No. 21 Pitt's defense came with all the big plays in its 23-20 win over No. 24 Louisville on Saturday at Heinz Field. The win takes the Panthers to a 3-0 record with two of those wins against ACC opponents.
This was not only the team's first win against a ranked opponent this season, and Pat Narduzzi's fourth of his tenure, but the first time Pitt beat a ranked opponent while being ranked itself since beating No. 5 Virginia Tech in 2003.
Back then, it was Larry Fitzgerald who led the Panthers' charge for such a win. Saturday, it was redshirt senior defensive end Patrick Jones II who led Pitt with three of their seven sacks on the day. That total gives them 17 on the season, the most in the NCAA.
Pitt also had three interceptions on Louisville's redshirt junior quarterback Malik Cunningham, who led the NCAA with six touchdown passes coming into this game. That included an interception in the final two minutes of the game by senior cornerback Jason Pinnock that closed out the game.
"Kids did a heck of a job," Narduzzi said after the game. "Played their tails off, 60-minute game. Last week we finished with the offense on the field, this week I was hoping to finish with the offense on the field but the defense was ready to go, we had to go, and obviously we did, and Jason Pinnock had a nice play again, interception to end the game."
But what helped set up Pinnock's interception was a game full of pressure and consistent dominance by Pitt's defensive front. The stat sheet showed Louisville's starting running back, redshirt sophomore Javian Hawkins, having 78 yards on 13 carries. But when it's considered that 75 yards came from one touchdown run he broke, you can understand the level of dominance Pitt exhibited on his other 12 carries during the game.
"You saw what [Louisville] did to Miami," Narduzzi said. "A great Miami defense a week ago, and then you look at what they did to a Pitt defense. It's a little different deal when you line up against a Pitt defense."
Here's one of Pitt's 12 tackles for loss, this time from freshman defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, who Narduzzi has been excited about since his first Zoom media conference in August. Kancey gets up under an attempted double team from Louisville and sticks Hawkins in the backfield:
"I know the Steel Curtain is Pittsburgh Steelers," Narduzzi said when asked about Pitt's defensive front. "But today we've been dominant up front. We did get a lot four-man pressure. I don't know if we had a five- or six-man sack or not, but a lot of coverage sacks, a lot of quarterback tucking it and containing him near the end. Seemed like he got away a few times."
Both Pinnock and Jones said a defensive day like Saturday isn't something they consider impressive, it's what's expected of them.
"I wouldn't say impressive because it's expected," Pinnock said. "It's exciting because we come in here to play."
"I agree with Pinnock saying that because we worked so hard," Jones corroborated. "Everything we do isn't given to us, it's through hard work and we strive to be the best in the country. We left some stuff on the field and that one big run we shouldn't have given that up. We have to go back and fix that because we can't give up plays like that if we want to be the best in the country."
Right now, Pitt's the best in the country at getting to the quarterback. Here's one of Jones' sacks on the day, where you can see him and redshirt junior Cam Bright meet at Cunningham for a sack. Bright mentioned earlier in the week that he had waited years for his chance to sack Cunningham, his high school teammate, and finally got him:
"It's been really impressive," Narduzzi said of how his defense continues to make plays. "Randy Bates, Charlie Partridge, Coach [Rob] Harley, Coach [Cory] Sanders, Coach [Archie] Collins, the defensive staff has done an unbelievable job. It starts during the week, guys. You win on Saturdays but it starts with the preparation and putting the kids in position to make plays. We're a pretty simple but complex defense and we give our kids a chance to just turn it loose and play football."
Jones confirmed about how the defensive scheme helps the defense play faster.
"Just by following the game plan," Jones answered when asked how the team put up seven sacks. "Coaches came up with a great game plan this week, we stuck to it and our fundamentals and everything worked out. It benefits us because we can just play fast, use our instincts and just go. We don't have anything slowing us down so it allows us to show our athletic ability."
Part of what also helped in preparation for Pitt was its preparation to face a mobile quarterback like Cunningham. As I reported this week, Pitt used freshman wide receiver Will Gipson to simulate Cunningham's ability to extend plays with his legs and still throw the ball.
"Man, Will Gipson helped so much," Jones said. "He's a great dude, positive attitude, practiced and asked us if he was doing everything the right way. Just wanted to give us the best look possible and I truly think he helped us a lot. I feel like scout team players don't get the respect they deserve all the time and he really made a difference this week."
Pitt's offense made a difference in the first half, as senior quarterback Kenny Pickett threw two touchdown passes, one to freshman receiver Jordan Addison in the first quarter, the other to redshirt senior receiver Taysir Mack who made his first appearance on the season.
Pickett finished the game with 23 completions on 38 attempts for 220 yards and the two touchdowns with an interception and a fumble. He also ran for 28 yards on nine carries.
