WATCH: Pat Narduzzi reacts to tough loss against Clemson

Tony Crumpton - Assoc. Editor - Saturday, November 16 2024

Clemson won a thrilling 24-20 road win against Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon.

Check out Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi's post-game introductory comments and his full press conference as he reacts to tough loss.

"Well, one heck of a football game, I can tell you that," Narduzzi said. "I feel bad for our seniors. Wanted to get it for those guys. We had a six-game win streak on senior day and our kids fought their tails off.

"As usual, it's a team loss. We did it together. There's plays on offense, defense that you wish you had back, but I love the group in there. They fought their tails off to the end. Didn't go our way. Game of inches.

"You look at the defense, played their tails off the entire game, on the field for almost 35 minutes. They had one drive at the end of the second quarter where they hit two big posts on us. Our guys tightened down, we made some adjustments and fixed it. But that, and then the two-minute at the end of the half where they made some plays and we didn't, wasn't some good coverage, and they got a field goal before the half, which was a critical field goal.

"Then again, we pitch a shut-out defensively in the second half until 1:36 in the game and the quarterback draw, which they've run quarterback draws. They got us in a good coverage for it. Our stunt up front probably wasn't as clean as you'd like. We'll look at the tape. I briefly saw it from an iPad but was focused on the two-minute for our offense at the end.

"Then offensively, they hung in there, made a lot of plays. Again, there was a lot of good plays out there for us. Nate Yarnell had a heck of a game.

"I think we didn't protect the quarterback. We've had some shuffling going through the O-line as you guys know, and Jackson Brown had to start at the right tackle spot, another change in the O-line. Jacoby was out in the second quarter, I believe, so we had another change there.

"Again, just part of the game. It's next man up. We got banged up last week, we got banged up a little bit more today on top of that. But I love the way our guys played.

"We had an opportunity offensively. You look at it, we had a missed field goal in the second quarter, I believe. A long one, not easy. Ben has been outstanding all year, and he's a hell of a kicker.

"Then we had the goal line stand down there, 1st and goal at the 2. We didn't break the huddle fast enough a couple of times. We were huddling up; maybe we should have just gone tempo, and we were too slow getting lined up, and it starts with me making sure they're ready to go.

"I call a time-out when Derrick Davis goes over the top. I don't know if they stop play, and I didn't see that play yet, but I look back at myself like maybe if I didn't call that time-out, maybe it's a delay and we score a touchdown and we don't matter. But we need to score at the 2-yard line. We've got to get -- six points instead of seven. Put that one on me for calling a time-out. I was just worried about that clock going down. We were tight on time, and I didn't want to be backed up five yards for a delay of game. So operationally we've got to clean that up.

"But the kids fought hard, and it's the game of football. They did a nice job at the end. Cade Klubnik had a heck of a play."