There’s been a lot of experts, pundits, media and fans that have studied the Pitt Panthers defense over the past 3 seasons under Head Coach Pat Narduzzi. In almost all of these cases, the focus and perhaps blame for their dismal performance has been squarely placed on the shoulders of the Pitt secondary. The logic goes something like this: the Pitt defense surrendered an average of 254 yards per game last season (2017) and more specifically the Pitt secondary simply couldn’t handle the man-to-man coverages assigned by former Pitt DC, Josh Conklin. The year before it was roughly 332 yards per game to even further cement the point.

But in reality, that has not been the true culprit of Pitt’s defensive woes.

Pitt’s defense has been the victim of one massive flaw: a non-existent pass rush. Think of this, Pitt only recorded 23 sacks all season last year. Aaron Donald alone recorded 29.5 sacks in his 4 seasons at Pitt and that was from the DT position (by one player) by comparison. The leading sack specialist last year for Pitt was Sean Idowu with a whopping 5 sacks from his Star LB spot.

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