What Did Pat Narduzzi Say After Pitt OT Loss to West Virginia?

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke with the media following the Panthers’ 31-24 overtime loss to West Virginia at Milan Puskar Stadium.

Here’s everything Narduzzi had to say about the Backyard Brawl loss.

– Opening statement: “Heck of a ball game for the fans to watch. I don’t think we played our best game by no means. Left a lot of plays on the field. Starts with me. I guess I didn’t have them ready to go. I don’t think we tackle well on defense. Had a different back out there. 2 ran the ball hard. Just little details that I don’t think we did a great job on defense. We kicked too many field goals on offense. We kicked three field goals. Great for Trey, but we got two interceptions in the third quarter and we we end up kicking field goals. We score touchdowns, we’re not going to overtime. Plenty of blame to pass around in that locker room with our coaches No. 1 and our players No. 2. We did it together. We win together, we lose together and we didn’t get it done.”

— On what he saw in the final three minutes of regulation: “We didn’t stop them. I’ll obviously look at the tape and figure it out, but they did a good job running the ball. They got a good scheme. Rodriguez does a great job. Give them credit for making plays and keeping us off balance I guess a little bit on defense and then we got to make tackles and we got to get a stop somehow, some way.

— On his assessment of QB Eli Holstein: “I thought he started off slow. Obviously made some big plays during the game, but we got to be better. That’s protection, it’s receivers being in the right spot, it’s the whole deal. It’s unfair to sit there and say – and quarterback’s always going to get the blame, but it’s on us as a staff No. 1. We got to put him in position to make plays and we didn’t make those today. We didn’t make enough plays to win the football game. We had a chance.”

• On if the play calling was too conservative late in the game

“We didn’t run the ball like we needed to. When you don’t run the ball, you run the ball for 46 yards, you got a problem. They out-rushed us. They won the rushing war and we didn’t run the ball. It didn’t help that zero wasn’t out there, Des Reid. Hope we get him back here quick and turn around and get into ACC play.”

— On what’s keeping Pitt from running the ball the way they want to: “I don’t know. Quick assessment, we got to get more push up front. We didn;t play a MAC team today. We played a really good football team. I told you we were going to see the best version of West Virginia. Ohio, you saw the worst version. We saw the best version. I knew they’d come out and play. Kids knew they’d come out and play. We knew it was going to be a dog fight, it was going to be a brawl and that’s what we saw.”

— On what the offense is missing when Desmond Reid is not on the field: “The home-run hitter. Juelz did a nice job, too, but it’s a little bit different. Des is special. We got to get him back.”

— On what contributed to the penalties: “You guys watched the video, you guys watched the game, I don’t know. There was some stuff out there, but we’ll look at the video tape. Not happy with that at all. 14 penalties, a little lopsided there. At the end of the second quarter, don’t know what the heck happened there. Wasn’t happy. Eli had his helmet ripped off, punched in the face, no call there. We had someone spit in the face, too, but things didn’t go our way. We had to buckle up and get ready to go.”

— On if Pitt thought about taking the ball to start overtime: “No. We want to play defense and know what we got to respond to.”

— On red zone miscues: “Those are huge. Like I said, we didn’t get points down there. We got Deuce playing wildcat quarterback. We got a great run, a great play call. We take it down to the three and then all of a sudden, we’re backed up and kicking field goals. We’ll have to look at the calls and look why. It seemed like in that first quarter, that third-down conversion, Blue gets a block in the back. Didn’t look like he touched anybody. We had a first down and then all a sudden, we’re backed up. That just continued to happen to us all day.”

— On how this game alters perception of the team: “Every week is a different week. We knew it was going to be an emotional game. We’re going to let it go and move onto the next one. We got Louisville next. We got an open week to get fresh, hopefully get our corners back, get Des back to be healthy and go on an ACC run.”

— On why Cataurus Hicks missed consecutive drives: “I’m not quite sure. I was asking the same question, ‘Where’s Blue? Where’s Blue?’ We got a lot of faith in Deuce out there. I’m not sure and I didn’t really get an answer out there. There’s a lot of stuff going on out there, but we’ll figure that one out. I’ll be able to probably answer that a little better on Monday or whatever day I get to see you guys.”

— On how running the ball more can help Eli Holstein be more effective: “You don’t want to be dropping back and throwing the ball every down. You become one dimensional. I thought West Virginia was able to be two dimensional. They ran the ball more yards. We had missed tackles; heads down. Just didn’t look like our run defense out there today.”

— On if the defense tired out in the second half: “I think so. They had 90 plays. I think we got tired. It doesn’t matter, you got to keep going. Time of possession was pretty even, but they ran a lot more things than we did.