With Pride on the Line Pitt, Pat Narduzzi Fall Flat

PITTSBURGH -- Pat Narduzzi has talked a big game about his Pitt Panthers. Despite falling from a top-20 ranking at the beginning of the year to 4-4 after three losses in four games, all to conference opponents, Narduzzi has said that this team is better than their record would indicate - "undefeated", in fact.

As the evidence mounts that Pitt is unextraordinary, Pat Narduzzi continues to maintain the opposite - that their best is yet to come and this team is inches, not miles, away from their 2021 form.

This game gave Pitt an opportunity to prove Narduzzi right and after three quarters, it looked like the Panthers were well on their way to doing just that. The passing offense came alive, an explosive offense had been defended well and they held a double-digit lead over a top-25 team and the division leader on the road.

Then it all fell apart. The Panthers were outscored 28-7 in the second half and 21-0 in the fourth quarter. A fumble from the ever-reliable Israel Abanikanda, his first of the season, opened the floodgates, North Carolina's halftime adjustments overwhelmed a tired Pitt defense and the offense that shredded their opponents in for 45 minutes completely disappeared.

But forget how and why the result was what it was. Pitt's honeymoon period from last year's ACC Championship season is officially over if it wasn't already. So much of the goodwill has been washed out to sea along with any hope of contending for a second-straight ACC title.

This Pitt team - everyone from the players up to the head coach - has felt from the beginning of the season that they were disrespected. They had high expectations for themselves and instead of earning that respect on the field, have fallen flat.

Weeks ago, it was possible to explain away these losses to uncharacteristic performances or mounting injuries. But Pitt is relatively healthy - or at least as healthy as they can hope to be for the remainder of the season - and still underperforming.

Rent has come due for these Panthers and their confidence. They are not the team they and many fans thought they were. For Pitt, the laws of karma demand that every high is met by many more lows and this is one of them. How they right the ship is unclear and their path back to where they had hoped to be is beginning to look more like a pipe dream than something that could actually be walked by this deeply flawed team.

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