Pitt's Pat Narduzzi dissects decisions made by himself, coaches, players during loss to Western Michigan

The feeling you get listening to Pat Narduzzi discuss the Western Michigan game is this:

Those around him in the days after Pitt’s 44-41 loss didn’t have a great weekend, and that appears to include his assistants and the coach himself.

During his weekly news conference Monday, the head coach suggested he might pay closer attention to calls coming from the coaches’ box upstairs where defensive coordinator Randy Bates sits.

“I’ve got to do a better job. I trust our defensive staff. I really just trust our defensive staff, but there’s times where I’ve just got to … I’m trying to make decisions on offense and the things were going fast.

“To just hang on the headphones on the defense the whole time, it’s tough. But I’m going to have to get over there a little bit more just to see what’s going on.

“And we didn’t make in-game adjustments like I would like to and I’m used to. I told our defensive staff, as I watch the video from the video session, as I watched it on Saturday night and Sunday morning, I’m looking at it (saying), ‘If I would have saw that from the box, I know what I’m doing and we didn’t do that.’ And I’ve got to put it on me, because, ultimately, I’ve got to get it done somehow, some way.

“Over the weekend, I thought about maybe a head coach sitting up in the damn box this week, just coaching from the box.”

Dave Wannstedt did it in 2007 after knee and Achilles surgery, but Narduzzi was thinking about what he did when he was defensive coordinator at Michigan State. He coached from the box but came down to the bench in the fourth quarter as a way to motivate his players.

“Yeah. I mean, I thought about that, too. No question about it. No doubt about it,” he said. “I can see a lot up there. It’s hard to see on the field.

“It goes back to right here, me. Somehow I’ve got to get it done.”

Narduzzi also was questioned about his decision not to punt on fourth-and-6 from the Western Michigan 48 with more than 10 minutes left in the game. Quarterback Kenny Pickett was sacked, and the Broncos turned it into a field goal and a 10-point lead.

“I thought about it. I felt like punting and Whip (offensive coordinator Mark Whipple) felt like he had a good call,” Narduzzi said. “If he’s ‘I don’t know,’ we’re punting. If he’s ‘Hey, I got this,’ then, we (go).

“You have regrets as coaches. We want to be a little bit more risky in times like that. You trust Kenny Pickett, and you trust your wideouts to make plays and get the right depth. Sometimes, you win. Sometimes, you lose.”

Narduzzi said analytics might suggest going for the first down, but he added, “To me, it comes down to a coach’s decision, so I don’t blame analytics. We have to either execute, or I have to say, ‘We can’t execute so we’re going to punt.’ But I also know our defense wasn’t stopping anybody.”

Western Michigan ended up with more than 40 minutes of possession time.

Pitt allowed a MAC offense to be — as he put — “two-dimensional” while rolling up 517 yards. Narduzzi’s defense is designed to stop the run first, but Pitt couldn’t stop any aspect of the Western Michigan attack.

“You leave yourself open to some RPOs (a Western Michigan staple),” he said when asked if stopping the run can leave holes in the pass defense. “You always do if you’re committed to stopping the run. The worst part of it is when you’re committed to stopping the run, you don’t stop the run.”

He also spoke in specifics, mentioning that a defensive end he didn’t identify rushed the quarterback in a run situation late in the game.

“‘What did you think? They were going to throw the ball in a four-minute situation?’ ” he said. “Those are what tells me like, ‘What are we thinking about out there.’ ”

Earlier, speaking in generalities, he said, “Physically, we were prepared. I’m not sure mentally we were.”

He mentioned cornerback M.J. Devonshire falling down on Skyy Moore’s 30-yard touchdown reception and (strong safety) Brandon Hill knocking “the heck out of 31 (free safety Erick Hallett).”

That also resulted in a touchdown.

“I mean, those are two big ones. And then, really, that (34)-yard run by (Sean Tyler) in a four-minute situation where we got a safety kind of runs out of the box, which we worked a million times, and doesn’t do his job. They aren’t going to hand it off to the jet sweep guy and we don’t fit it right.

“You don’t do your own job, and that’s when things leak out on you. To play great defense, everybody has to do their job.”