He threw enough completions and made enough plays to win a football game," Narduzzi said. "So I'm sure it's never as clean as you want it to be. I know he kicks himself in the butt for the pick in the second half, end of that third quarter when we're approaching the red zone. We still got to be better in the red zone. We'll continue to work on the red zone. We're working on the red zone on Tuesday, working the red zone on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have periods in the red zone against each other, and we've just got to continue to make strides down there in the red zone."
Addison finished with seven catches for 77 yards and a touchdown and Mack finished with three catches for 62 yards and a touchdown.
Addison's catches included a very impressive grab on the sideline for 15 yards on a third and ten that kept alive a drive that would end up in Pitt's last touchdown on the day.
"You know, again, seven catches," Narduzzi said when asked about Addison's day. "It's like he's averaging seven catches a game it seems like. He's a guy that you can trust. He catches just about everything. I can't say enough about the play he's made as a young guy that just steps in and makes big plays."
Pickett especially appreciated Addison's effort on the third down.
"It was huge," Pickett said. "Jordan's a big-time player and making big-time plays for us. We are going to continue to incorporate him a whole lot more as the season goes along."
And that play would give Pitt the chance that set up its biggest offensive play of the game. On a fourth-and-5, Narduzzi sent kept his offense on the field to convert and keep the drive alive. Pickett would complete a pass to a wide open Mack over the middle, but he would spin off a tackle and keep running after both Pitt players and Louisville defenders thought he was down, taking the play in for the score:
"Yeah, he had a couple great catches," Narduzzi said of Mack. "Some crucial third down catches and that was a big fourth down catch, obviously, and we talk all the time about finishing, and he finished. It's great to have him back. He's a big-time playmaker. Coming out of last season, you guys know that Eastern Michigan game. He's a go-to guy, and I'm happy for Taysir."
Pickett was just happy to have him back.
"That's my guy," Pickett said of Mack. "I've been with him through a lot. Was really happy to see him on the practice field this week. He was running really well, had fresh legs. I knew he was going to have a big game, I just had to get the ball in his hands."
But after that score, the offense stalled. The Panthers would only get three points from the unit in the second half, forcing Pitt's defense to defend a single possession lead for all six Louisville drives in the second half.
"Getting behind the sticks early is what hurt us today," Pickett said of the offense's lack of second half points. "If we can stay ahead of the sticks and be more aggressive, that's what we want to be down there. We're a few plays away. We have to limit drops and pre-snap penalties. They were doing a few things up yelling and got our guys to jump a few times, which is illegal. But once we get that squared away, we'll really take off. It's the little details right now and we're just a few plays away."
But if you asked the defense, not only don't they mind being put in those situations, they seem to like it.
"You gotta love it," Pinnock said about the defense having to hold Louisville to just three points the entire second half. "I love the pressure. I came from pressure. We go out there after an interception or a fumble and we're out there dancing because our defense loves it. We practice sudden change and we embrace it."
Narduzzi loved it a lot less, saying it stressed him out.
"You know, I don't know how much they embrace it, but they give me chest pains," Narduzzi said about how Pitt spent the entire second half with only a single possession lead. "Again, the two touchdowns they got in the first half, the big long run, we just fit it wrong and then they came back and ran it and we had probably a gain of zero of one, if that, maybe a TFL, I don't know. We just didn't fit it right. It was something different, and it was really just kind of a read that we had on them based on what they were doing. We had a linebacker reading one thing and they got us on the one read and we changed the read and came back and stuffed them, but those are things that happen."
But Pitt's defense would answer that second half challenge with a pick parade, ending three of Louisville's six second half drives with interceptions. The first came from redshirt sophomore Marquis Williams, which was his first as a Panther.
Then after Pickett's only thrown interception on the day, redshirt senior safety Damar Hamlin would answer with his own interception to give Pitt the ball right back.
"Our kids know what to do," Narduzzi said of his secondary. "They're confident in what they're doing. They're putting themselves in good position, and again, the credit goes to Paris Ford and Damar Hamlin. They're those two safeties making those checks and covering up the receivers to the point where the quarterback has got nowhere to go with the ball."
"Just different checks," Narduzzi continued in describing how the secondary kept adjusting to Louisville's offense during the game. "We look the same and we have different checks that we make coverage-wise. We'll call one coverage and then they got a chance to put themselves in position to make plays, and there's a lot -- there's a lot more mental out there as far as what we do, how we do it, and that's a key to what we do defensively."
Pinnock was pumped after the game about how the Panthers' defense locked down Louisville's passing game. Cunningham finished the game with only 107 passing yards. That's extremely impressive considering he had 650 passing yards coming into the game, the second-best in the NCAA, to go along with his six passing touchdowns that led the NCAA.
