Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi Press Conference after Comeback vs. Cincinnati

thanks to Pittsburgh meeting for uh coming today's game I'm sure you enjoyed it as much as our players did um it's a gutsy win by our guys couldn't be prouder of uh you know the effort they gave you know we came up in the fourth quarter said we're going to win this thing broke down on win again our guys believed um again it shows you true character um you know come back from you know being 21 down you know players made plays you know we made plays in the second half on offense and defense you know Eli had a much better second half than he did starting off um but know you kind of see some of that coming um the first half you what the time possession was but it was not good um you know U but uh you we lost that field you know time possession probably by 12 minutes or so uh so they had the ball a lot um you know you know we just didn't you know stay on the field offensively but we did in the second half and it's a heck of a win uh we got a happy football team in that lock right now and again they believed but again just shows true character so questions what went into the adjustments you Bo that you guys were great adjustments on Thursday you guys back up with the 21 come what one the adjustments on offense and get defense yeah you know defense was just you know making the play you know I don't know if there a ton of adjustments I mean they sat in there for a while at halftime and and uh and discussed a lot of things what they like what they didn't like you know you kind of clean up your game plan based on what they're doing and what they're showing and defensively that's what we do I don't know how many points we score in the second half but we make adjustments every series trying to figure stuff out and and take stuff away but that's a good football team I can tell you that they were a lot better today than they looked against Morgan State last year so I give them a lot of credit s SS he's a football player he made some great throws out you know out to you know the flats you know to to the receivers they did a nice job they got a good football team and but we have a better football team today you with you know what uh again he's he's shown you know uh in practice that uh that he's our guy right now and uh you know again we know Nate can do it too uh we just felt like the scramble ability and you know you know he didn't you know he didn't waver I mean I think if you look in the kids's eyes and you see any like you know dizziness I mean he was he was locked in and shoot he apologized to me after the game that'll never happen again I mean that's kind of who he is um so um you know glad we stuck with him because I don't think it happens at the end we you know kante mfield you Desmond Reed you know kind of talked about him for you know a month now about what he is you know 100 yards receiving 100 yards rushing that guy's a football player um and um you know credit goes to the players players make plays you know team win obvious did a nice job with the players make plays the twoo uh conversion decision at the beginning of the fourth quarter yeah um you know uh the recommendation you know on the you know when we were down 21 was to go for two and I didn't think momentum wise that was a smart decision so uh you know down 21 when we scored to go down I guess 15 you know the recommendation was to go for it there but I was like no you know momentum wise if you don't get it to me it didn't look good um but you know all the analytics tell you you need to go for it um we get one of those you know you're possibly playing for the win at all so we're not playing the tie playing the win we know we have good kicker and again our defense stepped up and and got this you know um you know the four minute get the ball back with 238 or whatever it was on the clock and and uh our guys made plays what happened for you guys seemed like one was consistently doing about two and a half quarters was isolating your cornerbacks getting quick passes out did you guys say hey clamp down you got to take those away or what was the adjust clamp down I mean there was some you know some major you stiff arm push offs you know that we just got to play better you know we we still got to get better at corner right now we got to get a lot of young guys out there um but uh you know you know we'll look at the video tape but you know they play better in the second half but um you know sorby can make those throws out there so if they you know they're running a 10 yard you know comeback I mean he was putting right on the money uh for the most part so um you know we got in to see different stuff in the second half um you know and some of those sacks uh were big plays great calls by bats Desmond Reed had a big game today when did you make of his performance you I already mentioned you know he's a football player um you know um you know I can't say enough I don't know when the last time someone had 100 yards receiving 100 yards passing his performance outstanding I'm sure he'll be the player of the week in the ACC if he's not something's wrong but he's a football player you feel like Eli just started to see the field better in the second half you know um you know possibly I mean I told you to drop an eight you got to be smart with the football and and um you know he did better job even in the second half of scram wouldn't taking the yards are going to give you if you don't feel good take off and run and he did that the second half as well um but uh he obviously saw the field you know better it was a couple scrambled throws that were good as well you know he can throw on the run and he made some plays obviously uh Jason started left guard Ryan was you know in uniform was Ryan able to play today yeah Ryan was unable to play today Jason Coler did a heck of a job of filling in and then Jason kind of went down with a little injury uh we didn't have him at the end of that second quarter I'm not sure how much time in the second quarter and then he got it together you know I give Jason CER ton of credit me the guy came back and and fought through um and um you know a little hamstring