MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Pitt had a chance to pull off what would've been a remarkable upset over No. 13 Miami, but squandered the opportunity in a 31-19 loss Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium. The loss is the Panthers' third in a row, dropping them 3-3 on the season, 2-3 in the ACC.
As the team scrambles for answers, one of those answers needs to be about who needs to be held accountable for another dropped game that Pitt had a chance to win.
What would've made the upset even more remarkable was that Kenny Pickett was out due to the ankle injury he suffered last week. That brought in redshirt freshman transfer quarterback Joey Yellen to make his first start for the program.
Yellen would finish the game completing 22 passes on 46 attempts for 277 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions, but did lose a fumble on sack. That performance is the most yards of any Pitt quarterback in their debut start since John Thurman's debut against Penn State in 1999 when he threw for 316 yards.
"We'll go back and watch the tape," Narduzzi said when asked about Yellen's day. "He took a couple sacks and one was a fumble where he needs to throw the ball away or get out of there. Overall we didn't know what to expect with his first start for Pitt. I thought he played solid and put balls in peoples' hands to make plays, we have to help him out there. We need to help him out in the run game. They did a good job stuffing us up front. We didn't get any push on their front four and when you rush for 22 yards it comes down to a passing game where Joey's throwing it on every down."
Yellen's day was boosted by Jordan Addison, who led the team with eight catches on 13 targets for 147 yards, the most of any Pitt freshman wide receiver since Tyler Boyd recorded 173 yards against Bowling Green in the Little Caesar's Bowl in 2013.
"Jordan continues to play at a high level as a freshman," Narduzzi said of Addison. "He's a good football player and you have to find a way to get the ball to him even more. He almost had another great play on a fade. He does a good job paying attention to the details and catching the football."
But the problems for Pitt's offense came from everywhere else, including drops from Taysir Mack, Shocky Jacques-Louis and Tre Tipton. Couple that with the lackluster running game by Pitt that only saw 44 rushing yards from Pitt's running backs Todd Sibley, who started, and Vincent Davis.
"Offensively we didn't run the ball like we needed to, had too many drops and we had chances to make plays," Narduzzi said. "That first half, especially, we dropped the ball and didn't finish the game. It starts with me having them ready to go and we have to make plays."
But the odd part of the running game was that Sibley's 23 yards came on four carries and Pitt and caught a pass that went for seven yards. Three of his five touches resulted in first downs for Pitt as Sibley averaged six yards per touch, but Pitt didn't keep feeding him the ball.
When Narduzzi was asked why Pitt didn't go back to Sibley more, he deflected.
"I don't make calls on offense," Narduzzi said when asked why Sibley got so few touches. "Sibley did have some rushes early. I'm not sure of the why or the what. But we're trying to rotate those guys back there and see who can go. I was happy with the way Todd took his carries. Again, I'm not sure of the why or the what, but maybe he should've gotten more carries."
Obviously the coach that does call plays for the offense is Mark Whipple. If Narduzzi wants to make sure the buck stops there for the offensive struggles, that's not taking accountability for a basic question about a struggling offense.
But that doesn't account for all the other problems that came in this loss.
The offense struggling was to be expected with Pickett out. Pickett had eight passing touchdowns and five rushing touchdowns through five games and was the driving force that's made the offense more effective this season.
The group that needed to deliver was Pitt's defense, and once again it was a mixed bag with more bad than good.
D'Eriq King finished completing 16 passes on 31 attempts for 222 yards for four touchdowns and two interceptions to go along with his 32 rushing yards on 11 carries. That means Pitt has given up three or more touchdown passes for three consecutive weeks, all resulting in losses.
"Obviously not enough," Narduzzi said when asked how he felt his defense did against King. "He did a good job with some of the RPOs and some of the fake runs got the tight ends up the shoot sometimes. But we'll look at the tape and find that out. Obviously not good enough to win the game and that's all that matters."
But King's touchdown passes weren't throws that threaded any needles, they went to wide open players running without defenders right through Pitt's defense. Once again, Pitt's defense hurt itself.