"It was everything we thought would happen," Pinnock said. "Press on the outside, and eventually it would turn into a close set game. We got we wanted, we got three picks. They were averaging over [300] yards and we held them to 9 for 107 in their total receiving, and that's with a busted coverage. You take that away and they had less 10 receptions and less than 100 yards for zero touchdowns."
The final interception of the game was Pinnock's to close out the win. On a fourth down, Cunningham threw while under duress and Pinnock jumped the pass to close the deal:
Cunningham would suffer a scary injury where he would need to be carted off. He wasn't seen moving after he took a hit that ended up with his helmet bouncing off the Heinz Field grass, but it appears he has full range of motion and feeling after the game. You can read about those details here.
"Tutu's eyes kind of gave it away for me," Pinnock said when describing the play. "He came out and kept checking outside. He tightened down his split. That's their go-to guy. So we checked to a Cover 2 based off his release and we got him."
Pinnock would also credit the Panthers' pass rush for developing the pass rush that would force Cunningham's hand for those three interceptions, noting the chemistry between the secondary's trust in the blitz to fore early passes and the front seven's trust in the secondary to be on their job.
"It allows both rooms to be aggressive," Pinnock said. "Our D-line trusts that we alway take away first read. We trust that they're going to get there. We can undercut routes and do things that if you didn't trust your D-line, you couldn't do. So we play well together."
Narduzzi acknowledged the secondary coming up big in the second half with those three interceptions.
"Yeah, I mean, it's their turn," Narduzzi said of the secondary. "You've got Damarri Mathis with shorts on on the sideline and was originally a starting cornerback, and guys got to step up. That's what it's all about, and our kids are making plays and they're putting opportunities and have opportunities to make plays. It's fun to see."
And Jones credited the defense's having big plays from several different players, with three different players having interceptions, six different players with sacks and ten different players with tackles for losses, to the culture of the team.
"It's the culture we set," Jones said. "We hold everybody to the same standard. So no matter if you're young or old, we expect you to have your fundamentals down and your technique down so when it's time for your number to be called you can step in and play."
Narduzzi and Jones also noted after the game that part of what has built that culture has been a build-up from the team's efforts last year. Plenty of those stars like Ford, Hamlin, Jones and Weaver feel like they have something to prove after last season.
"Well, the defense's motto has been 'unfinished business,'" Narduzzi said. "I think you win championships with great defense and you can win a lot of games with defense, and our offense is going to continue to manage and get better. Louisville has got a lot of talent on both sides of the ball."
"Unfinished business is something we decided on because we felt like last year we did well but there was so much stuff to work on," Jones followed up when asked about the phrase. "So we left unfinished business last year and we want to finish it this year."
They finished their business with a dominating performance against a talented Louisville offense.
• Redshirt senior kicker Alex Kessman made all three field goal attempts against Louisville after missing all four attempts against Austin Peay and Syracuse. Narduzzi praised his efforts to adjust his game during practices this week.
"Proud as heck of Kessman," Narduzzi said. "We've got a lot of faith in him and he's three for three today, and again, I go back to that's why they call us "coach," to get them right, and those are the details that great football teams do."
• The only three points Pitt surrendered in the second half came on a drive that was sustained by a fake punt play from Louisville that fooled Pitt's special teams. Narduzzi put all of the blame for that play on himself, as Louisville took an intentional delay of game penalty before the fake and that was something he didn't expect.
"I think we gave up three points in the second half, and I really blame myself," Narduzzi said. "That field goal was all on me. We were in a punt safe to begin with, they took a delay of game for whatever reason, and I said to myself, I went and put a punt return out there and I shouldn't have done it. I was like -- I said, they're not going to delay a game and then fake it, are they, for more yards? And I played right into their hands. That's what they wanted to do; they wanted to get our rangers out there. So that three-point is on me, it's not on the defense. I'll take that. That's a dumb move, and shoot, if I wanted to waste another time-out I would have, but I didn't want to waste another time-out. I thought we'd stop them. I think we had a misalignment on that, as well. But we'll clean that stuff up. We haven't given up a fake punt in a long time. It's just another thing to clean up. That's why they call us 'coach.'"
• Pitt ran the ball for 156 yards on 40 carries, a 3.9 average. Leading the way was starting sophomore running back Vincent Davis who took 14 carries for 47 yards, and freshman running back Israel "Izzy" Abanikanda who took nine carreis for 41 yards.
"Vince had [47], and I don't know how many yards we rushed for," Narduzzi said about the team's rushing performance. "When you rush for 150, it's a good day. Izzy got involved and he had [41], ran hard. Yeah, obviously impressed with that. We've been able to run the ball and mix it up, not just be a passing team, so that's been critical.