Pitt’s defense had plenty of issues in the first five games of the season, and while the Panthers didn’t fix all of those in last night’s win over No. 14 Louisville, they did find one workaround:
A struggling run defense and some missed tackles can be covered by producing turnovers, sacks and a bunch of fourth-down stops.
That recipe led to a second-half shutout and a much-needed 38-21 win over the Cardinals.
After Pitt gave up more than 160 yards per game on the ground in the first four games against FBS teams this season, the Panthers entered Saturday night’s game with some major question marks about that part of their defense. And the woes in stopping the run weren’t entirely cured on Saturday night either. While Louisville finished with a net total of 80 rushing yards on 33 attempts, those numbers were impacted by quarterback Jack Plummer losing 47 yards on the ground on four sacks. The Cardinals’ running backs - Maurice Turner, Isaac Guerendo and Jawhar Jordan - combined for 127 yards on 27 carries, or 4.7 yards per carry.
And that was with Jordan, who entered the game as the ACC’s leading rusher, carrying the ball just twice for eight yards.
There was also a healthy amount of missed tackles, as well. Saturday night’s game didn’t approach the level of the Virginia Tech loss in that regard - Pitt had less than 20 missed tackles against Louisville - but extra yards after contact were aplenty for the Cardinals.
According to Pro Football Focus, Louisville’s runners forced nine missed tackles and gained 113 yards on the ground after contact, so those issues were still present for the Panthers.
But while Pitt’s defense might still have some holes to fill in its run defense, the Panthers on that side of the ball still had a lot to do with the win, because they did something on Saturday night that they haven’t done all season:
They made plays.
In the second half, Pitt’s defense stepped up in almost every situation. Louisville had eight possessions after halftime and didn’t score on any of them.
Four drives ended with turnover on downs. Two ended in interceptions. One was a punt. And one was a missed field goal.
But it’s not like Louisville wasn’t driving the ball. Five of those eight possessions ended in Pitt territory and three were drives that gained 50 yards or more. The Cardinals were able to move the ball on the Panthers in the second half, but every time, the defense found a spot to make a play.
When Louisville drove to the Pitt 20 late in the third quarter, Plummer misfired on a throw to Jamari Thrash (who might have gotten bumped off his route, according to Plummer) and M.J. Devonshire collected the easy interception for a pick-six.
On the next drive, the Cardinals drove to the Pitt 24 only to have a Plummer pass bounce off Jimmy Calloway’s hands directly to A.J. Woods for another pick.
Louisville got inside the Pitt 30 on the next drive, too, but Shayne Simon made a clutch tackle on Thrash to stop him for seven yards on third-and-10 to force a field goal attempt.
The Cardinals crossed midfield on their next drive but P.J. O’Brien broke up a fourth-down pass. And on the visitors’ final possession of the game, Plummer completed five consecutive passes for 66 yards before Devonshire and O’Brien broke up passes on third and fourth downs, respectively, to ice the win.
So while Louisville topped 200 yards in the second half, crossed into Pitt territory on five of eight possessions and gained at least 50 yards on three drives, the Cardinals didn’t score a point after halftime.
In addition to the interceptions by Devonshire and Woods, Pitt’s defense got its first turnover in the first half when Sam Okunlola strip-sacked Plummer - another turnover that occurred in Pitt territory. Solomon DeShields, Shayne Simon and Brandon George also sacked Plummer, while David Green, Deandre Jules and Dayon Hayes added tackles for loss to give the Panthers a total of four sacks and seven tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