The first touchdown showed how hard Pitt's defense planned to commit to the threat of King running with the ball. King fakes a quarterback draw and it freezes the entire middle of the defense, allowing Cam'Ron Harris to run free to the end zone and giving King the easy touchdown pass:
Even when Pitt's defense was making plays early it would hurt itself. Rashad Weaver had a crucial third down sack in the red zone that would've forced a field goal and kept the game at 10-0 for Miami, but Tyler Bentley got his hand caught in King's facemask on the sack, drawing the flag and extending the drive.
Phil Campbell was a bright spot for Pitt's defense with five tackles and two of the team's four sacks on the day, but even he knows the defense's miscues have become a theme for Pitt's 2020 season.
"That's kind of been the story of our season so far," Campbell said after the game. "We stopped them but we shoot ourselves in the foot with a penalty and it results in a score. It's happened in several games, not just this game. It comes down to working on it this week, we have to be better with that. We just have to keep practicing. It comes down to discipline on the extra claps, the different scenarios they'll try to get us and it all comes down to discipline. That's completely mental. Facemask we couldn't do anything about that and trying to play hard. Things we can control we have to do better this week."
But the miscues mounted throughout the game for Pitt, especially in covering players on deep routes. Last week Pitt was losing one-on-one matchups in coverage, this week there weren't even defenders running with the big plays surrendered.
Here's the second long touchdown of the game, this time King tossing a 38-yard touchdown to Mike Harley. You can see both Jason Pinnock and Paris Ford covering the same man down the middle of the field, leaving Harley wide open. Ford's typically the centerfield safety, so it's safe to assume that was supposed to be Pinnock's man.
And if you need anything else to confirm whether Pinnock was supposed to run with Harley, just look at Ford's reaction when he stares at Pinnock after the score:
It was bad. Mental lapses used to happen once a game for Pitt against Austin Peay, Syracuse and Louisville in the team's run go 3-0. Now those lapses are coming early and often in the team's subsequent three losses.
Somebody has to take responsibility here, because we saw how good the secondary was when Pitt's defensive backs were on point. In fact, it was the secondary that got Pitt back in the game.
Ford jumped an out route and read King's eyes towards the end of the first half. The interception return got Pitt great field position and set up a field goal that put the Panthers within a single possession of Miami at halftime:
Marquis Williams delivered with another interception in the third quarter that flipped the game back in Pitt's favor. Williams jumped another pass by King and returned it to the one, this time leading to Pitt's lone touchdown of the game when Yellen completed his first Pitt touchdown pass to tight end Daniel Maraga, who also caught his first NCAA touchdown:
The potential is there for this defense to deliver in big ways and in big games like this one. But as much as the defense can claim to be detail oriented, these lapses show a lack of detail in these mistakes. And those mistakes are coming in multiple facets.
Remember that first touchdown? Miami went back to that well, not with the same exact play, but a similar concept where Pitt allowed tight end Will Mallory to run untouched through the middle of the defense for the easiest 45-yard touchdown he'll score in his life:
"It was a form of the same play from different formations and two different ways of getting it," Narduzzi said of the touchdowns. "They obviously did a good job but the second one was kind of an ISO. The tight end Mallery came across and up through the hole and that's where we should've at least hit him. I'll have to look at the tape to see how he got free, but he should've been hit at the line of scrimmage."
Campbell, who you can see run past Mallery on the above touchdown, also noted how the defense fell for it.
"The first play was a T-shoot and were expecting that," Campbell said. "But I guess we had bad eyes that play. I think we were in certain calls and I don't know if we communicated everything the right way. In our defense everybody has to be on the same page so it really was a bread down of communication on that play. The second play we hadn't seen all year. We could've stopped it and we should've but that no excuse. From now on we have to prepare for everything. We have to prepare for how teams are going to attack us."
So one play Pitt expected but didn't stop, the other play Pitt had no idea was coming and didn't stop. If you look at those two plays and the deep touchdown where Pinnock left Harley wide open, that's 21 points Pitt gifted with easy touchdown passes for King. Add in the touchdown drive extended by Bentley's facemask penalty in the second quarter, and that's 28-points Pitt helped Miami accrue.
