It’s really after the fact, but before all the looking to the Backyard Brawl begins, some of what I thought about the game.
I really liked UConn Coach Randy Edsall’s decision to go for the touchdown when they got that penalty that put them that much closer to the goal line. Screw “taking points of the board” mentalities. It was only 3 points and they still would have been down by 11. Considering how dominate UConn had been in the 2nd quarter, though coming up empty — they held the ball for a mind-boggling 12:09 minutes in just the second quarter, but had 0 points. A FG would have been very small consolation for the team. If they had scored a TD going into the half, though, that would have changed a lot of things.
Last year Pitt had a bad offensive line and the best player on the line, Rob Pettiti graduated. This year the O-line has been worse and Pitt will see the best player, Charles Spencer, graduate. I know there is a lot of young talent coming in, but that realization still bothers me to no end.
There will be no power-running game until there is an offensive line that can block and open up holes. Coach Wannstedt and Coach Cavanaugh can talk about it, talk about the transition and the change. But if the O-line can’t block, it won’t make a difference how talented the runner is.
A rusty QB coming off an an injury who was lucky to only be intercepted 3 times with his scattershot aim, did not have the excuse of running for his life. Bonislawski faced no pressure. Pitt’s D-line was hideous.
Bonislawski just had no accuracy with even a medium pass. 1st Quarter: 6-8, 19 yards; 2nd Quarter 6-13, 75 yards; 3d Quarter 2-4, 22 yards; 4th Quarter 4-10, 40 yards and 3 INT. Yeep.
In a game where it seemed the offense appeared to go into ball-control, eat-the-clock mode after the first score. A game where Palko’s longest completed pass was 25 yards — to the Tight End. Where only 4 of Palko’s 12 completed passes were to the WRs. I wonder if there is just a small, deep, buried part of himself that wonders if former back-up QB Joe Flacco had the right idea to transfer?
Explain to me again, why Freshman Fullback Conredge Collins had his redshirt wasted?
10 games down, and I still have no clue about this team. Aside from better secondary play, most of the units seem to still be at about the same level since the about the fourth game. It all depends on the opponent. I guess there is consistency rather than playing up or down to the opponent, but that seems like small comfort.
