Inside the numbers: How Pitt's defense attacked Wofford

Pitt nearly pitched a shutout against Wofford In Saturday's season opener. Let's take a look inside the numbers with data from Pro Football Focus.

Pitt used 12 defensive linemen in last Saturday's game: six defensive ends and six tackles (Sean FitzSimmons sat out the opener, but he would figure to be in that rotation as well). It's unlikely that the Panthers will deploy a dozen linemen in every game going forward; a rotation of eight - two-deep at each spot - is more probable.

Jules made his presence felt right off the bat, pressuring the quarterback on the first snap of the game and then recording a tackle for loss on the second play.

Hayes was even more impactful. According to PFF, he rushed the passer 11 times against Wofford and recorded five pressures on those 11 rushes.

Pitt's defense was credited with 18 pressures In the game. 11 of those came from the defensive line and the other seven came from the linebackers.

According to PFF's grades, Kamara was the highest-rated player on Pitt's defense in Saturday's game and had the highest overall grade on the team at 91.5. George was right behind him at 90.1.

It's interesting to compare how each of the linebackers was used, and the differences in usage are illustrative of the differences in the various linebacker positions in Pitt's defense. For example, Kamara plays Money linebacker, which lines up more in the box; as. such, he dropped into coverage on just six of his 21 snaps, according to PFF.

By contrast, DeShields, who plays Star linebacker and lines up on the wide side of the field, dropped on 12 of his 21 snaps.

Interestingly, Simon played middle linebacker on Saturday - a starting assignment he figures to have all season - and dropped into coverage on 10 of his 21 defensive snaps. George also played middle linebacker and was in coverage on eight of his 16 snaps.

According to PFF, Kamara rushed the passer seven times - the most of any non-lineman on Pitt's defense (and more than several of the Panthers' defensive ends). He created two pressures and one sack on those seven rushes.

Pitt's defense was charged with six missed tackles against Wofford, according to PFF, but only two of those were on the linebackers. Lapi and Lovelace were each assigned one missed tackle.

Stephon Hall, Deandre Jules, A.J. Woods and David Green were charged with the other four.

Wofford's 75-yard touchdown pass on the Terriers' final play of the game skews the stats here - particularly for Gandy, who was thrown out of bounds by receiver Tyler Parker on the play - but overall, it's tough to find much issue in the performance of the defensive backs against Wofford.

Hall was the only Pitt player to allow more than one reception; he gave up an 11-yard catch and a one-yard catch to Wofford receiver Alec Holt. Aside from the 75-yard play, none of the defensive backs allowed double-digit yards after the catch (Hall had the most; Holt picked up five total yards after the catch in the game).

The coverage was solid and the tackling was sound; that's a good recipe for success from Pitt's secondary.