How Pitt became the first team to shut out Kyle McCord: “I don't think Syracuse has seen a defense like us”

PITTSBURGH — Syracuse's offense had been able to move the ball in every game of the season until Thursday night. But Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi went into the game believing the Orange had never seen anything like the Panthers this season.

Pitt's approach to defending Kyle McCord and the Orange in a 41-13 win Thursday night was nothing new in the rivalry. But it was still enough to rattle a quarterback who had played like a Heisman Trophy candidate in the first half of the season.

“To be honest, I don’t think Syracuse saw a defense like us in this game,” Narduzzi said. “I think they saw a lot of soft coverage and open access for the quarterback to throw it to. We were pretty happy with what we were going to give him, but maybe they wouldn’t handle it like they did in previous games.”

These soft coverages have been an easy choice this season for McCord, a smart quarterback with an accurate arm who is among the quickest in the country at getting the ball out of his hands, which is a must on a team with mediocre offensive line play necessity is.

However, Pittsburgh's approach is unique. It's always been that way.

Narduzzi's teams put pressure in the middle. Many teams that regularly blitz attack play soft coverage behind them, trying to make big plays on defense while minimizing the risk of being burned by them.

However, the Panthers are doubling down on their aggressiveness, playing press coverage and challenging teams to try and beat them deep. Over the past six seasons, Syracuse has rarely had the playmakers needed to do that.

The Orange scored more than 20 points once against Pittsburgh during that span, the only game Su won during that span. This happened last year when the Orange debuted the Villari Cat and surprised the Panthers with a run-heavy approach that resulted from an injury to quarterback Garrett Shrader.

Syracuse and McCord couldn't beat Pittsburgh deep. While McCord had shown excellent throwing distance all season, he only connected on one of eight passes over 20 yards on Thursday. The Orange are playing without Yazeed Haynes, who is expected to be the team's biggest threat.

Without Haynes, Syracuse has a fleet of strong possession receivers. The majority of the Orange's passing distance comes from short passes and accumulated first downs. Pittsburgh contested those throws and McCord had three passes that were tipped and ended up in Panthers hands.

“That’s pretty much what we do,” Narduzzi said. “It’s not like we played any different defense out there.”

While Pittsburgh's philosophy is predictable, McCord pointed out that's not the case with the Panthers.

On many plays, the Panthers had at least seven players crowded together in the penalty area, which always gave the impression that they were exerting intense pressure. According to Pro Football Focus, Pittsburgh beat McCord on 38.6 percent of his passing plays. Half of SU's opponents this season have blitzed more. McCord has largely picked apart these blitzes.

While the rate was still high, it was – surprisingly – the lowest blitz rate recorded by Pitt against Syracuse on PFF since 2017. The Panther defense was actually more effective when they chose not to blitz.

Despite blitzing less often than many SU opponents, Pitt pressured McCord with a season-high (35.7 percent of his dropbacks).

The Panthers frequently blitzed to speed up McCord's timing and then sent one to three linebackers out of the penalty box and back into pass coverage.

“We’re getting into our drops quicker,” Pitt linebacker Braylan Lovelace said of the key to the defense. “They like to sit there and tackle us and box us out, play it like basketball. They play a lot in midfield. He has certain goals that he likes to hit in certain situations.”

According to PFF, all five of McCord's interceptions and three of the four plays in which he was sacked came when the Panthers were not blitzing.

McCord said Pittsburgh used some coverages he didn't see on film.

“We changed some passing concepts because we know where Kyle McCord wants to throw it,” Pitt linebacker Kyle Louis said. “He tried to throw it there. He definitely tried out most of our linebackers.”

On some obvious passing downs, Pittsburgh would overload one side of the line. In others, they placed their personnel in surprising locations. Center Josh Illaoa called it the “most exotic” approach the Orange have this season.

The combination of these approaches tested Syracuse's average offensive line and allowed Pitt to generate more pressure as fewer players actually rushed the quarterback and more of them dropped into pass coverage.

“You have to give them credit for what they did,” McCord said. “At times they put us under pressure and still did a good job of covering the routes further down the field. Sometimes they would show pressure and break off, play coverage and still come home with four. … They staged us pretty well.”

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