BACKUP QB HAS PROMISE
Transfer quarterback has signs of promise
Pat Narduzzi admitted that he didn’t know what to expect. And if you polled Pitt fans before a game Saturday at Miami, they would’ve said the same.
Joey Yellen was an unknown commodity when he stepped in for the injured Kenny Pickett. Unlike the player he was tasked to replace, Yellen didn’t have 32 starts, 46 touchdowns and 1,025 passing attempts under his belt at the college level. He didn’t have 283 carries or 19 interceptions in the stat book. Nope.
Yellen had nothing to his name other than a spot start last year for a different team in a different conference 2,000 miles across the country. Well, that and a couple of handoffs to Vincent Davis at Boston College.
But Saturday, Yellen was asked to do far more than just put in the gut of his running backs. Frankly, he couldn’t do that. If he did, Pitt would have scored less than it already did in its 31- 19 loss to Miami. Rather, Yellen was relied upon to carry the Panthers offense in a similar way Pickett has, for better or worse, the past two seasons.
The Arizona State transfer who joined Pitt in January attempted 46 passes. And all things considered, he made pretty good use of them. Yellen had 22 completions, including six hookups of 19 yards or more. The former Sun Devils player, whose only other college experience came in a loss to Southern California in 2019, didn’t throw two picks as he did in November 2019. He didn’t throw four touchdowns, either.
Yet Yellen showed signs of someone Pitt can win with, if needed.
Narduzzi said “there’s a chance” Pickett returns from his ankle injury this week against Notre Dame, and if not, he would hope No. 8 would be back after the Panthers’ off week. But Narduzzi also said Thursday that Pitt — a team missing five starters and four other contributors due to injury at Miami — was “pretty healthy.”
Taking what Narduzzi says about injuries with a grain of salt, there’s a good chance it’s Yellen again quarterbacking the Panthers Saturday at Heinz Field against No. 4- ranked Notre Dame. If so, there are obvious things he has to work on.
While it was encouraging to see Yellen stand tall and deliver from the pocket, he also needs to know when to escape or throw it away.
Pitt was humming on its first drive — a well- scripted opening to the game plan by offensive coordinator Mark Whipple — before Yellen was sacked for 12- yard loss on a first- and- 10 at the Miami 31. The series ended in a punt instead of at least a field- goal attempt. Yellen also stayed in the pocket too long on a third- quarter strip- sack that led to a Miami touchdown on its ensuing series.
“All the little things are kinda tough, especially early on, when you haven’t played in a little bit,” Yellen said. “There were a few that I could’ve gotten rid of it earlier and put us in a better spot.”
“He needs to throw the ball away or scramble and get the heck out of there,” Narduzzi added. “But I thought he played solid.”
Obviously, it wasn’t quite Pickett’s inaugural start in 2017 against Miami. But Yellen gave the Panthers a chance to win Saturday. That’s all you can ask for from an untested signal- caller making his debut on the road against a top- 15 team.
Containing King?
If you look at the box score and the box score alone, it will seem like a pedestrian game from Miami’s D’Eriq King. The dual- threat quarterback rushed for 51 yards on seven carries, getting loose for a 22yard run and not much else.
But the threat alone of King breaking contain was enough to freeze the defense on arguably the two biggest plays of the game.
On the Hurricanes’ first touchdown, King faked a quarterback draw and got middle linebacker Chase Pine to bite. Pine crashed to the line of scrimmage, leaving running back Cam’Ron Harris by himself with a ton of space. King dumped it over the front- seven’s collective head to Harris, who waltzed in for a 35- yard score.
Phil Campbell, one of Pitt’s starting outside linebackers, said the Panthers were expecting that play. But “bad eyes” and a “breakdown in communication” led to Miami’s first score.
Two quarters later, Hurricanes offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee ran a similar play out of a different formation — again, with the focus on King’s potential to run.
With tight end Will Mallory lined up in the backfield, King faked a quarterback draw, and Pitt’s defense collapsed toward the line. Mallory, meanwhile, slipped out of the backfield through the “B” gap untouched. Pitt’s pressure didn’t get home, and King lofted an easy 45yard catch- and- run score for his tight end.
That play specifically was one Pitt did not see on tape. Still, Narduzzi was less than pleased, saying Mallory should’ve been hit at the line of scrimmage instead of coming through clean.
When a reporter asked how well Pitt bottled up King, Narduzzi pointed to those two plays: “Obviously not good enough.”
Stat that mattered
Pitt moved the chains twice on third down on its first drive. After that, the Panthers converted only 1 of 15 third- down opportunities — and it’s obvious why.
Pitt’s average distance to go on third down was 10 yards.
Yellen’s opening- drive sack contributed to that. But more than anything, it was the lack of a runnning game. And without Pickett’s legs as a means to turn third- and- long into third- and- reasonable — Yellen, a pocket passer, didn’t scramble once — the offense struggled.
Chunk play tracker
Pitt’s live stats page makes note of both teams’ “chunk plays,” defined as a completion of 15 yards or more or a rush of 10- plus yards. Each week, we’ll see which team won the chunk play count — a good indicator of which offense did enough to win.
For the third consecutive week, Pitt lost the chunk play battle. Makes sense.
Miami wasn’t all that explosive, taking advantage of short fields on three of its four touchdown drives. Still, the Hurricanes were far more balanced with six passing plays of 15 yards or more and four rushing plays of 10- plus.
Meanwhile, Pitt had six chunk plays through the air and one on the ground — a 12- yard run by Todd Sibley six snaps into the game.
Did you notice?
• Todd Sibley carried the ball three times for 21 yards in the first quarter and was given only one more touch the rest of the game. When asked why Sibley didn’t get more carries, Narduzzi responded: “I don’t make calls on offense.”
• Marquis Williams did well dropping into zone coverage and reacting on his second career pick. The third- quarter interception must have been a cool moment for Williams, a South Florida native who has struggled at times in recent weeks. The Panthers got seven points off of it, too — though Williams wished he scored. The 5- foot9 speedster was pushed out at the 1 by King.
• Kirk Christodoulou had himself another day. The Aussie pummeled six punts. Four of them were downed or fair caught inside the Miami 20, while three of them were 50 yards or more. Christodoulou had the Panthers winning the field position battle in a tight game. That is, until the fake punt.
• Safety and upback Brandon Hill would’ve converted the secondquarter fake if not for a missed block by Sibley, and Pitt probably needed to pull off a play like that to upset the Hurricanes. But the timing was wrong. It was 7- 0, and the defense was getting after King.
Narduzzi’s team was in a good spot. Then Miami utilized the stop to score its second short- field touchdown and push its lead to 14- 0.
• With defensive tackles Keyshon Camp and David Green injured, redshirt freshman Deandre Jules got some playing time. Jules, who was inserted into the fray last week after Green went down and Devin Danielson picked up a minor injury, played more extensively at Miami. He recorded 1.5 tackles for loss, including a halfsack.
“The compliments that he was getting from the offensive coaches on a daily basis was borderline overwhelming,” Pitt defensive line coach Charlie Partridge said Tuesday about Jules’ time on the scout team. “Then we gave him a couple opportunities in practice that he took advantage of. And he just kind of built from there.”
Health update
Camp and Green weren’t the only Panthers not to travel. Freshman running back Israel Abanikanda, linebacker Wendell Davis and tight end Lucas Krull also stayed in Pittsburgh.
For the fourth game in a row, however, Pitt had zero absences related to COVID- 19.