North Carolina hands Pitt 3rd consecutive defeat
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So many questions arose after Pitt’s 41-24 loss to North Carolina that just making a list may take most of Sunday morning before coaches and players can even think about how to fix them.
Around midnight Saturday night, Pat Narduzzi spent 7½ minutes answering questions in the aftermath of Pitt’s third consecutive defeat. Yet, when the assembled media was finished, the coach still had something to say — unprompted.
First, he said, he was grateful for the Pitt fans among the announced crowd of 48,544 on a rainy night at Acrisure Stadium.
“Our fans do an unbelievable job,” he said. “I feel bad for them.”
Then, he made a promise.
“We will be back. There’s no quit in that locker room,” he said. “They’re upset. We’ll fix stuff.”
All is not lost, he said, because he believes teams that will play in the ACC Championship game at the end of the season will have one conference loss.
“Guaranteed,” he said, neglecting to mention the loss Saturday means his injury-depleted team (1-3, 0-1 ACC) already reached its quota with eight games remaining.
“Everything we want to do is still ahead of us. We’ll go down to Virginia Tech (next Saturday) and get it done.”
OK, but there are injuries to heal, patches to apply to shaky pass protection and holes to fill in a secondary that had no answer for North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye.
Let’s start with Phil Jurkovec, who left the game at halftime with an unspecified injury. Narduzzi offered no details, other than to say his quarterback, who took a hard, high, late hit from UNC cornerback Tayon Holloway, is not in concussion protocol. Holloway was ejected for targeting.
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It’s clear that Pitt needed Jurkovec. He completed 11 of 15 passes for 109 yards in the first half. In the second, backup Christian Veilleux was 7 of 18 for 85 yards, with two interceptions. He also had a sloppy fumble that robbed Pitt of momentum after freshman Rasheem Biles offered hope by blocking a punt in the fourth quarter.
Jurkovec and Veilleux were only sacked one time each, but guard Blake Zubovic said pass protection “wasn’t good enough.”
“It absolutely wasn’t perfect. Too many quarterback hits, too many pressures,” he said.
Perhaps if Jurkovec had not been injured, Pitt could have kept the score respectable.
“I wish he had four quarters,” Narduzzi said. “That hurt us. He made good decisions. Protection wasn’t great. He took some hits. Phil did a good job running (the offense).”
“His effort was phenomenal,” Pitt guard Blake Zubovic said. “Absolutely tragic what happened to him. All the guys are fired up about that. It really lit a fire under us.”
Zubovic said Jurkovec spoke to the team “before they took him to go be looked at.”
“He’s a fighter man. He’s a tough kid. I know he’s going to do everything he can to get back on the field with us.”
On the other side of the football, Pitt had no answer for Maye, the Heisman Trophy candidate who may be the first or second choice in the NFL Draft next year.
Maye completed 22 of 30 passes for 296 yards. The Tar Heels’ right-handed quarterback even threw a touchdown pass left-handed while dragging Pitt defensive end Nate Temple with him.
“We did a lot of different stuff (in coverage),” Narduzzi said. “I have never seen so many passes caught on the sideline, great execution by them.”
At the outset of the game, Pitt traded blows with the No. 17 Tar Heels (4-0, 1-0), even striking first with Rodney Hammond’s 7-yard touchdown run on the first series. Hammond ended up carrying 14 times for 83 yards.
“We wanted to establish the run for sure,” Zubovic said, “and I think we did that in the beginning pretty well. We were really imposing our will on them early.”
The score was tied, 14-14, midway through the second quarter when fortunes shifted toward the Tar Heels.
Alijah Huzzie returned a punt 52 yards for a touchdown and Maye led North Carolina on a seven-play, 91-yard touchdown drive that ended with his left-handed, 7-yard flip to Kobe Paysour with a minute left before halftime.
Maye needed only one more touchdown drive and two field goals in the second half to secure the victory and hand Pitt its first three-game losing streak since 2020. Pitt countered with 101 yards of offense from scrimmage after halftime, only one more than freshman Kenny Johnson’s 100-yard kickoff return.
Pitt played the game without three injured starters, including center Jake Kradel, offensive left tackle Matt Goncalves and outside linebacker Bangally Kamara. The injuries to Kradel and Goncalves forced Pitt to use its fourth different offensive line in as many games.
But Narduzzi seemed certain before leaving the podium after the game that there’s nothing wrong with his team that plenty of hard work this week can’t fix.
“There are always ups and downs,” defensive tackle David Green said. “We’re down. We have to get back on our feet and try to bounce back.”