While the Pittsburgh offense has undergone plenty of changes, the defense is cut from the same cloth as recent seasons.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing given the track record under Pat Narduzzi.
“He’s been there for seven years they are who they are,” offensive coordinator Chad Scott said. “Versatile defense. They do a lot, they blitz a lot, they fly around, they’re athletic and 11 hats to the football.”
Through two games the Panthers are showing many of the same tendencies by slanting and moving around up front to create confusion for the offensive line while being effective with edge pressure.
That puts pressure on both the offensive line and running backs to be on the same page communication-wise to pick up pressure. That was an issue once against Albany, but that has been uncharacteristic of the Mountaineers as a whole.
Still, it will be tested against a Pittsburgh defensive line that moves around well and is well-coached. It will be critical for the Mountaineers to handle not only that but the pressures that the Panthers will use.
West Virginia head coach Neal Brown pointed out Kyle Louis, the star linebacker, that is making a bunch of plays off the edge and has created pressure for the Panthers while both of their safeties in Donovan McMillon and Javon McIntyre are both playing at a high level in the framework of the scheme.
The Mountaineers expect to see a lot of match quarters defense where the cornerbacks will be on the West Virginia wide receivers, and they will need to win in those situations.
“There’s really no surprise in what they do. They do what they do, and they’ve been doing it for a long time at high level,” Brown said.
That’s a testament to what Narduzzi does from a schematic standpoint as the panthers can align and regardless of the pieces on the defense, the structure is the same with the pieces being moved in a number of different ways to create issues for opposing offenses.
The Mountaineers will need to run the football against a unit that has stopped the run well of late, but winning those battles at wide receiver will be critical in order to move the football.
“They are who they are and I say that in a real positive manner because they’ve played quality defense for a really long time,” Brown said.
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