LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- This was a very ugly football game.
In almost every facet of play, this Pitt team was riddled with penalties, miscues and poor decision making. The Panthers' defense looked like the lone bright spot in a game of, otherwise, undisciplined play in a 24-10 loss to Louisville at Cardinal Stadium.
The lack of discipline that showed throughout the entire game first appeared on just the second play from scrimmage of the night when Brandon Hill got flagged for unnecessary roughness on a late hit out of bounds.
After the defense managed to force a punt, the offense looked like they were cruising down the field, going 51 yards on 5 plays. The sixth play, however, showed Kedon Slovis forcing a pass down the sideline to a double-covered Konata Mumpfield which included a linebacker having inside leverage, ultimately leading to the first interception of the day.
Looking back at the game, it seems like Slovis was having trouble reading the field, ultimately sticking to one read and not working through his progressions.
This is right before Slovis starts his throwing motion. His target is Mumpfield running up the sideline at the 22-yard line. With Jared Wayne in close proximity, once his defender sees Slovis lock onto Mumpfield, he moves over to provide over-the-top help.
Turnovers turned out to be the biggest factor in this game. When it looked like Pitt's offense was marching down the field, multiple drives were cut short due to a turnover such as the interception on the first drive.
The next turnover came in the second quarter when Rodney Hammond fumbled the ball in the red zone which marked the end to a 42-yard drive, lasting only two minutes.
After the Panthers' defense was on the field for nearly four minutes, the offense once again led a two-minute drive resulting in another interception. This one was, well...
The confusing part of this offense is that when it looked good, it looked really good. It's clear that this offense goes as Israel Abanikanda does, and Louisville neutralized him as much as you can a person who just ran for 320 yards and six touchdowns the game prior.
Against Louisville, Abanikanda rushed for 129 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries (4.6 YPC), and added another 50 yards on 3 receptions.
While decent, a large portion of those numbers can be attributed to chunk plays as he accumulated 110 of his 179 total yards on just five plays. The remainder of Abanikanda's snaps yielded either short gains, or stopped at the line of scrimmage.
That's 179 of the team's 326 total yards coming via the No. 2 offensive jersey. When the 10 remaining players that recorded a stat on offense only contribute 147 yards, that's a recipe for long day trying to move the ball down the field.
On defense, Louisville won the takeaway battle 4-1, leading to Pitt's side having shorter rests in between defensive stands which seemingly wore them out by the game's end.
Louisville's starting quarterback, Malik Cunningham, had a very pedestrian day at the office. Registering a stat line of 10 for 21 for 122 yards and one touchdown, Cunningham was forced out of the game on three separate occasions to check on a potential head injury, and came back in to play after all three instances. While out, backup quarterback Brock Domann stepped in under center and compiled a stat line of 2 for 5 for 35 yards.
There really were no statistics that stood out showing how much better Louisville were than Pitt, and could it be that's because it may have been a closer game than the final score shows it was?
When Pat Narduzzi was asked whether or not there was any conversation at any point in the game about benching Slovis, his answer was pretty to the point.
"No."
This was quickly followed by the head coach backing his signal caller.
"It takes 11 guys," Narduzzi said. "When we win, Kedon does a great job, and when we lose, everyone wants to point the finger at the quarterback."
I agree with the sentiment that the quarterback gets very polarizing feedback depending on the game's outcome. But in this instance, I feel as if the criticism is warranted. By no means was the rest of the team perfect, but the offensive line had advanced run blocking and decent pass protection. Wide receivers struggled to maximize on opportunities, but on many of the plays resulting in a turnover, there was a receiver open where Slovis simply didn't see them and instead pushed the ball into tightly contested areas.
Regardless of the quarterback's performance, it looks like he's still their guy the rest of the way, as Jared Wayne also mentioned after the game.
"Its a team game, you can't point the finger at anybody," Wayne said. "That's our quarterback, that's our guy. At the end of the day, it's everybody that needs to be better."
It looks like we'll be seeing Slovis taking snaps under center for the remainder of the season, but the shaky quarterback play is definitely a situation we'll be monitoring in practice. After a couple of rough outings throwing the ball, he may be their guy for now. But, we can only assume the leash ins't that long.
The defensive performance was as solid as could be for the first three quarters. Of Louisville's 312 yards of total offense, 227 yards came on only 10 plays, meaning that there were very few plays where the defense seemed to have faltered. Social media has previously poked fun at Narduzzi for his common expression, "If a few key plays go the other way, we may be having a different conversation." But for a game that wasn't all that close at the final whistle, there really were only a handful of plays that pushed Louisville over the finish line.
What stood out to me on defense was Brandon Hill's play. Much like the rest of this unit, Hill played a pretty solid game in coverage, but it was allowing those chunk plays which is what killed this team. Of Louisville's 10 longest plays of the night, Hill was the targeted defender four of those times. To his credit, he also minimized the damage of two other long plays, one of which was Trevion Cooley's 26 yard run up the middle that would.
I'd be happy to sit here and speculate what could have happened if certain plays played out a different way, but the bottom line is, those plays did happen, and there's no possible way to reverse that. What would have happened if Slovis didn't throw those two interceptions, if the scoop-and-score didn't happen, if M.J. Devonshire didn't fumble the punt? We could ask these questions, but we'd be barking up the wrong tree. The truth of the matter is that these things did happen. And truthfully, Louisville was the better team on Saturday night and a flipped play or two wouldn't have changed that.
At the start of the season, the Panthers' eyes were set on the College Football Playoffs. With that most definitely out of reach, Wayne was asked what the goal moving forward is, and if Charlotte is still in the realm of possibility.
"This is a very good football team," Wayne said. "I'll say that."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The offense utilized a few different Wildcat formations, which is something we haven't seen yet this season. These reps came with mixed results ranging from a timeout left to Abanikanda's touchdown.
• Hammond averaged 7.6 yards per carry before getting injured in late in the first half. That's something to keep an eye on heading into North Carolina next week.
• Where in the world was Gavin Bartholomew? There weren't many successful receivers in this game, but you'd expect Bartholomew to be targeted more than four times while reeling in only two catches for 24 yards, no?
• Wayne was a fraction of a second away from reeling in a 'catch-of-the-year' candidate.
• Where do the Panthers go from here?
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE ESSENTIALS
• Box score
• Live file
• Top 25 scores
• Schedule
• ACC standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
• DID NOT DRESS: OC Owen Drexel, LB Brandon George.
• PLAYED: DT Devin Danielson.
• OUT FOR THE SEASON: DL Nate Temple, CB Rashad Battle, LT Carter Warren.
THE SCHEDULE
• Pitt travels to Chapel Hill, N.C. next Saturday as they take on #22 North Carolina, followed by a home matchup against #14 Syracuse on November 5.
THE CONTENT
• Visit the Pitt team page and my Twitter page for more from Corey Crisan and the Pitt beat. Gary Morgan and I are recording a new H2P Podcast Sunday afternoon, so check for that on all platforms on Monday.
