Five Takeaways: 5 things that stood out in Pitt's 41-24 loss to UNC

Pitt dropped to 1-3 on the season following a 41-24 loss to No. 17 North Carolina. The Panthers came out strong in the first quarter behind heavily scrutinized quarterback Phil Jurkovec, who did not finish the game due to an injury. The home team was not able to sustain the initial surge and eventually the Tar Heels got rolling behind quarterback Drake Maye.

Pitt showed some positive signs early, but that good will went out the window with a lackluster performance after halftime.

Here are five takeaways from Pitt’s loss to North Carolina.

Jurkovec was...better

The vibe entering Saturday’s game was a little strange to say the least. Pitt was coming off a dismal offensive performance in a 17-6 loss to West Virginia the week prior and a lot of the issues stemmed from the play of quarterback Phil Jurkovec.

Pitt fans clearly wanted a change at quarterback, but Pat Narduzzi made it clear leading up to the game that Jurkovec was not going to be benched. He was greeted with ‘boos’ when he was announced as the starter in the pregame and also as he walked on the field. Once the game started, those jeers eventually turned to cheers because the Pitt offense looked as sharp as it did all season. Jurkovec broke loose for a 20-yard keeper on the first play of the game.

The Panthers ultimately cruised down the field with a 10-play 75-yard drive, where the Panthers mixed in some runs by Rodney Hammond and also some easy throws for the much maligned quarterback. It admittedly looked pretty good and it had to be a feather in the cap for Jurkovec himself to respond to hostility in his own stadium the way he did.

The success continued on the second drive. He connected with Gavin Bartholomew for a 30-yard gain, even if it wasn’t the best pass, it was a play he needed to make and it set up a Pitt score. The initial sour mood in the stadium brightened rather quickly, but it changed before long.

North Carolina got it going on offense and Pitt’s offensive eventually regressed. The Panthers got down 28-17 just before halftime, but rather than calling a simple handoff on a third and four with a under a minute left, Jurkovec ran it and took a pretty vicious (and dirty) hit by a North Carolina defender who was penalized for targeting.

That hit knocked him out of the remainder of the game for ‘undisclosed reasons’. Jurkovec finished the game 11-of-15 for 109 yards. It was nothing outstanding, but he led some scoring drives and protected the ball, a significant improvement from whatever he did against West Virginia.

He probably didn’t silence his critics, but at least showed some signs of life and responded to a weird situation. It remains to be seen if he will even be available next week.

Veilleux did not provide an immediate upgrade

Christian Veilleux entered the game trailing by double digits against a ranked team. He was working behind a makeshift offensive line to boot. It was not the ideal time for his grand entrance to take the starting quarterback job, and the results showed.

Veilleux finished 7-of-18 for 85 yards. He threw two interceptions and nearly threw two more. Veilleux was also credited with a fumble on a mishandled handoff to Kenny Johnson on the first play of the fourth quarter. It was shaky, but again, it was not the clean slate you would hope to give a new quarterback.

The sophomore did connect on a couple of nice passes, but North Carolina may have been playing a little off the ball given the 17-point lead. If all things are equal and Jurkovec is healthy next week, I would expect Pitt to lean with its original starter.

Pitt finished with 203 yards in the first half with Jurkovec leading the offense, and 104 in the second with Veilleux under center. The Panthers are heading to Virginia Tech next week. The Hokies are not a good team, but Lane Stadium is a tough environment, which makes for an interesting call at quarterback.

Jurkovec may provide a better chance at winning next week, but where does it get you playing a sixth year senior with no eligibility after this year at this point? It does not seem like this season is going anywhere particularly good right now, and even though Veilleux played poorly, he may be worth getting more looks for the future.

The defense was up against it no matter what they did

The Pitt defense had a tough assignment on Saturday and it showed. North Carolina’s Drake Maye is one of the more skilled quarterbacks in the country and he put on quite an offensive display. Maye finished with 296 passing yards on 22-of-30 attempts and one touchdown. He also rushed for two more scores and orchestrated an offense that netted 373 yards total, but actually that total wasn’t a lot all things considered.

