Pitt's clunky offense will not take it far if these disconnects persist taken at Acrisure Stadium (Pitt)

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

Cincinnati's Emory Jones drops back to pass in the second quarter Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium.

The Pitt wide receivers' room enjoys calling itself the "Waffle House Gang" because -- as they claim -- they are always open, just like the popular, 24-hour breakfast chain restaurant.

According to Waffle House's official website, one of the major principles of the Avondale Estates, Ga., based breakfast place is "providing the friendliest service in town," among other factors that include providing a fruitful career. The movement here in Pittsburgh went as far to have T-shirts made in a representation of Pitt's unit, and for the Panthers' receivers coach to put out a plea on the "X" app to send his group some shirts.

The service provided by Pitt's offense on a fall-like Saturday at Acrisure stadium was anything but friendly. The only order completed was an eviction notice from the office of Cincinnati and coach Scott Satterfield. The Pitt offense was completely and unequivocally out of sync, Phil Jurkovec missed his top target 11 times out of 11, and even when the Panthers' quarterback got the rare sliver of time to get the ball out, the flutterings and sputterings out of the Pine-Richland product's hands were at times followed by a showering of "boo" jeers from his home crowd.

At the end of 60 football minutes, the scoreboard read 27-21, Cincinnati over Pitt. 

The lights were turned out of the honeymoon suite Jurkovec had occupied from his heralded return home after rocky stops at Boston College and Notre Dame. Now, repairs are under way for leaks and cracks of Pitt's "Waffle House" that cannot turn into gushes and craters. The Backyard Brawl is in one week's time, and Pitt has to hop on a bus and step off of it in hostile territory whether it has its act together or not.

"I think first thing, it starts with the offensive line. It takes 11," Pat Narduzzi said. "Everybody is going to point at the quarterback. He'll get all the glory when you win football games. He's a great quarterback, got a lot of faith in him. And we'll check out the videotape. Again, I told our guys, this is the opener. The opener wasn't last week; today was the opener, and you find out where you are and where your weaknesses are. We didn't see any weaknesses. You guys didn't see any weaknesses. We made some improvements in special teams, I think. But again, it's a good football team. They know how to win, and coach Satterfield does a nice job."

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Jurkovec missed Bub Means 11 times out of 11 Saturday. Eleven targets, zero catches. The wide receivers' room, now, is not all to blame for this day, as Jurkovec was forced to scamper away from the pocket quicker than anticipated on many dropbacks and, even when he found some time to throw, was sill wildly inaccurate at most points. 

But, one would think the top target of a so-called "improved" receivers room would be able to haul in one ball, right?

"I think I just missed some throws" Jurkovec said. "I've got to trust some plays more, trust they're going to be there, trust my training, and I think I got away from that a little bit. My footwork, messing up, or leaving the pocket too early. Those are the things I can correct. ... We've made a lot of plays in practice, and the way that they were playing they were giving us the fade and the go, so we were going to continue to take those shots. I know we're going to get it right and when we do get it right it's going to be hard for teams to cover."

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And here is Narduzzi's explanation of the anomaly:

"We'll see the tape and look at it," Narduzzi said. "Bub was definitely targeted, and from my old receiver days, you expect those guys, whether it's an underthrown ball or not a great ball, doesn't matter. You get a chance to make a catch, you've got to make a catch, and there were some drops out there. There was drops, period, and again, it's not on one guy ever. It's 11 on offense, 11 on defense, and again, it starts with the head coach. I guess I didn't have them ready to play, and we'll be ready for this week."

In his postgame press conference, Narduzzi referred to Pitt (1-1) having to look at Saturday's tape on six separate occasions. Including when discussing Means' zero, those were in reference to Jurkovec's struggles, true freshman B.J. Williams starting at right guard while Blake Zubovic slid to left guard in place of Jason Collier, Cincinnati's defense to open the game, and Pitt adjusting to Cincinnati's strong rushing attack in he second half.

Those are many struggles to account for, among others, and a lot of tape to watch before a rivalry game.

Cincinnati, meanwhile, rode on the backs of Corey Kiner's 153 rushing yards and timely, spectacular plays from reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Emory Jones, which was aided by a five-catch, 59-yard game from Braden Smith that included a diving touchdown grab to put Cincinnati up 27-7 with 9:17 left in the third quarter.

"They did a good job of mixing up inside and outside zone, keeping us honest," defensive captain Shayne Simon said, "forcing us to have to be perfect in our key reads, and I think sometimes the motions and shifts got us out of our focus. We have to do a good job of maintaining our focus and reading our keys right."

Cincinnati (2-0) was in rhythm on offense, and so much so that it was able to put on a masterclass of a drive to close the first half. With a 17-7 lead, the Bearcats ate up 8:11 of game action with a 17-play, 69-yard drive that resulted in a Carter Brown 47-yard field goal with 5 seconds left. Jurkovec coughed up the ball on Pitt's first play from scrimmage in the second half, and Jones found Smith for the diving touchdown grab four plays later.

Pitt didn't quit, though, as it came back to force a Jones interception and post 14 points in the fourth quarter, but too much had piled up by that point for Pitt to overcome. More questions, few answers, and not much time to figure it out in between rivalry games.

"We talk about being one of the best adjustment defenses in the country, and we did second half," Narduzzi said. "They had seven points in the second half off of a 39-yard drive off of a turnover. Otherwise they're shut out in the second half. They had a short field in a sudden change situation, and it's hard to win like that. We should have shut them out in the second half, and we'd be winning, period."

THE HIGHLIGHTS

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THE ESSENTIALS

• Box score
 Live file
• Team feed
• 
Top 25 scores
 Schedule
 ACC standings
• 
Statistics

THE INJURIES

Out for the season: G Ryan Jacoby (leg).

THE SCHEDULE

It's Backyard Brawl week. Pitt and West Virginia will tee up the 106th rendition of the rivalry at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, W. Va., at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. I will have you covered.

THE CONTENT

• Visit the Pitt team page for more from Acrisure Stadium.

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