Takeaways: Pitt Cannot Afford to Keep Playing Phil Jurkovec

There was a major difference between Pitt and West Virginia. Nicco Marchiol, a backup inserted in the first quarter, did do anything to make WVU lose. Phil Jurkovec didn’t do anything to help Pitt win.

WVU didn’t turn the ball over. Pitt turned the ball over three times. That matters.

“They got 211 yards, we got 211 yards — difference in the game is turnovers,” Pat Narduzzi said following the loss. “They made some plays on the ball, and we didn’t. 10 of their points, they went one play, 7 yards for a TD off a turnover. They went four plays and six yards and kicked a field goal. That’s 10 points right there. It’s hard to win a game when you kick two field goals and don’t score a touchdown.”

Narduzzi liked Pitt’s game plan going into the Backyard Brawl against West Virginia, but obviously, it didn’t work out. He said it starts with the coaches and the game plan in place and trickles down to the players on the field. The coaching certainly didn’t put Pitt in the position to win.

Once again, it’s back to the drawing board, and it feels like there is one major way to try to find a solution going forward.

Pull the Plug

How much tape does Pat Narduzzi need to watch to see that Phil Jurkovec is actively costing his football team wins?

After completing just 8-of-20 pass attempts (40%) for 81 yards and three interceptions in an embarrassing loss to West Virginia Saturday night, Narduzzi — once again — said he didn’t even think of switching quarterbacks.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in Phil, and you gotta give defenses credit,” Narduzzi said in his postgame press conference. “Took the opening drive, and you get down to the 3-yard line, you gotta score touchdowns. And you don’t.”

The Cincinnati game last week was bad, but at least Jurkovec scored a couple of times and didn’t throw a pick. It was a complete meltdown against West Virginia, devolving even further from the lows reached against the Bearcats. And it’s clear the coaching staff had zero faith in his ability to throw the football.

So, why was he out there?

Narduzzi said that he believes in Christian Veilleux. And Nate Yarnell, too. But he doesn’t want to pull the plug himself.

“You guys are fast and want to pull the plug on somebody,” Narduzzi said. “That’s not how we do it. I’m a positive guy, try to stay positive and you start dumping people whether it’s a corner, a tackle or a quarterback, it’s not good for you. So, we’ll look at the tape, and it’s never one person. I know you guys want to point the finger at one person, and it’s not, so we all had a part in it. It starts with the game plan, and we’ll get it right.”

There’s not much more that can be said at this point. It looks hopeless with Jurkovec under center. Narduzzi said he’d watch the tape, but he believes that Jurkovec will start against North Carolina next weekend. Maybe the tape will convince him otherwise.

Defense Does Enough to Win

CJ Donaldson may have run for just over 100 yards, but Pitt largely kept the WVU offense bottled up. It was a very solid night.

The defense kept Pitt in the game up until the end of the fourth quarter, even after being put into some bad positions by Jurkovec. And aside from forcing a turnover or two, Pitt couldn’t have done much more.

“I was proud of our defense,” Narduzzi said. “10 points, 13 yards to score 10 points. We can’t put them in that position. But they hung tough all the way down to the end, had some great fourth down stops and I thought the defense played well.”

The defense did play well. There wasn’t a ton of push in terms of getting after the WVU quarterbacks, mostly backup Nicco Marchiol, but the defense did its job. That’s all you can ask for. 211 yards allowed is usually good enough to win a football game. But the three turnovers doomed Pitt.

The first bad Jurkovec pick resulted in a 7-yard touchdown pass. A 1-play, 7-yard touchdown drive. The second bad Jurkovec resulted in a 42-yard field goal. A 4-play, 6-yard drive. About as good as Pitt could’ve asked from its defense in limiting WVU to just 10 points in those opportunities.

I mean, WVU pushed a drive over 41 yards just one time Saturday night, bolstered by good field position all night.

It didn’t matter in the end. Not when a touchdown deficit felt insurmountable.

Just Let Rodney Hammond Jr. Play Football

Pitt never looked better than it did on the first offensive possession. 10 straight runs, seven of which Rodney Hammond Jr. took for 41 yards. And it looked like Pitt had a plan.

10 straight runs. Even down inside the 5-yard line. It showed both Pitt’s mistrust in Jurkovec’s ability to throw the football and that the game plan was unsustainable for more than… a drive or two. If Jurkovec can’t make throws, the running backs will have to contend with 8-man boxes all night long.

“We didn’t get to run it last week, and we wanted to run the football,” Narduzzi said. “We thought we could, and I thought we did it effectively at times. We did not want to get into what we did last week where we weren’t running the football. We wanted to establish and play with an attitude, and I thought we did that, but did we consistently do it? When you turn the ball over, bad things happen. And we did turn it over.”

Jurkovec turned it over a lot; he wasn’t good enough to force the WVU defense to respect any sort of vertical threat and the Mountaineers’ defensive line knew what was coming. But it was another game of dishing out snaps evenly amongst the running backs.

“That first drive was the Rodney Hammond drive, and again, was trying to keep those guys fresh,” Narduzzi said. “I thought C’Bo played well as well.”

Hammond ran seven times for 41 yards on Pitt’s first possession, and then he didn’t see another carry until well into the second quarter. Daniel Carter out-snapped Hammond once again. Flemister did his thing. But it was mystifying to continue seeing Carter out there on the field. It even led to missed opportunities.

“Daniel Carter goes in, and we’ve got a 4th-and-1 quarterback sneak called,” Narduzzi said. “He can just stay in his stance or jump offside and give up the ball. We got to punt it when we had a first down, and who knows what happens after that.”

Carter is a useful player that Pitt can find ways to utilize, but there’s no reason why he should continue to out-snap Hammond. Even with a season-high 14 carries, doubling his season’s work prior, it wasn’t enough. The Brawl was the type of game to get Hammond going and let him work. But that didn’t end up being the case.

ACC Play Starts Fast

What do you say to your team after a demoralizing loss in the Backyard Brawl?

“Hang in there, we’re getting into ACC play,” Narduzzi said. “That’s where it counts. We know we’ve had a tough non-conference schedule, and the last two weeks were not easy. But again, we’re getting into conference play here, and let’s get it rolling.”

I know it’s Narduzzi trying to get past a loss quickly, but that isn’t exactly comforting when it comes to the importance of the Backyard Brawl and the magnitude of Saturday’s loss. College football waits for no man though, and ACC play has arrived nonetheless.

Pitt kicks off its ACC slate with No. 17 North Carolina in what will be a very, very tough matchup against Drake Maye and a high-powered offense. And it doesn’t get easier from there.

Pitt will play UNC, No. 4 Florida State, No. 18 Duke and No. 9 Notre Dame over the course of the season. UNC and FSU at home, and Notre Dame and Duke on the road. That’s four tough opponents with good quarterbacks. So. Not exactly encouraging.

ACC goals, technically, are still there for the taking. I mean, Pitt could go unbeaten the rest of the way and still win the ACC. But that seems very, very, very unlikely with the way Pitt has played against what were supposed to be two Big 12 bottom-dwellers.

A quick turnaround is needed if Pitt even wants to attempt to take a ranked game or two over the next couple of months and try to compete in the ACC.