Bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter feelings still. Not feeling any better about this game the next morning. It’s time to vent.

Sat down for the game with a beer, pad and pen. Turned to ESPN2 a couple minutes before 7pm. For amusement, I tabbed the info key on the remote about the game. This is, and I am quoting directly, how the Northeast Ohio Comcast program guide described it:

Pittsburgh at Connectitcut in Big East action at Rentschler Field. Senior RB Raymond Kirkley carries the load for the Panthers in their first-ever meeting with UConn.

Okay, interesting description. The crew for the game is Sean McDonough with play-by-play, Craig James doing color and Heather Cox on the sideline. They kick it back to the studio for a few minutes with Rece Davis and Mark May. Rece brings up Pitt’s D giving up 38 points to Furman, and you could see May dip his head and visibly wince.

You know what, I took some 14 pages of longhand notes and scribbles during this game and even stopped with some 5 minutes left in the game. Looking them over makes me see red once more, so I’ll spare everyone the details and summarize briefly. I still haven’t looked at the dailies or any mainstream write-ups. Just looked at the box score, drive chart and play-by-play.

So let’s start with some depressing facts. The O-line, once more killed this team. Pitt committed 8 penalties. I think the O-line was responsible for all but one. Mostly false starts, because they were so undisciplined and jittery. Pathetic. It is so hard to tell how good or bad the Running Backs are when they have no holes to hit. Kirkley, Furman and Mason all plowed straight ahead, but there was nothing to run through. Craig James kept pointing out that the only running game Pitt had was when Palko had to take off — and Palko really needs to learn to slide at the end of a run.

Same for Palko, the QB. He was only 11 for 31 with 267 yards, but he had absolutely no time to pass. He was their only offense. Pitt had 349 total yards, and Palko accounted for 316 of them (49 yards running, 267 passing). That might be normal if Pitt ran Nebraska’s old option offense, but not for this team.

Pitt’s first 2 offensive series were 3-and-out. They had a total of 7 for the game. Plus 3 drives that were for only for 4 plays. I’m amazed the offense managed to stay out there for 27:05 of the game.

The fact that the defense was out for nearly 33 minutes doesn’t excuse them. It especially doesn’t excuse the coaches who didn’t make adjustments to the pass coverage. The corners played 7-12 yards off the receivers the entire game. It was no wonder someone was always wide open across the middle. Just run a simple slant and there’s an easy pick-up. The defense got lazy or tired further into the game. Once more, they forgot to tackle and just tried to hit the receiver — allowing more yards after the catch. Orlovsky was not sharp early in the game. About half way through the 2nd quarter he was only 6-17. His receivers dropped several balls. After that point, though, he went 17-26 as UConn kept exploiting the middle of the field. There was no excuse not to make the adjustments. James and McDonough were even talking about the need to make adjustments for the second half — which resulted in a harsh, loud, barking laugh from me at that statement. And do I really need to mention the fact that the Josh Lay and Darrelle Revis both let interceptions they could have easily taken in for a touchdown bounce off their hands?

And the run defense. It just kept getting worse further into the game. It actually looked respectable in the first half. At one point in the first half, Brockington had 57 yards on 11 carries. 26 of the yards, though, came on one carry, so the run defense seemed decent enough. In the second half, however, he ran wild and ended up finishing with 185 yards on 31 carries! Way to keep him under 200 guys.

As far as I was concerned, though, the game was lost just before the half. Pitt puts together a nice drive sparked by a solid kickoff return by Furman. They get to the 10 yard line for first and goal. Palko misses DelSardo in the corner. Kirkley gets taken down for a 2 yard loss and Pitt takes a time out with 57 seconds left. I made a note next to that that said “they’ll run to preserve position.” So I expected a running play. But I didn’t expect Palko to just go sideways a couple yards. To not even try to run for any gain. All Pitt wanted to do was tie the game. Not to lose playing.

UConn was playing a different game. An aggressive one. They took a timeout so that after Cummings made the FG, they still had a little time on the clock. UConn had a solid return that brought the ball to midfield with 10 seconds left. A good throw along the sidelines for 18 yards (why was Henry so open over there?) allowing the receiver to get out of bounds with 2 seconds left. They take a crack at a 49 yard field goal and naturally make it. It was like the football gods were rewarding UConn for playing aggressive and punishing Pitt for not.

I don’t think there was a Pitt fan watching who just didn’t lose faith in the game at that point even with UConn only up by 3 at the half.

I honestly think, Harris may have lost just about all support amongst the fans in this game. He’s skirted close a couple times. The 2001 first half of the season with the spread. In 2002, the BC game — where many of us actually gave up and went out to the lot to drink. Last year he lost a lot of support, but you had to give him at least this year to see if he could turn it around. But now? Same mistakes. Same problems. Alienating the WPIAL coaches the way he has is virtually suicidal. For Harris and the team, it’s a good thing to have an away game next week. And by god they better beat Temple.

There were a couple positives in the game. If Palko ever gets protection, I really think he will be a great QB. Greg Lee showed moments of living up to his potential — including a point where he actually fought for a ball, and ripped it back from the corner covering him. DelSardo has been fantastic. This 5’8″ kid is playing so well. Graessle keeps improving on his punting — hopefully the concussion wasn’t bad.

Sorry I took forever to get this out. Had a lot of things to do this morning and afternoon.