a three-score lead going into the locker room. And I imagine that lead would hold up, given how Pitt’s defense was playing.
12. I’ll get into the defense in a second, but there’s one other question to address: Should Pat Narduzzi have benched Slovis at halftime? Slovis had gone 9-of-13 for 112 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions to that point; that stat line would seem to merit a change. But the reality is, there haven’t been too many instances of Narduzzi benching a starting quarterback during a game. He rotated Chad Voytik and Nathan Peterman in 2015 before going with Peterman full-time, but when Peterman struggled later in the season - he had three completions in the first half of a loss to Notre Dame - Narduzzi didn’t make a change. He did swap Max Browne in for Ben DiNucci at Georgia Tech in 2017 after DiNucci replaced Browne a week earlier at Penn State, but those back-to-back in-game benchings are just about all I can think of.
13. Does that mean Narduzzi refuses to make a change? Not necessarily. But I think he looks at the quarterback situation and says, “Slovis is the best quarterback on the team; we’ve determined that by observing countless hours of practice and game film. So we’re going to keep playing the best quarterback.” I think that’s the mentality, and to be fair, Narduzzi hasn’t exactly had a lot of practice in making quarterback changes since 2017.
14. One other thing: for all the talk of personnel and coaching and coordinator and quarterback changes, it’s simply unacceptable for Pitt to make the simple mistakes that have been made, especially on Saturday night. The Panthers had three false start penalties in front of a less-than-intimidating crowd, including one on center Jake Kradel. There were multiple instances of needing to call a timeout because the play clock was winding down. Slovis seemed to be constantly yelling at his teammates to move because they were lined up wrong. There was even a play where the right tackle never moved on the snap due to some kind of miscommunication with the cadence (that one led directly to a touchdown for Louisville). That stuff is unacceptable, and it’s reflective of a team that isn’t nearly as focused as it needs to be.
15. Okay, let’s talk defense for a minute, simply because I know we’re going to spend all week talking about the offense. Pitt’s defense was good on Saturday night. Really good. Good enough to win. Yes, Malik Cunningham made some plays, but that was inevitable; he’s a really good player and a dangerous playmaker. The throw-back trick play was well-designed, well-called and well-executed. You’d like to think Pitt will be prepared for anything and everything, but from time to time, the other team makes plays. For most of the night, the Panthers’ defense was in control.
16. I said that Cunningham is a good player and dangerous playmaker, but he threw for 122 yards and rushed for 46; that’s a pretty good performance by the defense. So is allowing 312 yards of total offense, 4-of-13 on third down, two sacks and six tackles for loss against a mobile quarterback. That was good - good enough to win.
17. SirVocea Dennis did play some outside linebacker. He didn’t do it a ton, but he was lined up at Money linebacker as early as the second Louisville drive in the game, and I think I noticed him playing there a few more times throughout the night.
18. Dayon Hayes also made his return to the field, playing for the first time since Week Two against Tennessee. He didn’t record any stats - Pro Football Focus credited him with a pressure - but he played 20 snaps, which was helpful for the defensive end rotation to get back to its original lineup.
19. The defensive end rotation doesn’t really matter, though, if you can’t score more than 10 points. Pitt should be 6-1 right now. I believe the overall talent of this team, offense and defense (I’m going to leave special teams out of this, because that unit’s struggles are getting overshadowed by the offense), is good enough to be 6-1 with the lone loss coming against a current top-five team in overtime. The talent is being wasted, though, and I have to believe Pat Narduzzi sees that. He has to see that his team is more talented than a 4-3 squad with losses to the likes of Georgia Tech and Louisville. Pitt’s better than those teams. Or, at the very least, the Panthers should be.
20. But the reality is, of course, that they haven’t been. Pitt wasn’t better than Georgia Tech three weeks ago and wasn’t better than Louisville on Saturday night. And while there were plenty of instances where the players made mistakes or blew assignments or otherwise screwed up, there’s a bigger issue with this offense that seems to merit a bigger solution than simply changing the starting lineup. Narduzzi’s challenge is finding a way to cobble together a few more wins this season and then taking a hard look at things in the offseason.
