The Pitt Panthers football team may not be as talented as we wish they were, but there’s no question about their heart as they once-again fought and clawed for victory at Heinz Field. A few weeks ago, it was against Syracuse. This time it was against a Duke team who was favored to win. QB Kenny Pickett said ‘Not today’ as his 25-yard TD pass to WR Maurice Ffrench and a safety on the kickoff resulted in a 54-45 victory.
But what made Pickett’s play special is the fact that he threw the ball. Known for his conservatism and using his legs. He showed what he could do when given the chance on 2 huge plays. His first was a 50-yard TD pass to Ffrench as well to keep Pitt in the game when they could’ve easily lost heart after falling behind 21-10. And his decisions on the final drive enabled them to get into scoring range.
“We won a football game today. Said Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi. “I thought our offense did well. We made 2 big passing plays and we needed it. We got ourselves in FG range and took a shot.”
K Alex Kessman also continued his magic as he connected for 54, 45, and 27-yard FGs to help his team win. His 54-yarder was Kessman’s 5th 50-plus yarder in his career and a Pitt record.
But once again, it was the running game that was the glue to this team’s success as they rushed for 484 yards, which is the 2nd most in school history. RB Quadree Ollison led the way with 149 yards before leaving the game due to injury and freshman V’Lique Carter turned his first game into a memorable one as he rushed for 137 yards and 2 TDs. They also rushed for 4 TDs. 1 by Pickett, 1 by Ollison and 2 by Carter.
Duke certainly didn’t make it easy for Pitt, but they certainly didn’t make it easy for themselves either as their defense allowed 619 yards to Duke, including 396 yards passing from QB Daniel Jones, 162-yard rushing by RB Deon Jackson and 136 yards by WR Jonathan Lloyd. But through it all, Pitt prevailed.
“We’re disappointed in how our defense played. Said Narduzzi “We didn’t tackle, that’s not us. But we’ll go back to work. We got Virginia on Friday night. We got work to do.”
Notes: Narduzzi opened his postgame presser saying he and his Pitt team are praying for the victims of this morning’s mass shooting in Squirrel Hill. “There are a lot more important things than a football game.” Narduzzi said “My kids were a half mile from the shooting. My heart and prayers go out there everybody.”
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Pat Narduzzi Duke Postgame Press Transcript
PAT NARDUZZI: Well, if you guys feel anything like I do, about 11:00 this morning when I got my email, what happened over in Squirrel Hill, there’s a lot more important things than a football game, I can tell you that.
Our kids were affected by it. Saw kids on their phones in our pregame meals, talking about it. My prayers, this football team’s prayers, our family’s prayers go out to the victims, to the SWAT Team, the police officers of Pittsburgh, to all the families that are affected by that.
Just a tough deal. You see it happen in Florida, you see it happen wherever, then when it hits you right in your backyard, it makes you wonder.
My kids were about a half mile from there at the time. First thing I was doing before the game is texting my kids, to make sure they stay in the house, don’t leave. I’m sure a lot of our players were worried about their families, how close they were to it. Just my heart and prayers go out to everybody.
With that being said, we won a football game today. I thought offensively we were explosive. Ran the ball well. Made big passes when we had to. Kenny Pickett to Ffrench, two big plays that we needed. We really did some maybe overhaul for two-minutes last week. The open week coming out of Notre Dame where we didn’t make some plays in overtime offensively, we did and got after it pretty good against each other. Obviously it paid off today.
Got ourselves in field goal range, took a shot. Great catch, great throw, great protection. We were able to pull it out.
Obviously defensively, you know, talk about it. Daniel Jones is a good football player. Obviously a bad day to play defense. I don’t know if anybody plays defense any more. Disappointed in the way our defense played. Been there before. Jerry, you tell me every week, That’s the best defensive effort a week ago. I told you, you get measured where you were on this Saturday. It wasn’t very good. I hope they’re saving it for next week.
We’ll go back to work. We got a short week. We got Virginia on Friday night. We got a lot of work to do.
With that I’ll open it up to questions.
Q. That touchdown pass, do you say let’s take a shot or Shawn Watson? Who makes that decision?
PAT NARDUZZI: We kind of do it together. It was either run it, try to set up in the middle, then clock it and kick the field goal, or take a shot. We thought about both. We said, Hey, let’s go for the end zone, go for the win.
We thought Kessman was good from wherever we were, 30 yard line I think. Obviously a lot of big plays made in that series from Darrin Hall’s screen, down the sideline, out of bounds. Just great execution.
Q. Not a great day for Kenny until that point. What does that drive say about his resiliency as a young player?
PAT NARDUZZI: Like I said, Kenny is a strong kid. Taysir Mack played a little bit today. He’s not 100%. Didn’t practice much this week. Hopefully get to practice a little bit this week, next week be more explosive with him.
