Sorry this is late, but the real world intruded for a bit.
Speaking as someone who was at the game, rather than watching on TV, I came away with mixed feelings.
Pitt definitely played one of its better games this year. The lines were less porous then they had been all year. Kicker, David Abdul, seemed to have saved his job for a couple more weeks by kicking two field goals (30, 43 yards). QB, Rod Rutherford, had a solid passing game and while Fitzgerald deservedly caught the most balls, the other receivers were involved. The defense had a strong day. Pitt held the ball for nearly 10 minutes longer than Syracuse.
Paul Pasqualoni, the Syracuse head coach, was denied his 100th win at ‘Cuse. Syracuse RB, Reyes, was held under 100 yards rushing. The defense had 2 interceptions and a sack.
That being said, I don’t think this could truly be called a “dominent” win. And while the defense played better than it has all year, it wasn’t making a “stand.”.
I don’t want to seem continually negative, but I still saw plenty of problems.
The offense is still having trouble getting plays in a timely manner. This is all on Coach Harris. He runs the offense, and this has been happening since 1997. After some point, you can’t just blame the QB for not getting the play — it has to fall on the shoulders of the guy responsible for choosing and sending it in. I don’t know why he continues to have this problem, I just know that it is costly.
The running game still sucks. Jawan Walker is afraid to be hit, or he thinks he can be Barry Sanders. His tap-dancing before an already weak offensive line, makes it impossible for him to generate much in the way of real yardage per carry. He had 14 for 47, but like the Rutgers game, the majority came on one carry. He had a 22 yard run in the 3rd quarter. Otherwise he drops to 13 for 25. On six of his runs they were for negative to 1 yard. Tim Murphy, who was 9 carries for 21 yards, will probably see more action because he at least showed a willingness to run straight ahead. This inability to run is why we were still worried up until the last five minutes of the game. Unlike last week, Pitt managed to hold the ball for nearly 5 minutes on a drive once, but for the most part they still could not do the long, sustained, clock-chewing drive.
“Blockhands” is not the answer as the second receiver. Princell Brockenbrough is supposed to be the #2 receiver for Pitt. He had some nice catches, but once again had some inexcusable dropped balls. I’m not sure if he’s taking his eyes off the ball to look upfield, or he doesn’t concentrate when it’s that easy, but Pitt may need to look at some of the other receivers as options.
Syracuse really did their best to help Pitt, from the top down. There was lots of sour grapes from Syracuse players, but there were some nuggets of truth.
Walter Reyes only touched the ball 22 times. One of the leading rushers in the country. The best offensive weapon for the Orangemen, and he didn’t even rush for 25 times. He still outrushed the entire Pitt team, and had a better yards per carry — nearly 4.5 yards per carry. Syracuse was only down by 7 at the half. Everyone knows Pitt wears down against the run. How can you not run him more? This is the sort of thing that has led to ‘Cuse fans wanting to get rid of Paul Pasqualoni.
Syracuse QB, R.J. Anderson imploded against Pitt. 7 for 18, 49 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT. It would take effort to have a worse day than that. He was missing his receivers horribly. Yet another reason to wonder why Reyes wasn’t getting the ball more. OF course, Anderson wins an award for idiocy with this statement.
“I don’t think I played all that bad,” Anderson said. “Look at the stats yourself and decide.”
Even the Syracuse faithful were disturbed by that sort of statement.
A bigger issue, however, is that RJ is the QB and team captain. Saying “I don’t think I played all that bad� after we got hammered by 20 points and our offense gave up as many as we scored, is not what I personally want to hear. I want to hear that the game sickens him. No, the blame doesn’t fall all on one person. However, in life, sometimes you have to take responsibility even when its not entirely your fault. Every Syracuse player and coach let the team down on Saturday, and it showed.
It wasn’t just Syracuse missing opportunities, though, it was horrible play-calling and execution by Syracuse, that made the score look worse than it really felt.
Still, it’s a win, and it is time to start looking to the game up in Boston.