The Tar Heels average close to 500 yards per game and Pitt held them to over 100 yards under their season average and it still was not enough to come close in this one. Pitt recorded five sacks, nine tackles for loss, and held the Tar Heels to 5-of-14 on third downs. They kind of threw the kitchen sink at Maye and the UNC offense, and the Tar Heels still hung 41 points on Pitt.

It felt like every big throw Maye needed to make he would find a window and a North Carolina receiver found a way to come down with a tough sideline catch to boot. Pitt had him wrapped up in the backfield at one point, but he stayed up long enough and delivered a touchdown pass with his left hand. I mean, sometimes you just lose to good players and that’s what it looked like to me.

Despite that Pitt still had some blown assignments, missed tackles, but above all else some costly penalties on the defensive side of the ball that led to its failures.

Pitt was trailing 21-17 late in the second quarter. Following a sack, the Tar Heels were facing a 2nd and 17 from their own two-yard line. Rather than finish the possession, Pitt was whistled for an illegal substitution followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct on Donovan McMillon. UNC then moved right down the field to make it 28-17 and the Panthers cam unraveled from there. Pitt’s defense has shown signs this year but inconsistency and undisciplined mistakes have cost them quite a bit.

Pitt's defense has allowed 40 points three times over the past three seasons (31 games). The Western Michigan loss back in 2021, and each of the past two meetings against North Carolina. Maye has Pitt’s number. It didn't matter what they tried on Saturday, he seemingly had an answer.

Some poor coaching leads to loss

There are a few elements in this loss that have to go squarely on the coaches. Pitt committed 11 penalties, and while I agree with Narduzzi that some calls weren’t always even, that can’t happen in an important game like this. There were still false starts on offense and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on defense, and those can’t be disputed. You need to be able to avoid those and I don’t know the specific fix to mental mistakes like that for a football team, but the Pitt coaches need to try to find a way to correct those.

For whatever people feel about Jurkovec, the decision to have him run the ball and take the hit just before halftime altered Pitt’s chance. The offense had some rhythm with him in the game, but once he left, that pretty much ended Pitt’s chances. Given the time and situation, Pitt couldn’t simply take a knee. North Carolina had all three timeouts left and they obviously would have used them to make punt, especially considering they had a punt return earlier in the game.

If Pitt made the decision to not try and press the ball downfield, then running the ball straight ahead and trying to pick up the the first down would have made more sense rather than stringing Jurkovec out to dry like that. It was reminiscent of the Tennessee game last season when Kedon Slovis took an unnecessary hit in a mismanaged situation just before halftime.

I think you could probably find other coaching elements in this loss, but 11 penalties and allowing your quarterback to take a hit like that just before halftime have to No. 1 and No. 2 on the list.

Hokies on the Horizon

I anticipated Virginia Tech could very well be 1-3 heading into the Pitt matchup this year. I just did not expect the Panthers to have an identical record through four games.

Pitt has eight games left on the schedule and in order to make a bowl game, the Panthers need to win five of them. Given the difficulty of some of those games, Virginia Tech is definitely a game the Panthers would need to get.

The only problem is there are some definite concerns with the team, even after four games of learning more about them. There was definitely a lot of talk surrounding Phil Jurkovec the past three weeks and he did OK on Saturday, but his injury leaves some doubt. He looked better than Veilleux if nothing else and the team has definitely rallied around him in some fashion. Not having Jurkovec in Blacksburg, especially with the way Veilleux performed against North Carolina, would be a tough assignment.

It’s actually funny typing out that sentence given the way I have felt about Jurkovec this past week. I saw him as a liability, even unplayable, but he moved the ball better than his backup and sort of responded to the call.

This has been a weird season in general and a nightmare scenario for this 2023 Pitt team. You can see on their faces they never expected to lose three of the first four and it has to be a humbling experience. It will be interesting to see where this season goes from here, because it can spiral out of complete control, if it hasn't already.