PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi closed practice this week and made his quarterbacks off limits to the media. Clearly Narduzzi is tired of talking about his team’s inability to find any sort of offensive rhythm, one that is lacking regardless of who is under center.

Ben DiNucci has been OK ... in spots. Max Browne has been OK ... in spots. The results, however, have been anything but OK . The Panthers (1-3) take the first three-game losing streak of Narduzzi’s tenure into Saturday’s visit from Rice (1-3). And while the Owls have their own decidedly real-world concerns — namely, helping their community recover from the widespread flooding that followed Hurricane Harvey — from a football standpoint, the defense is proving effective when it’s a fair fight.

While Rice was lit up in losses to Stanford and Houston, the Owls have been stingy against fellow Conference USA opponents, holding both UTEP and Florida International under 275 total yards. The Panthers rank 87th or worse in nearly every major offensive category, from points (109th) to rushing (97th) to total offense (108th).

Rather than panic, Pitt plans to double down on fundamentals. The playbook is more likely to contract than expand regardless of who is at quartervback.

“We’ve got a pretty lengthy playbook, and every week you pick stuff that you like, but it comes down to execution, so the more stuff you throw in, it’s like playing flag football, if you’ve got 10 things on your wristband and you’re bad at all of them, it’s not very good,” Narduzzi said.