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Pitt defense has near record day against Oklahoma State

The Panthers’ defense struggled against the Cowboys and almost found themselves in the record books

NCAA Football: Pittsburgh at Oklahoma State Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports

Pitt’s defense, particularly the secondary, didn’t have a good game yesterday against Oklahoma State. But how bad was it? In doing my routine post-game stuff today, there was this nugget from Chris Peak:

To be honest, I hadn’t given much thought to just how bad the defense performed from a historical standpoint. But that they were only 35 yards from an all-time Pitt record is obviously a little more proof that those guys struggled almost beyond any reasonable comprehension.

Fortunately, they did tighten things up a little in the second half and at least keep the Cowboys out of the end zone less often. But 640 yards still shows they had a pretty rough day overall.

Ironically, while there were problems with the offense, too, that unit had their best day in terms of yardage in three years:

As I said before, I thought some of the playcalling was sort of bland and things could have been better to be sure. But they also had their moments and did a few things out there. Watching the postgame press conference this morning, even Pat Narduzzi basically said what a lot of us have been thinking - you score 38 points and it should be enough in most instances.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case yesterday. Pitt has plenty to clean up on both sides of the ball if they’re going to beat North Carolina next weekend.

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