Alan Robinson of the AP has a solid piece on Pitt’s struggles. He doesn’t sugar-coat things.
If Notre Dame was a bad game, last Friday’s 16-10 overtime loss at Mid-American Conference bottom-feeder Ohio U. was an abomination, arguably one of the three worst losses in school history. Only a 2001 defeat to Division I-A newcomer South Florida and a 1984 defeat to Temple, two years removed from Pitt being No. 1 in the country, were worse.
And, for all the rah-rahing about n’er-do-well Ohio winning before an excited, loud crowd — the kind of atmosphere that exists at most college campuses every weekend, not just once in a lifetime — Pitt knows it lost the game more than Ohio won it. Two interceptions returned for touchdowns against Tyler Palko, who lit up Notre Dame for five TD passes and was intercepted only twice in his final six games last season, will do that.
…
What most concerns Pitt followers is the breakdown of what always was its strongest asset during the Harris days: an innovative, well-executed and tough-to-stop passing game. Palko, now in former Ravens offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh’s system, doesn’t resemble the player he was a year ago, when he became the first Pitt sophomore quarterback to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season.With defenses keying on his only reliable receiver, Greg Lee, Palko looks lost without Harris’ guidance and game-planning. He also can’t like what Wannstedt said Monday about putting an even greater emphasis on running the ball.
“We’re confident we can run the ball. We’re going to line up and run the ball,” said Wannstedt, who committed before the season began to being run-oriented. “We’re not going to back away from anything.”
It’s hard to disagree with the assessment. Pitt is 92nd in passing and 95th overall in offense. That isn’t balance. That’s just bad.
Mike Prisuta does his best to defend Wannstedt by saying that Pitt just wasn’t that good of a team and that as Palko goes, so goes the Panthers.
Pitt’s new coach had been even more resigned in the wake of what most perceived to be the unthinkable Friday night in Athens, Ohio.
“It is what it is,” Wannstedt had acknowledged then. “We are what you saw. Unfortunately, we’re not a very good football team.”
On one hand, that’s a cop-out on the part of the new head coach.
On the other, that’s the hand Wannstedt’s been dealt.
Pitt isn’t a very good team.
If the administration had perceived the Panthers as such, Walt Harris would still be here.
That was easy to lose sight of in the wake of the phenomenal enthusiasm generated by Wannstedt’s arrival, and when recalling the magical performances by Tyler Palko against Boston College, Notre Dame and West Virginia that helped prevent what turned out to be an 8-3 regular season from degenerating into 5-6 or worse.
Pitt was reminded Friday night just how much it depends on its quarterback to be brilliant.
The thing is, Palko was far less than brilliant last year against Ohio and Pitt won 24-3. Prisuta only concedes as far as the coaching goes, that the number of penalties are a problem and that the play calling at the end of Ohio got a little too conservative. Gee, you think?
Let’s face it, this is all about the Ohio loss. Even the energy sucking loss to Notre Dame doesn’t compare in terms of demoralizing and giving rise to more than merely questions than losing to Ohio.
Ron Cook, actually has a good column.
But there’s no getting around the loss at Ohio. It was just horrendous.
That’s why it was hard to buy into Wannstedt’s attempt at a positive spin yesterday. “You can’t lump the whole team into this,” he said. He talked of the strides Pitt made against Ohio with its defense, running game and special teams. Well, guess what? Pitt is supposed to make big strides against a weak opponent. Beyond that, it has to win the game, no matter how poorly it plays. It failed miserably.
It was a lot easier to believe Wannstedt when he predicted quarterback Tyler Palko will bounce back from his awful performance. “He’s our guy. He’s won a lot of games around here and will continue to win a lot of games.” To give Palko a better chance, Wannstedt has replaced wide receiver Joe DelSardo in the starting lineup with Derek Kinder, more of a speed guy. “We need to threaten people. That wasn’t happening,” Wannstedt said. Palko was throwing for DelSardo on each of his three interceptions at Ohio. That was a big part of his problem. He needs to look more for Greg Lee — his best playmaker — especially in the red zone and in overtime.
It would be nice if Wannstedt could plug in a few new offensive linemen, but that won’t happen until next season. Palko was under pressure all night at Ohio. Walt Harris didn’t exactly leave Wannstedt much in terms of big people, offensively or defensively. That’s no excuse for losing to Ohio. There is no excuse for that. It just means Wannstedt needs to do a better job recruiting big guys.
In the meantime, Pitt’s coaches and players need to find the resiliency and mental toughness they showed last season.
It pains me slightly to agree this much with Cook, but he’s right. The players need to overcome this more than the coaches do. They need be the ones to find some pride and start showing something more when they put on the helmet.
Just a thought, but where has Paul Dunn been hiding, anyways? Haven’t heard from the offensive line coach since he was getting puff pieces back when he was hired. Shouldn’t he be coming in for some criticism at this point? Shouldn’t he be out there explaining things a little. The O-line, in its attempts to do more run-blocking has become a sieve for pass protection, and it hasn’t looked that great in the run-blocking.