That's 28 points in a game where Pitt knew its offense needed support with Yellen making his first start. The same defense that was earning high praises through Pitt's three-game win streak to start the season. Now that defense has surrendered 30 or more points in three consecutive games.
At least against Phil Jurkovec for Boston College you could say he just beat Pitt's single coverage scheme because it emphasized stopping the run and rushing the quarterback. But that's not a place Narduzzi can hang his hat this week.
"You have to take care of the details and that starts with me," Narduzzi said when asked about Pitt's struggles. "We got a hands to the face and we don't even know who did it because we didn't get a jersey number. We got a high-low by a running back on a tackle which was a good call, but it's these little things that shoot us in the foot. And that comes down to coaching. We have to do a better job coaching them and getting the details out of them, whether it's a delay of game or whatever it may be."
This was supposed to be the week Pitt fed off its sense of urgency to rebound after back-to-back heartbreaking losses. Instead of an inspired performance and at least a spirited and hard-fought loss, Pitt is left licking its wounds and soul searching for answers.
"A lot of hopes for this season," Campbell said reflecting on where Pitt stands after three straight losses. "We never expected to lose three games in a row. I'm still in shock about it. It's a tough one to swallow. All we can do is get better and do our jobs. We can't control everything that's going on, we just have to focus on each task every play. We just have to reflect on ourselves and look at our biggest problems. It comes down to discipline and finishing our plays. There's not a lot we can do about schematics but I believe we have the best coaches and the best players. I truly believe it'll come together next week and we'll get on a roll."
But what are Pitt's 'biggest problems?' They've been the same for weeks now. Even when the Panthers were winning, dropped passes were an issue. Now they're a theme of the offense. The running game hasn't manifested a consistent producer in the backfield, and when Sibley flashed potential of maybe being that this game Pitt turned away from him.
The defense continues to have questions mount for a group that was supposed to carry the team through 2020 and give the Panthers a legitimate shot to contend in the ACC and maybe get 8 or 9 wins.
Right now Pitt might be lucky if it gets five wins this season. In its final five games it faces three more ranked opponents in No. 4 Notre Dame next Saturday at Heinz Field, No. 23 Virginia Tech and No. 1 Clemson.
If Pitt hopes to pull it together for a respectable finish to what's become a letdown in the middle of the season, it has to look hard for specific answers. And when questions mount in several different facets of the team, that focus stops being about looking around at several position groups and looking to the people who are steering the ship.
Whether or not Narduzzi does call the offense, his program is leaking questions left and right that need answers. And deflections aren't going to bring resolutions that lead to turning the ship around.
• Narduzzi indicated after the game that he knew Pickett wasn't going to play against Miami early in the week.
"I knew early in the week because obviously I didn't want Miami to know," Narduzzi said. "I wanted them to have to prepare for whatever. Maybe they had a clue, but we knew early in the week."
Yellen said that he knew there was a chance he could play, but that Narduzzi only hinted at the possibility of starting.
"Coach kind of hinted at it early on in the week," Yellen said after the game. "It was never a full for-sure thing early in the week and I knew more later going into it. I approached the week as if I was going to be the starter and if I wasn't then I would just be prepared in case I went in."
But after Pickett missed his first game of the season, Narduzzi still won't offer specifics on when or how Pickett will return.
"I'm not going to get into what he got or what he did, that's not what we do," Narduzzi said of Pickett's recovery this week. "We expect Kenny to be back ASAP. Will he be back this weekend? I don't know. There's a chance, and I certainly hope he's back after the open weekend for sure. We have to lock in and get ready for Notre Dame. Whether it's Joey, I think he played well. Davis [Beville], we planned on getting him a series in there early because I think he's very talented as well. I think we've got two quarterbacks that can make plays but it starts with the run game. We've got to get some movement up front and find a way to get the run game going. When we get into the red zone we can't kick four field goals."
If Narduzzi isn't sure about Pickett being back next week, that might mean Yellen could get his second start for Pitt.