Opinion
Vukovcan: Take A Deep Breath Pitt Fans, Everything Is Ok
Looking back at things, it was probably a good thing that the Pitt-SMU game was on the ACC Network and not ESPN or ABC.
As I told some close friends yesterday morning, I didn’t have a good feeling about the game for one big reason, the betting line. When the oddsmakers made Pitt such big underdogs (+7.5), despite being ranked No. 18 in the country, that was a sign, and it wasn’t a good one for Pitt.
If the spread had only been 2 or 3 points, I would’ve felt good about Pitt winning but with Vegas setting the line that high, that told me something and it wasn’t good for the Panthers.
Some of you reading this might think I’m crazy but being a former heavy gambler, you can learn a lot by the point spread of a game.
Because of this, I did something that I hadn’t done in a long time and watched the game and stayed off Twitter. Normally, whether at the game or watching on television, I’ll scroll through Twitter through out a Pitt game to get a feel for what people are saying.
Having the feeling that Pitt was going to take an L and complete overreaction was sure to follow, I took a break from Twitter last night.
Now that I’m getting caught up on Twitter and PSN’s message board this morning, looks like I made the right decision.
Pitt’s all-around performance in their 48-25 smacking by SMU was bad and surprising considering what was at stake. When I mentioned I thought they’d lose, I was figuring by 10-14 points, not 23 points and anyone that watched the game realizes it wasn’t even that close.
A team can still win a game if one side of the ball has an off game but not when all three phases are ‘below the line’ and that was the case with Pitt.
The special teams were really bad, the offense remains in a funk and not as productive as they were at the start of the season and the defense was just flat out bad.
Pitt football
I’d imagine Pat Narduzzi had a hard time sleeping last night after what he witnessed from his defensive unit. A week after resembling the Steel Curtain of the 70’s, this defense had trouble tackling anyone, missing assignments and not being able to cover anyone.
The most disappointing stat and what ended up being the key statistic of the night was the defensive failure on 3rd down. SMU’s offense was 7 for 14 on 3rd down and 3 of their misses came in the 4th quarter when their backups were in. So, in reality, SMU’s 1st team offense was 7 for 11 on 3rd down against Pitt’s 1st defense.
Examples:
-SMU’s Second TD drive- SMU converts a 3rd and 10 for 22 yards to keep a drive going. Later in the drive, on a 3rd and 18, they completed a 23-yard pass.
-SMU’s Fourth TD drive- SMU converts a 3rd a 3rd and 11 for 25 yards. Then on 3rd and Goal, SMU scores on a 3-yard TD pass.
-After Pitt made it 34-11, SMU converts a 3rd and 9 for 12 yards. They would go on to score a TD on this drive.
No doubt, it had to be a long, quiet plan ride back to Pittsburgh from Fort Worth, Texas.
While it’s hard to want to think about this now, some big picture perspective is needed for the players and more importantly the Pitt fan base.
The bottom line is that despite what happened last night, this 2024 season isn’t over and far from being ruined.
While it remains to be seen if they’ll remain ranked, this Pitt team still wakes up this morning with a record of 7-1 and with an outside chance of winning 10 games. I think nine wins is very, very realistic. I would guarantee you that at the start of this season, if you would’ve told fans that this team would finish the season with nine wins and possibly 10, they would’ve jumped at that.
Barring a complete meltdown, that’s very likely to happen.
To this point, this season has been a complete success and plenty of great storylines have taken place. All of that can’t be brushed away because of a disappointing loss.
The harsh opinions are being thrown out because fans were envisioning this team possibly playing in the ACC Championship game and even the college football playoffs. Now you’re disappointed and rightly so.
However, the reality is that Pitt was probably playing a bit above their heads and things were happening too fast for the team and certain players.
Pitt football
Case in point: Kade Bell and Eli Holstein.
Three and four games into the season, people were throwing Holstein’s name into Heisman Trophy talk and already talking about him being a first round pick. Same praise was being heaped upon Bell and how he was so good that he was going to leave Pitt after just one season.
Slow down.
