Analysis: Penalties, complaints about officials, offensive misery remain troubling issues for Pitt
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In the aftermath of another day of misery for Pitt’s football team, quarterback Christian Veilleux made remarks that underscored three of the many issues plaguing the team:
Penalties, complaints about penalties and — the most important one — an inability to generate offense.
Pat Narduzzi is coaching an undisciplined team. He said it. Veilleux said it. The game officials confirmed it by flagging the Panthers 11 times for 91 yards in the 24-7 loss Saturday to Florida State, the fifth time this season the ACC’s most-penalized team has committed nine or more in a game.
“We were pretty undisciplined,” Veilleux said, already aware of what awaited him during video review Sunday at Pitt’s training facility. “Coach Narduzzi’s going to pull up all the penalties (on the video screen).”
Veilleux didn’t detail what might happen after that, but it doesn’t take much imagination to figure it out. Narduzzi will demand answers from players and coaches, but Saturday he sounded perplexed himself.
“We coach it every day,” he said. “It’s focus, and I think C’Bo (Flemister, starting running back) had two (false starts on the same drive). He is a captain now. Congratulations to him. But, you know, it’s focus. We snap the ball every day in practice, and we have to be better. I don’t know what to do.”
Senior guard Blake Zubovic also had consecutive false starts in the fourth quarter.
The penalties led to negative yardage, which led to difficult down-and-distance situations, which led to failure on all 11 third downs, which led to the second game in a row Pitt scored only one touchdown.
By the way, this was the ninth game and 10th week of the season after players spent months working with and without coaches through the spring and summer. You might assume those type of wrinkles had been ironed out by now.
Unavoidably, it seems, penalties are accompanied by either the coach or some of his players — or both — complaining.
After Pitt committed 13 penalties in a loss to Wake Forest, Narduzzi said, “Sometimes, you feel hated on. Sometimes, you feel like it just needed to be called both ways and sometimes you feel like it’s not, as a coach.”
Veilleux stepped into the fray Saturday night when he called the unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on tight end Gavin Bartholomew “(bull), honestly. I don’t get that call. I think there were a lot of calls (Saturday) that didn’t make sense.”
To be fair, neither Veilleux nor his coach blamed the loss on officials. In fact, Veilleux admonished himself for an interception in the fourth quarter, his seventh in 4 1/2 games. It came after Pitt had crossed into Florida State territory, all the way to the 34 before Zubovic’s false starts cost 10 yards.
“We repped it all week. It was a good play in practice,” Veilleux said. “That’s on me. That’s execution.”
Veilleux has completed half of his pass attempts (81 of 162), and that’s troubling because he’s the third transfer quarterback to struggle in the wake of Kenny Pickett’s departure two years ago.
It’s too early to give up on Veilleux, a sophomore who could benefit from another offseason of classroom work with his coaches. But it may be time to give sophomore quarterback Nate Yarnell some extended work over the final three games and let the two of them compete next spring and summer.
Veilleux’s interception wasn’t Pitt’s costliest error of the day. The Panthers already were down 24-7 at the time and unlikely to cut too deeply into the Seminoles’ lead.
Which brings up the third issue: Pitt (2-7, 1-4 ACC) has shown an astonishing inability to score points. The Panthers have scored two or fewer touchdowns four times and have managed a total of only four scores on the ground in eight games against Power 5 opponents.
“Offense has to step it up,” Veilleux said.
After allowing Notre Dame 58 points last week, the defense got credit for making the game competitive for three quarters.
“So, they’re playing like they should. They played physical. They played hard,” Narduzzi said. “That’s what I was looking for. I didn’t see that in the second half last week.”
That he didn’t see the necessary physicality against the Irish was a bad sign, but players regrouped and kept Florida State under 30 points for the first time in 15 games.
Senior linebacker Brandon George was outstanding, recording 10 tackles, 2 1/2 for loss, and a big fourth-down stop at the Pitt 2 in the first quarter.
“Everybody’s going to have a bad day. Everybody’ s going to have a bad play,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s our job as brothers to make sure we drag you out of that hole that you put yourself in and continue to press on.”