Pitt aims to clean up offensive line play before next test vs. N.C. State

No player more personified Pitt’s penalty woes over the weekend at Syracuse than Kendall Stanley, who was flagged for five of the team’s 13 infractions.

In particular, three of Pitt’s four false start penalties were on Stanley, who also had an unnecessary roughness call in the fourth quarter.

While Pitt’s offense eventually got into a rhythm with timing as the game went on, early in an eventual 30-13 win, false start flags were flying frequently, with three in the first quarter.

Coach Pat Narduzzi chalked up those frustrations to the environment at JMA Wireless Dome, which got louder than anticipated.

“I think we got a little bit frazzled,” Narduzzi said. “… It was noisy, and like I said, I’ll put that on me. That’s not Kendall’s fault. I’ll blame myself. I just didn’t have (the crowd noise played during practice) loud enough, I guess. Maybe we should have gone to a silent cadence, I guess.”

Stanley’s position group as a whole allowed a season-high seven sacks of quarterback Mason Heintschel, another area of concern despite Pitt comfortably beating the Orange.

For offensive line coach Jeremy Darveau, the root causes were multi-pronged.

But inescapable is the reality Pitt simply lost multiple battles with Syracuse’s defensive linemen and blitzers.

“They were trying to overload our protection,” Darveau said. “They would bring four or five guys to a side, drop all to one side out of it and try to overload us. I’d say we numbered things up pretty decently, but we just didn’t win all of our blocks.

“That’s what a lot of teams will try to do is get one-on-one matchups. You’ve got to win those one-on-one matchups and, unfortunately on Saturday, we didn’t win as many times as we wanted to.”

Darveau also pointed to the Panthers frequently being in third-and-long as having ceded schematic advantage to the Orange.

“What’s causing (the sacks)? It trickles back to first down,” he said. “You’ve got to have success on first down and you’ve got to have success on second down so that you can stay on schedule. I think 90%-plus of our third downs were third-and-5 or plus. That allows a defense to now play their random fronts, put their ears back and go and play with confusion.”

The numbers from Saturday back up Darveau, as Pitt on average faced third down and 9.2 yards to go.

“For us, it’s performing better on first and second down, and penalties are a big part of it,” Darveau said. “Putting our guys in better position on first and second down will help us, for sure.”

Following Saturday’s win, Narduzzi indicated he had not considered replacing Stanley at left tackle, with the UNC Charlotte transfer starting for Pitt the past two games because of an injury to Jeff Persi.

Per Darveau, Jiavani Cooley would be next in line at left tackle, were Pitt to make another switch or in the event of an injury.

But Darveau largely has been pleased with how Stanley has performed.

“He’s got such a high level of athletic ability, it really is insane watching that kid move around,” Darveau said. “We’ve just got to control his technique a little bit. He’s so athletic and so twitchy that sometimes he plays out of position. … Finding a way to throttle that a little bit and get him to play more within the framework of being an offensive lineman has been the challenge that he’s had to address here over the last couple weeks that he’s been starting.”

Directly next to Stanley has been Ryan Carretta, who’s served as Pitt’s starting left guard since Keith Gouveia suffered a season-ending injury Sept. 27 against Louisville.

Carretta, who prepares to make his fourth career start Saturday when N.C. State visits Acrisure Stadium, has earned high marks from Darveau.

“I think he’s probably one of the more dependable guys as far as being where he needs to be,” Darveau said. “He’s not going to bust. We track mental errors and physical errors every week, and his mental errors are one over two games. He’s really locked into the game plan and what we’re doing.”

On the ground at Syracuse, Pitt rushed for 117 yards but only averaged 2.7 yards per carry, making it another needed area of improvement for when the Wolfpack arrive this weekend.

For Narduzzi, the offensive line was far from the only players or position group to perform below desired expectations.

But with the Panthers looking to win a fourth straight game, corrections need to be made.

“The great thing is they’re not going to not execute two weeks in a row,” Narduzzi said. “They will be a lot better this weekend.”