Pat Narduzzi seeks perfection (or something close to it) with Pitt's season on the line

In the context of his offense and quarterback, Pat Narduzzi said mistakes happen, and no one’s perfect.

Which is true.

But Pitt has made just enough misplays this season to be in the precarious position of needing to win Thursday at Heinz Field against North Carolina to stay alive in the hunt for the ACC Coastal championship. A loss will eliminate the Panthers.

“Kenny has played really good at times and played average at times, which is kind of the game of football,” Pitt’s coach said of Kenny Pickett, his junior quarterback. “He’s not going to be perfect. There’s nobody in this room perfect. Certainly, I’m not perfect.”

Then, when asked if continually slinging the football to all corners of the field can lead to turnovers, he said it again. But that doesn’t mean he accepts the situation.

“We know things are going to happen,” he said. “Nobody is perfect, but we’ve been a turn-over-the-ball-in-the-first-half type of team the last couple weeks, and we’ve got to get that out of our system.”

It’s difficult to play the perfect game. But Pitt needs to get closer to perfection than it has shown recently, starting Thursday.

If Pitt (6-3, 3-2) wins, the Panthers will move a half-game behind first-place Virginia (7-3, 5-2) in the ACC Coastal. A loss, however, ends Pitt’s hope of repeating as Coastal champion, even if it wins its final two games against Virginia Tech and Boston College.

The season is on the brink largely because Pitt has been unable to run effectively and avoid turnovers. Those two factors helped lead to a failure to score a touchdown in a 16-12 home loss to Miami.

Pickett threw for a season-low 146 yards, with two interceptions, in that game.

But those around him must share the blame.

• Pickett has been sacked multiple times in five games. Pitt lost three of them.

• Pass-catchers have been charged with 27 drops, according to Pro Football Focus.

That latter stat, of course, is partially a product of an increased emphasis on the passing game, which has been mostly a blessing but a bit of a curse for Pitt this season.

While attempting 323 passes — partially to compensate for a ground game that is 106th in the nation — Pickett is almost last in yards per completion (9.9, 104th of 109 qualifying quarterbacks).

That explains one of the strangest stats of the season: Wide receiver Maurice Ffrench is third in the nation with 76 catches but 76th in yards (606).

Pickett has thrown six of his eight interceptions in three of the past four games, helping drop Pitt to among the most generous of ACC teams. Overall, Pitt has committed 16 turnovers, and its defense has picked up only 11. Only two ACC teams have committed more turnovers. Only one has gained less.

In the Georgia Tech game, Pickett threw two interceptions for the fourth time this season.

Is that the price to pay when leaning heavily on a passing game?

While assessing the two interceptions by Georgia Tech, Narduzzi let Pickett off the hook for one and blamed him for the other.

“We have to stop the turnovers,” he said, “but one of them, we tip it to them. One probably is a bad throw. He kind of looked the receiver down, which brought the free safety over there, which are little details we can correct.”

The turnovers also bring up the question of whether Narduzzi is suggesting a more conservative passing attack to offensive coordinator Mark Whipple.

“It would make me want to hand the ball off to someone I trust,” Narduzzi said. “Once you run a zone blitz, and it gets you beat, what? Is it going to slow you down from zone blitzing? Heck, yeah. If you rush the punter, and you run into him, do you think we’re going to rush the punter the next time? Probably not.

“I think any time things happen in games, it’s natural for you to go, ‘OK, hold on. What can we do? What are our guys capable of doing right now, and how do I not throw the game by just chucking it as deep as I want to or doing things that really hurt the football team?’

“I think it’s just being smart.”