throw it right out there to Jerry where's Jerry at he's not there he would love that but he had a hamstring and and he came back in the second half he had a f maybe in the third quarter but Jason did a hecky job helping us win that football game so sols had two those two field goals but I think maybe more important one might have been the end of the first half did you make it his most important one was at the end of the game I mean that's a that's a game winner right there that's a big time play he we got a lot of faith in in in Ben sa and he was over 90% during C uh he's he's money and um you know again points are points whether in the first half or second half you know you take the three when when that's what you got and go with it you talked all week about how it he's going to drop a drop you saw a lot of times they had a second defender on a lot of you guys as primary targets what when Eli being able to settle down and Si that and find the right guys yeah I think experience I mean you know you can't you know you come into a you great atmosphere in Cincinnati they got they got a good game day atmosphere um and um you know just experience I you can't you can't get that in practice just you know the experience is just going to make him a heck of a lot better here as we move forward he knows he's been there now he's been on the road and um you know it'll make us better when you said Eli apologized to you that's just for not playing the way he wanted to in the first half yeah the way you know just like you know the first thing he said to me after the game it won't happen again um yeah just you know sorry coach but uh you know hey it wasn't just him it was all of us it was coaches and players and it's not just on quarterback heal he gets all the credit when are going good and uh sometimes he's going to get you know the minuses what he's not what's this do for a a program to have these are you don't see comebacks this size that often what do you think it does for you guys well I think it gives them belief you know we talk about faith and belief all the time and you know our guys believed and there was never time on the sideline you talk about emotion and energy on the sideline there was never a Time on on the sideline to where our guys didn't think they could get it done and I always talk about feeding off each other you know our offense scores and our defense you our defense got stronger as our offense kept scoring they got strong stronger that's what we didn't have a year ago where we are feeding off of each other and the offense scores we go up and then we get into Victory defense and and shut it down and win the game at the end so I mean like everything you know when you we had a 4minute stop we had a two-minute you know at the end of the half how about the two minute at the end of the half in the field goal you think that field go was important with was with 33 seconds left on the clock at the half and we get in field goal range and kick a 53 y I mean that's you know you had a gamewinner at the end of the half and they had a game wi you know at the end of the game Ben SS it seemed like in the second half there the defense really set up just based on what the linebackers were able to do the pressure on the quarterback just what did you think of their yeah I don't know how many pressure we had you know we didn't get enough but he got the ball out well I me he did a nice job um but uh I don't know how many sacks we had today um but we didn't get enough but he's good with the ball he's he's really good football player your defense allows seven yards in in the fourth quarter who did you see being the leader leading Bo out there to keep that team Keep Their Heads high and focused to make those kind of adjustments you know I don't I don't know I would say you know Brandon George would be one of them but I think you know coach players it takes it you better be more than it better be more than one guy you know I think you know coaches held it together and and we're positive on the sideline that's all you can be you know you coach it up off the iPad what you see uh get things better uh I snapped a couple times you know when I see some stuff on the iPad you know between series man you know and you know that's not good you know you know it's it's you know valuable to have those iPads out there just to you know know who you're attack and you can't wait till Sunday to figure it out um but uh you know we played much better at the corner position in the second half and um and again we made some plays and made some good adjustments anything final before we uh bring our players up when you make a hire like you did with Kade and then you see an offense like this do this in the second half what's it do just for the belief of like hey yeah I think we we did a good job getting this offense together um you know we've had believe for a while wasn't just you know after last week or after this week you know I told our team last night that you know I've got more confidence I've been you know coming in a 10 season I have more confidence in what our guys can do in that room I told them last night before they went to bed that uh you know I couldn't be more confident about what we can do on you know in really all three phases and we' made our mistakes trust me you know the penalties uh we'll look at those I mean we started twice you know inside the 15 yd line again it's hard for anybody to to go down there I think we started you know at the six yard line took it 94 yards for a touchdown as well uh but you know we we didn't have the winning we didn't win you know the time possession and we certainly didn't win the field position those are two critical things and you know special teams got to get better we've had two Holdings on kickoff return this season so far it's two and two that's not good and and it puts our you know we had some pretty good kickoff returns with Kenny Johnson you know uh you know hitting it up in there and you know they get called back for for a hold so we got we got to clean that stuff up I'm I'm just going to get the guys off that you know can't get it done and and uh and and go with guys that will Coach thank you very much