PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Beyond the ‘refs weren’t ready’ for a Virginia fourth down play, Pitt made their own mistakes. Once again it was a Panthers offense that struggled seemingly with focus, inability to adjust and lack of execution.
The Panthers committed 11 penalties, three on the first series of the game for 75 yards. You could argue a couple of infractions were missed, blown, pick a stronger verb. Here is a link to Pat Narduzzi discussing the officials.
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There was also the offensive struggle again. Narduzzi made it a point to not just blame the quarterbacks leading up to the game about the last couple of weeks. But the quarterbacks weren’t good. Eli Holstein was just 10-23 for 121 yards and sacked twice. Nate Yarnell came in after Holstein was injured to play worse, 4-12 for 44 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions and sacked once.
“It starts with coaching,” Narduzzi said. “It starts with our offensive staff, our head coach, me, and we have just got to get better play. It wasn't good enough overall.”
Then he said again it’s not just the quarterback, but everyone involved from the coaching, offensive line, run game and receivers just making catches.
“We had way too many dropped passes out there today,” Narduzzi said. “So it's hard to get in rhythm when you're not catching the ball like we had all year. And that's our job to catch balls. It's our job to get them to catch balls. We've got to do a better job in ball drills and catching the ball and making plays.”
Run game was unable to make a consistent difference with the exception for a 34-yard run and a one-yard TD. They ran it 32 times for 127 yards.
“We know that when we can move the ball we are efficient and everybody does their one of eleven,” said tight end Gavin Bartholomew. “But when we have pre-snap penalties and turnovers, it’s tough to move the ball and tough to score.”
“It’s minimizing those mistakes and protecting the football.”
Narduzzi added you need to give credit to their opponents. SMU and now Virginia have done good jobs defending them.
“And we've got to do a better job creating plays and making plays,” Narduzzi said. “Like I said, I don't know how many, six, seven drops, I don't know. So you can't move the ball, you can't move the sticks if you don't catch it and you don't get to the right guy.
“We'll sit down and reevaluate where we are, what we're doing, how we're doing it, and try to put a better product out there.”
“But it's frustrating, it's frustrating for our offense, coaches; it's frustrating for our offensive players. And again, it takes 11, 11 guys out there that have to make plays.”
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No update on Holstein
For the second consecutive home game, Pitt starting quarterback Eli Holstein was knocked out of the game. It happened on a second down play as Holstein rushed for five yards and a first down.
The redshirt freshman slid as he gained the first down, Virginia linebacker Trey McDonald with a helmet-to-helmet hit as Holstein’s head bounced off the turf. McDonald was called for targeting and ejected from the game.
Holstein would go to the injury tent. After being examined there for a few minutes, he would walk to the Pitt locker room and didn’t return.
There was no update on his health other than Narduzzi saying ‘he seemed ok’ in the locker room. The Pitt head coach said its football and was a late hit and didn’t say they should change how he approaches running it going forward.
Holstein left the 41-13 Thursday night win over Syracuse in the fourth quarter after a defender landed on him on the sidelines. He would be able to play in the next game, although Pitt had a few extra days rest before playing SMU.