PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said Thursday they had a good week of practice. They were focused coming off the win at Tennessee and wouldn't overlook a MAC school.
It didn't carry over onto the game field Saturday. Panthers upset by Western Michigan 44-41.
"Felt like we didn't have any juice or energy today," Narduzzi said, admitting the disappointing performance starts with him. "I don't know what it was, but we'll look at it, we'll go check the tape out. But I'll give Western Michigan credit. They're a good football team.
"It was more about what we did than what they did. We didn't make plays. That's it."
"I think Western Michigan came in and put on a great performance," said Pitt linebacker SirVocea Dennis. "They balled. They were able to find the holes, something we have to clean up in practice. It's something we will clean up in practice. They just did a good job picking us apart."
In their previous game this year at a Power 5 school, a 47-14 loss at Michigan, the Broncos had 191 yards passing and 310 total yards. Against Pitt, Kaleb Eleby & EMU threw for 357 yards. They rushed for another 160 yards. They had 28 first downs, 7 of 17 on third down.
Here are some of the Panthers mistakes
· Pitt had a trio of turnovers that the Broncos turned into 14 points.
· Panthers committed 82 yards of penalties.
· On the first WMU touchdown, the Panthers defense was in disarray for a couple of plays in the red zone.
· On the 54-yard TD pass by Eleby to Corey Crooms, Panthers had Crooms stopped, but Brandon Hill knocked Erick Hallett off Crooms and allowed him to go 25 yards unbothered the rest of the way. Hallett left with an injury.
· Pitt 1 for 3 on fourth down. The first miss set up WMU at their own 40. The visitors would turn that into a touchdown. The other a 4th and 6 from around midfield with the Panthers down by a touchdown with 10:18 left. Broncos got the ball at the Pitt 38 and made the game-deciding field goal nine plays later.
· Panthers were 1 for 8 on third down.
· Pitt didn't have six minutes or more in time of possession in one quarter on Saturday. Time of possession can be misleading at times, but WMU held the ball for 40:15.
Panthers host New Hampshire on September 25 at noon.
"We will see how tough we are, right?," Pickett said. "When things are smooth sailing it's easy. We have a loss that we should have won. Hats off to Western Michigan they played well. They came in ready. We knew they would. We will see what we are about."
"We will move forward," Narduzzi said.
"It's one game. It's not an ACC game. All our goals are still ahead of us, and it's one ballgame."
Pickett milestones
Within the tough loss Pickett passed Tino Sunseri and then Dan Marino's 8,597 career passing yards. The senior now with 8,923 yards.
The road to get to number one is long. Alex Van Pelt finished his Panthers career with 11, 267 yards.
With his fifth touchdown pass overall and second of the game to Lucas Krull, Pickett jumped Nate Peterman for sixth on the Panthers all-time passing TD list with 48. Peterman was the Panthers honorary captain Saturday and currently the Las Vegas Raiders back-up QB.
Pickett's sixth TD pass of the game tied him with Sunseri for fifth on the list.
Marino is the all-time leader with 79 touchdown passes.
Shady Side Score
New Kensington native and Shady Side Academy graduate Skyy Moore caught a 30-yard touchdown for Western Michigan in his return home. Moore finished with a game-high 11 catches for 124 yards.
The 5'10" Moore, first team All-MAC in 2019, was two-time Allegheny Conference Offensive Player of the Year in high school as a quarterback.
Other locals
· Central Catholic grad Bricen Garner, Obama's Dorian Jackson and Brashear's Therran Coleman played in the Broncos secondary.
· Norwin's Jack Salopek came in for the opening WMU series of the second half and completed 3 of 3 passes for 20 yards.
