PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was by far the most pressure the Panthers have generated this season. Some of that likely was facing a back-up quarterback and the decisions he made, but Pat Narduzzi said it may have also been like turning Bruce Banner into the Hulk.
“It's like I told Coach Partridge, great job getting them angry,” Narduzzi said. “There were some angry guys maybe in that room. You can tell them and tell them and tell them. They've got to do it.”
They have 29 sacks on the season, six of them came against Syracuse. Only one other time this season did the defense get four. Senior captain Deslin Alexandre finished with 2.5 sacks and accounted for a safety that put the game away.
Alexandre credited his defense for finishing and rebounding from the previous losses. He said it was a whole team thing with players doing their jobs and playing together. Narduzzi would agree. All-ACC defensive lineman Calijah Kancey had a pair of sacks, linebacker SirVocea Dennis led the team with eight tackles and a forced fumble. Narduzzi singled out a player who on the scoresheet might look to have a minimal impact with a tackle and a half a sack.
“If there's one guy -- and again, Deslin had a heck of a day, but if there's one guy that's really been as detailed as anyone at that defensive end spot, it's been Haba,” Narduzzi said of senior Habakkuk Baldonado. “We've been happy with where he is, and he wants to go make plays, and he'd like to get those stats like everybody would.”
However, it was him doing his job that allowed the defense to hold Syracuse to 25 rushing yards and 10 first downs.
“It was just a heck of a lot more detail,” Narduzzi said comparing to the North Carolina game. “They let the thing get away from them, and that happens in a game. Things start to happen. Obviously, we got after the D-line, too. They put pressure on the quarterback. They took care of it to the point where the linebackers didn't have to worry about it, and I think any time that stuff happens, when you're worried about a scrambling quarterback, you've got a problem.”
Don’t forget about the role of the defensive backs.
“It was so much more detail,” Narduzzi said. “When you watch the re-routes on the receivers, the receivers couldn't get started. As soon as they got started, they got re-routed, pushed out of the way. Just makes everybody's job easier. They paid attention to details, and sometimes you lose the details when other things are happening to you. You get distracted during a game by something else that you shouldn't be, but it's understandable, too.”
“When everybody does their job, it sometimes looks like the secondary wasn't very good against North Carolina or the linebackers are not very good, but then we weren't very good up front, either, so it just trickles downhill.”
No time to rest or to lose those details. Panthers are facing Virginia quarterback Brennan Armstrong. He isn’t putting up the same numbers as last year with a new offensive coordinator, but nearly pulled off the upset against UNC throwing for 232 yards and rushing for 64 more and a pair of touchdowns. Last year, Armstrong threw for 487 yards and three touchdowns against Pitt.
It’s another mobile quarterback who can beat you with designed runs or just scrambles. It will take discipline again to start a winning streak Saturday at Virginia. Last week is gone, but the lessons need to be remembered.
“We only worry about what we do at Virginia this weekend because you guys won't be talking about the pass rush if we don't get any this weekend,” Narduzzi said.