Macafee: Panthers' defense must find balance for aggressiveness

For a majority of Saturday's season-opening win over Kent State, Pitt's defense looked like it had returned to its pre-2023 form. 

Defenders were flying to the ball, the defensive line was creating pressure up the middle and stopping the run and the linebackers were returning Pitt to its violent and aggressive nature as the team's top five tacklers all came from the linebacker position. I mean take Kyle Louis' first career sack for example:

The redshirt sophomore comes off the edge and blows up Kent State quarterback Devin Kargman. It was a violent hit and if you listen closely, you can hear the reaction from the crowd inside Acrisure Stadium. Louis got to the quarterback again on the very next play, but Kargman was able to sidestep him before being wrapped up by a combination of Isaiah Neal and Chief Borders.

Then, just a few plays later, Braylan Lovelace did this to Kargman:

Pat Narduzzi even commented on the defense's physicality after the game, saying "The quarterback got beat up today. I hope he's healthy."

The Panthers' defense was creating havoc all over the field. It recorded five sacks, -- Louis and Rasheem Biles both recorded the first full sacks of their careers -- Donovan McMillon intercepted a pass that was deflected by Ryland Gandy and Kent State recorded just 31 rushing yards.

When asked about Pitt's performance afterward, Brandon George, who was the lone defensive player selected as a team captain this season, said: "I think we have some cleaning up to do, but I think we are flying around to the football and I think we are kinda back to where we used to be as far as being violent, being aggressive, flying around and being a bunch of rabid dogs out there on the football field."

There are definitely some things to clean up and it starts with finding a way to play with that aggressive and violent mindset while also limiting big-chunk plays as that was precisely how Kent State moved the chains and got on the scoreboard. Take Kent State's first touchdown as an example. On their second drive of the game, the Golden Flashes inched downfield and found themselves faced with a fourth-and-7 situation on Pitt's 36-yard line. Rather than kick a field goal, they went for it and, well, I'll let you watch the rest:

On this play, Louis starts in between Kent State's Luke Floriea and the middle receiver of a trips set. As the play progresses, Louis takes the middle receiver and P.J. O'Brien matches up with Floriea. As Floriea gets deeper into his route, O'Brien takes an aggressive approach and goes for the interception when the pass is released. But, he comes up short and gives up the 36-yard touchdown. In this situation, a less aggressive approach would've stopped Kent State short of the end zone and given the defense another opportunity to limit the amount of points scored on the drive.

Then, at the beginning of the third quarter, the Golden Flashes started to move the ball at will. Their first drive of the second quarter covered 75 yards in 11 plays and included five plays of nine yards or more. The drive concluded with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Kargman to Chrishon McCray.

As you can see, Pitt is playing with eight defenders in the box in an attempt to stop the run in a first-and-10 situation, leaving O'Brien to cover McCray one-on-one from his safety position. McCray gains leverage on the outside and Kargman makes the perfect throw for the touchdown. O'Brien was just a step slow on this and actually provided decent coverage, but, again, it was another chunk play.

Kent State's very next drive consisted of a 41-yard pass to Floriea and two runs that set up its final score of the game, a 36-yard field goal by Andrew Glass. That one big play was the demise of Pitt's defense on that drive though as two players missed tackles before Keye Thompson was able to bring Floriea down at Pitt's 34-yard line. On those three separate scoring drives, at least one big play led to Kent State putting points on the board and if not for Pitt's explosive new offense, this game may have been a lot closer.

Pitt's defense did corral Kent State for most of the afternoon however and forced five punts, two turnovers and one turnover on downs. Four of those punts and one turnover came in the first half. But, to have continued success in the future, Pitt needs to find that perfect balance. Their aggressive mindset to stop the run and get to the quarterback leaves them in man coverage with no help over the top and when that aggressive approach is emulated at the second level as well, like you saw in Kent State's first touchdown, it allows offenses to take advantage. 

Leading up to the season opener, both Narduzzi and Randy Bates said their goal was to stop the run and make Kent State one dimensional and they did just that as 85 percent of Kent State's offense came through the air. But, while Pitt accomplished their goal, the secondary was taken advantage of by a team that went 1-11 last year, scored 14.7 points per game and passed for just 163.8 yards per game. 

So, moving forward, Pitt needs to find that perfect balance of playing aggressively without giving up big plays and the style of play at each level of the defense should complement each other to create one successful unit. Because while Pitt turned in a decent season-opening performance, there is room for improvement. Narduzzi knows that and so do the players. That realization must lead to a slightly more conservative approach by the back end of the defense before Pitt travels to Cincinnati this week. If not, the Panthers could be in for a shootout at Nippert Stadium.