Pitt's Pat Narduzzi hopes `complacency' didn't plague his team in loss to Miami

Since the loss to Penn State six weeks ago, Pitt’s season had gone so well that coach Pat Narduzzi wasn’t sure what led to the loss to Miami and the end to his team’s four-game winning streak.

“Tough one for our kids, tough one to swallow,” he said Monday during his weekly news conference. “Not only Saturday after the game but even Sunday. As you watch the tape, didn’t play our best ballgame, and for whatever reason sometimes that happens.”

He suggested “complacency, (being) comfortable” as reasons.

“I don’t know what it was. Again, give Miami credit,” he said. “They’re a good football team, top-15 defense in the country, and I think anytime you face that, you’re going to come up against some things.”

But there’s more to it than Miami’s defense, which came out of the game ranked 15^th overall while Pitt is 14^th.

Asked to further explain his “complacency” comment, he said, “I don’t know. Shoot, how do we really know? You don’t really know. I sure hope not.

“We try to make sure they don’t, but always, we’ve got to talk about it, got to think about it.”

Pitt handled adversity well during its winning streak, coming from behind in the fourth quarter to defeat Central Florida, Delaware and Duke and holding off a late Syracuse rally.

Narduzzi suggested that it’s more difficult to deal with success, however.

“I think adversity if you’ve got a bunch of tough guys, which we do, that’s easier than handling the success that you have at times, and we had some success,” he said. “We figured we’re going to find a way to get it done, and sometimes you just are one step behind, one play behind and don’t get it done. Who knows?

“Sometimes you’ve got to get slapped upside the face to figure it out, and, hopefully, they felt it. It didn’t feel good, and we have to respond.”

Perhaps a more specific reason for the loss was Pitt’s inability to score touchdowns and its failure in late-game situations, first to keep the ball away from Miami and, then, trying to catch up in the final minutes.

In its final two possessions, Pitt couldn’t get a first down, ran for only six yards on three attempts, threw three incomplete passes and was sacked.

“At the end, we got an opportunity to make probably three catches in that two-minute situation and don’t,” Narduzzi said. “We got a chance in that four-minute situation, which we’ve talked — it seems like — all year about, practicing those situations at the end of games, and again, obviously we failed in both those opportunities.”

Get the latest news about Pitt football and all things Panthers athletics.