Kenny Pickett, he’s a dude. I’ll go to any extent with that guy. He’s a competitor. Some of the scrambles he had, big-time scrambles he had for first downs, to get us out of a hole, he did a great job.
Probably the most disappointing thing was really that last series where we had to kick a field goal, got two penalties, a late hit by Maurice, a holding by one of our offensive linemen. We’re at the eight yard line. As a matter of fact, we score. We got a hold. Get backed up. Pretty soon it’s second and 18. Found a way to get it done.
It’s a team win. Like I said, some days it’s the offense holding up the defense, some days the defense holding up the offense. We stuck together. I think our defense played a better fourth quarter.
Q. How do you explain V’Lique Carter’s day from his usage previously in the season?
PAT NARDUZZI: Who? (laughter)
Q. No. 19.
PAT NARDUZZI: I told the TV crew on Friday morning, watch out for V’Lique Carter. It goes into those four games. If he keeps doing that for the next three, he’ll be playing a fifth, maybe a sixth.
He’s explosive. He’s obviously a DB. We really found him out. He was okay on defense. A lot of things going on, communication, things you need to know. We put him on as a scout team tailback first couple weeks. Holy cow, this guy is explosive. You saw what he did with the ball in his hand. Always held onto it. Never fumbled.
We’ve been thinking about it for a while here. Kind of saved it a little bit for the ACC play. But he’s explosive. He’s fast. Obviously he’ll get a few more carries next week.
Q. Given how Carter played today, how much are you planning on using him? Is the possibility of a full-time position switch?
PAT NARDUZZI: What do you think? We’ll go recruit another DB. You got to score points to win nowadays. That’s the name of the game.
That guy is explosive. I told him before it happened, I told him on Friday, he came in early, in Coach Sherman’s office, getting coached up, extra details. I said, Listen, you can play both ways. Doesn’t matter.
He’s a player on offense right now. That’s where he’ll stay right now.
Q. Pickett was resilient, your defense was resilient in the last two possessions.
PAT NARDUZZI: They were. But they had to be. They had to bow up, make some plays. Give credit to the defensive coaches in the fourth quarter of adjusting it out, trying to fix it. They started lining up in a ton of empty, not think about running it. Two straight series, empty, dink, dink, dink you to death. All of a sudden the next series they come out and run it down your throat.
We just didn’t do a good job. We didn’t play very good on defense. We didn’t tackle very well. Zeise got the guy wrapped up in the backfield early in the third drive, then lets him go for 10 yards. That’s not us, which is okay.
Q. How were they able to get open in the slot?
PAT NARDUZZI: Matchups. They like to work those two inside guys. T.J. is a heck of a football player. The tight end is going to body up. Playing pitch and catch out there, it’s hard. We dropped off guys. We didn’t make plays. When we tried to do it against Syracuse, we got a pick out of Watts. We just had different stuff in. They did a better job than we did. Give Duke credit. That’s a good football team.
Q. How big of a boost was the 54-yarder?
PAT NARDUZZI: It was a big one. Another big one. You think about a kicker’s mentality. Where he was three weeks ago, I guess, here at home against Syracuse, where he was two weeks ago, having to live with that for an open week, then going into this game week.
It’s funny. Beginning of the second half, “Which way do you want to kick?”
He said, “I want to kick towards our tunnel. Then he goes, “Whoa, coach. I want to kick the other way so in the fourth quarter I kick the game winner going that way.”
Okay.
I guess it wasn’t the game winner, but it was a pretty good one.
Q. When you have a win like today, like the one against Syracuse, I don’t think there’s been an easy win for Pitt this season, I’m sure you prefer a blowout, but do games like this build the character of this team?
PAT NARDUZZI: It does. You would like a blowout. I told our guys before the game, Duke isn’t coming to Pittsburgh, fly in here, jump into a hotel to come in here and get their butts kicked. I told the guys before pregame, there’s going to be up and downs, adversity. It ain’t going to be easy. I’m telling you right now.
Our kids felt pretty confident going into the game. I just wanted to make sure, I said, “Hey, listen, it ain’t going to be easy. Duke is a well-coached football team. They’re a good football team.” It wasn’t going to be easy.
Yeah, it does build character. It’s easier to go blow people out, be better than everybody for four quarters. It’s tight games like this where our guys continue to believe all the way to the end. I thought we played an outstanding fourth quarter as a team. I think we played really good offensively the entire game.
Q. Does a guy like Qadree open up your playbook on third-and-long situations? Seems like it’s easy for him to take a shot, get downfield.
PAT NARDUZZI: I mean, yeah, no doubt. There’s no doubt about it, yeah.
Q. I know you don’t care about stuff like this, but do you know you’re half a game out of first place?
PAT NARDUZZI: I don’t care. We’re 1-0 in the ACC today. Tomorrow we go back to work about 7 a.m., work on Virginia on a short week, try to be 1-0 again.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