Both Holstein and Bell are very talented and have bright futures but they’re both going through growing pains. Keep in mind, Holstein has played just a total of eight college games and wasn’t going to continue throwing 300 yards and three touchdowns every game. Defensive coordinators now know what his strengths are and have adjusted to him.
It’s time now for Holstein and Bell to counter punch and make adjustments of their own. I’m not worried about either and it’s ridiculous for anyone to suggest starting Nate Yarnell against Virginia. Holstein is Pitt’s quarterback of the future and unless he’s injured, No. 10 should start every game.
The focus now is Virginia and picking up win No. 8.
With Clemson losing last night, Pitt isn’t completely out of the ACC race, but they need to beat Virginia to make that game in two weeks meaningful.
In sports all teams have the 24-hour rule after a game. Enjoy it or sulk in it for 24 hours and then move on to the next opponent.
Hopefully Pitt fans are able to do the same and not dump water on this 2024 season because it still has a chance to be meaningful.
While Mike might be right on this, it’s isn’t that Pitt lost. It’s HOW they lost. They were manhandled and disrespected. They were whipped. Beat down and destroyed. Totally dominated from the first play. Not ready to play and never made changes to fix anything.
Typical Narduzzi trap game.
No change in defense approach.
No change at QB (not ever to sit Holstein for a series).
No reply adjustment in strategy.
This is a hallmark and norm of a Narduzzi team.
Disappointing and expected.
H2P.
Absolutely agree. Mike could have ended this article after the first paragraph…”it’s a good thing this game wasn’t on ESPN or ABC” because that performance was embarrassing.
Well said. the frustration for fans is after the program has invested and paid heavily for Narduzzi’s services, you’d think he’d be able to better prepare. He’s a very unlikeable jerk for the reason that he’s stubborn but not in a good way.
Uncalled for personal attack. This team has improved tremendously since last season.
Lighten up it was one game where things got away from them.
How was it a trap game? What were the looking forward to? They lost to a better team who played a better game. Point is still on pace for a really good season. Going in no one was projecting 7-1. Folks were not even thinking 7 wins total.
“How was it a trap game?”
Pitt gets mauled by over 3 TDs…
Again, it’s not that they lost. It’s HOW they lost. Nobody was expecting this team to go undefeated, Chief.
I would not call this a trap game. But a good old fashioned beatdown. What us aid is true and why its so frustrating to be a pitt fan of Narduzzi teams. Holstein shpuld absoluteky start. But any sain person can see he is struggling. And as a freshman he should not be above being benched for a time period to learn and reset.throwing a playet out over and over to be completely embarrassed and overwhelmed is how u stunt someones growth. Look at Peyton Wilson gor the Steelers. An absolute star in the making. But he is not just… Read more »
I agree and disagree at the same time! Me personally i say Holstein gotta take his lumps not sit a series or 3 because of bad games! Gotta learn and adjust along the way! Its only logical to think they knew there would be some growing pains at some point! If hes Pitts guy moving forward let the kid continue to play ball!
They better find some big money for OL and DL upgrades this offseason. They got their butts kicked up and down both lines all night long.
Everyone gets frustrated after a loss, me more than most. It was a terrible game, unprepared overconfident. After year 10, we’ve seen it before. And when I see what the other Cignetti is doing in Indiana, I get so damn aggravated. Narduzzi does some things well but winning consistently isn’t one of them. Cannot handle success.
7-1
I thnk the line will be ok. The issue is they have 2 backups playing right now due to injuries and they r young.
This was your best article I’ve read in a long time! Thanks for summing it up. We have a long way to go and without more NIL money, not sure if we will ever get there!
H2P!!!
Mike you have good points, but Narduzzi being a “Defensive” coach, in name and practice, He’s awful at it. This nonsense is what ruined the 2021 season (W MI and Miami at home) and what’s really stained his 10 year run of mediocrity. it’s always the same shit.
