If a Pat Narduzzi team is going to do one thing in a given game, it's going to show unmeasurable effort in which ever situation presented in front of it.
But, as he illustrated at his weekly press conference on the South Side on Monday, perhaps Pitt was a bit overzealous at times during the Panthers' stunning 26-21 defeat to Georgia Tech on Saturday.
With Virginia Tech on the horizon this week, Narduzzi took the acknowledgement of his staff's preparation -- "I don't think we did a great job coaching, the whole deal" -- in addition to the lack of execution by players on the field.
"Their effort was outstanding, almost too good at times," Narduzzi said. "Sometimes we're trying to do too much at times. We just got to do our job, especially on special teams. M.J. (Devonshire) scores a touchdown, everybody wants to score a touchdown every time they line up on that team. Guys are doing extra, doing a good job to screen like we coach them to do. We’ve just got to do a better job at it.
"They're playing their tails off in every phase of the game. That's all you ask for, is effort."
Narduzzi is referring to the special teams as an example of trying to force a play to happen that might have happened otherwise without one of the Panthers' 12 penalties committed against the Yellow Jackets.
"We've been pretty solid on penalties," Narduzzi said. "The most disappointing was what I started off with, talking about the special teams penalty. Our guys are busting their butts down the field, trying to cut people off, not getting it done in the proper technique. They're busting their butt to get things done, but you sometimes try too hard. M.J. can make people miss. If you can't get your block, pull off and find a different colored jersey."
Two penalties were committed by the special teams in the second quarter -- each an illegal block in the back penalty which added to costing Pitt a total of 35 yards.
In total, Pitt's 12 penalties racked up to a total of 75 yards.
"We had two on defense," he noted. "Holding on a five-yard play. We had one off-sides where Deandre Jules lined up about this far (motions) offsides. Check (him) for glasses today, make sure he can see the ball, doesn't go over the ball."
And as for the offense...
"We had four unforced errors on offense," he said. "Two false starts coming on a 99-yard drive. I think (Ryan) Jacoby flinched one time. Then there was one holding on Vince (Davis) in protection, which called back (a 17-yard) pass. That's a large penalty when you're going backwards. You're talking about a (27-yard) penalty because of the yardage we lost in the play, and the penalty yardage."
Pitt committed, on average, 6.5 penalties for 57.75 yards per game in its first four games. The last two weeks, however, have produced the two highest penalty totals throughout the season.
Pitt committed nine penalties for 97 yards against Rhode Island. In the two games prior to that, against Tennessee and Western Michigan, Pitt combined to commit nine penalties for a total of 58 yards.
The bulk of the self-inflicted damage against Georgia Tech came in the second half, with seven penalties being called on the Panthers. That included the holding call on Davis which negated a 17-yard catch made by Konata Mumpfield, and instead of having a first down on Georgia Tech's 45-yard line, the Panthers were driven back to their own 28 with a 1st-and-20. Kedon Slovis was intercepted three plays later, and that set up a Georgia Tech drive on which it kicked a field goal to take a 12-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.
On that same Georgia Tech drive, Marquis Williams was rung up on a 3rd-and-3 for a defensive holding call, which resulted in an automatic first down at the Pitt 32. (Georgia Tech picked up the first down on the play, anyway, but that afforded them three more yards on the play.)
There was also an intentional grounding call on Slovis on Pitt's ensuing possession, which drove the Panthers back from their own 48 to their own 39 and forced a 2nd-and-19. Pitt lost 10 more yards and punted on that drive.
Five penalties were committed in the fourth quarter. All were by Pitt.
This adds another bullet point to an already lengthy list of what Pitt needs to clean up going into Virginia Tech week and with a bye week in sight before a trip to Louisville. The offense has struggled mightily to find its rhythm with Slovis under center, and that is only complicating problems farther and is resulting in its trickle-down effects being shown, particularly against Georgia Tech.
The Yellow Jackets won the time of possession battle by a slim margin, but after Pitt's offense was able to hold on to the ball for 35 minutes against Rhode Island and nearly 39 minutes against Western Michigan, it was a stark contrast in terms of allotting the defense to catch a breather and regroup in a game in which it was spotty in containing Georgia Tech's offensive threats.
"We're going to make adjustments every week," Narduzzi said. "There's a lot of good stuff on tape, there's a lot of stuff we have to clean up."
