Naduzzi: 'Obviously we didn’t put them in position to make plays'

NEW YORK — Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi addressed the media following his team's 28-13 loss to Syracuse on Saturday night. The Panthers have now lost four in a row and saw their season record dip to 2-8 with two games to play. Here is a complete rundown of everything Narduzzi had to say.

Narduzzi: Obviously really disappointing. We were right there in the first half. We were in the game and a disappointing second half. We didn’t finish. Again, it starts with me. I take full responsibility. It’s my job to get 74 guys we bring on the road all ready to go. But it starts with the coaching and it’s putting our guys in position to make plays offensively and defensively and we obviously didn’t do that today. Defensively we gave up a lot of rushing yards. We’re on the field for 14 more minutes then their defense. Didn’t get enough first downs, didn’t score enough points. Again the four turnovers in the second half are just really disappointing. You can’t win with four turnovers.

Questions?

What were the issues against the run today?

Narduzzi: Obviously they didn’t plan on passing that much. I’m not sure if Shrader could throw it, he hasn’t played for the last couple of weeks, and didn’t even know he was going to go today. Had no idea who the starting quarterback was. You try to work for Del Rio and everybody else. You don’t really know what’s going on. They did a lot of stuff that we had not practiced and we tried to adjust as we went. Obviously tackling has something to do with it and we’ll watch that and see who missed and where we executed wrong. 66 rushes, they were on the field for a long time and we didn’t tackle well enough.

Did you guys know they had the wildcat package with Villari?

Narduzzi: They’ve run a couple of snaps of it down on the goal line. It’s mostly a goal line package. He’s a tough kid, former quarterback transferred in there and can also throw it. You prepared for it, they’ve maybe done two snaps with the wildcat. They’ve run a couple with Quentin, but nothing to the magnitude. And the formations they were in were different. Good job by them.

How frustrating is it because you guys are normally so good at stopping the run and to be challenged physically that way?

Narduzzi: It’s frustrating. You get frustrated with a loss, period. There’s a lot of things you’re frustrated with, but certainly we would like to stop the run and we didn’t do that today.

What led to you making a change at quarterback in the fourth quarter?

Narduzzi: He turned the ball over three times. He threw a pick-six and in a 15-point final game and you throw a pick six for a touchdown and that was one of them. We also had two fumbled exchanges, three turnovers. Like I said we’ve got a lot of faith in Nate Yarnell and then we go and turn it over again. He goes three-and-out and only had two series. We’ve got faith in both of those guys, but we can’t…We have a nice drive going, first series of the second half we drive all there way down there and put the ball on the ground with a ball handling deal, which just can’t happen.

Will Christian be your starter Thursday?

Narduzzi: We’re going to look at the tape and find out.

Is it one big thing or a smattering of a bunch of things that have led to this four-game losing streak?

Narduzzi: It’s a smattering of things. You look at it and it’s never just one thing. There’s 11 guys out on the field at one time. We didn’t run the ball well enough and they did. It’s a smattering of things, it’s never just one thing.

You always say how your team never quits, do you still feel like they are 100% locked-in heading into the last two games?

Narduzzi: No question about it. I don’t think there’s any give-up in that locker room. You put the ball on the ground, I don’t think that was a focus issue at all. But…our team is together in that locker room, I can guarantee you that. We’ve got a short week, Thursday night, Boston College. That’s where our focus goes. We’ve got to practice tomorrow, because tomorrow is Tuesday already. So we’ll back to work early tomorrow morning.

Aside from the turnovers, what do you think some of the issues were on offense in the first half when you only scored one touchdown?

Narduzzi: We obviously as coaches have got to put them in better position to make plays. Obviously we didn’t put them in position to make plays.

Were you comfortable with the game plan on offense?

Narduzzi: Yea. Very comfortable with what we had and what we were doing. There’s no doubt about it, we’re always comfortable going in with our offense, defense, and special teams game plan. But sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t and that’s what we got to look as coaches to make sure they work all the time.

What’s the biggest challenge turning around on a short week?

Narduzzi: Physically, we got banged up today. It was a physical football game, which it always is against Syracuse. We’ve got to regroup, get together, and get on Boston College and get ready to practice.