Do we all really think that Pitt would go undefeated this season? Sure I really hope they win it all and go to the PO. But, the reality came. The offense has been struggling in the last two games with the QA being below average, and this game was no different. For Pitt to win, both offense and defense had to be perfect, but offense was no different (if not worse) from the last two games, and the defense decided to have an off game. It seems SMU came to play the game, while Pitt came to brag. The QB… Read more »
the O will continue to struggle as Holstein has hit a wall and Reed is not the guy to be pounding the ball between the tackles but Cade Bell will stick with his homeboy and Holstein, no matter how poorly he performs, will be taking the snaps. He should have been benched early in the 3rd period and capable Yarnell inserted. Was Bell trying to get him more snaps or afraid of hurting Eli’s feelings It was obvious he was shook and has struggled over several games, In fact, he is consistently struggling. No help from this OL and that… Read more »
Well said.
Any way you slice it, it’s really disappointing to get blown out by a good but not great SMU team. I thought we were better than this.
Caleb Junko can eff off, by the way. Dude has one job and he blows it, repeatedly.
Glad to be 7-1. Left side of OL is a little overmatched with the backups in there impacting Center play too. Move Baer back to blind side.
Just some mis tackles made it worse than could have been. Junko had another rough performance.
Complimentary football was out of synch.
Now we know how Syracuse feels.
Hopefully they wipe out more than they lose these last four.
When your defense gets so full of itself, they are too cool to tackle then you might have encouraged the wrong thing. He still hasn’t figured out how to keep them focused on what matters.
This was the game that concerned me most. Take a good SMU team at home with their crowd combined with a win in the previous week where they still won but played poorly and had six turnovers. Everything was saying this game could be big trouble for Pitt. This is still a talented Pitt team that just had a terrible game and the mistakes snowballed on them.
I do happen to believe that when that SMU team is on and executing well that they can hang with anyone. That’s a really good football team.
You’re right on the line +7 in a match up between two teams ranked 18 and 20 in the country the line should’ve been +3 if Pitt was going to play well. Sad part is I’m not sure how you can find positives here. Pitts regressed offensively to the point Eli is seeing ghosts. The online is awful absolutely awful. Branson stunk but Enos was just as bad yesterday. The Wrs can’t separate and are severally undersized. The TEs are just avg or slightly above avg. Besides Reid the Rbs are awful. The defense is soft and undisciplined. Corners can’t… Read more »
Add in Narduzzi sounds completely incompetent talking to the media before and after games. It’s almost as bad Comrad Harris not reading from a teleprompter.
Sure, keep playing Holstein just like he did Slovis, Jurkovic and that PSU kid, right Mike. Yarnell had this year and next, while Holstein has shown he will leave for a better deal elsewhere. Yarnell is a better passer and can run; he’s mature and the team awarded him a leadership honor. Holstein is a big NIL acquisition and is playing for that reason only. Remember Narduzzi said it was very close before the KS game … well last night the QB play was so bad it couldn’t be any worse wit Yarnell.
The only thing I hate more than a Pitt loss are posters that feel the need to inject political commentary on an all-sports internet site.
Amen to that.
I think if you would’ve told me that Pitt would start the season 7-1, I would absolutely take it! Yes it is disappointing they got blown out but if there is any silver lining MAYBE Kade Bell will continue to stay here?? Continuity is key and yes they got to regroup and finish the season strong. Sure Indiana is having a great season under Cignetti but their real test will come against Ohio State; They’ve played the bottom half of the Big Ten so far which their closest game against mediocre Washington. If they played a traditional Big Ten schedule… Read more »
Just for clarification… The Cignetti at Indiana is not the same Cignetti that was a colossal failure at Pitt.
SMU is on Dallas, not Fort Worth. TCU is on Fort Worth.
Great article. On point. I am as disappointed as anyone but let’s see them pick up the pieces and rebuild a very unexpected great season! H2P
There’s been some great memories so far (WV, Cincy comebacks), this team is 7-1 and has been ranked 5 weeks in a row with a chance to be 8-1 and somewhere around #20 heading into the Clemson game at home. Sure, Pitt is not as good as they were being made out to be but they’re certainly a lot better than anyone thought preseason. There’s teams in Chapel Hill and Tallahassee that would love to be 7-1, 3-1 in ACC play at this point in the season. There’s adversity for every team at some point every season. I actually believe… Read more »