masthead.jpg

switchconcepts.com, U3dpdGNo-a25, DIRECT rubiconproject.com, 14766, RESELLER pubmatic.com, 30666, RESELLER, 5d62403b186f2ace appnexus.com, 1117, RESELLER thetradedesk.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER taboola.com, switchconceptopenrtb, RESELLER bidswitch.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER contextweb.com, 560031, RESELLER amazon-adsystem.com, 3160, RESELLER crimtan.com, switch, RESELLER quantcast.com, switchconcepts , RESELLER rhythmone.com, 1934627955, RESELLER ssphwy.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER emxdgt.com, 59, RESELLER appnexus.com, 1356, RESELLER sovrn.com, 96786, RESELLER, fafdf38b16bf6b2b indexexchange.com, 180008, RESELLER nativeads.com, 52853, RESELLER theagency.com, 1058, RESELLER google.com, pub-3515913239267445, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
November 12, 2006

Struggling With This One

Filed under: Big East,Football,Opponent(s) — Chas @ 9:18 am

I still don’t know what to say. I was on the phone with Lee as he described the action to me in the OTs. I saw the replays of the 2-point conversion.

I’ve read the stories in the ‘Burgh dailies. Both said the same sort of thing. Pitt’s offense went way too conservative, way too soon. The defense couldn’t make a tackle. Everything else just filled in around it. They aren’t the fans. They don’t feel the same anger, so I accept that I’m not seeing things particularly unbiased at the moment. So the articles pissed me off because I see them as crap pieces that are being way too nice and nary a peep about how poorly the defense was designed.

Instead, to get a better idea, this from UConn’s Randy Edsall on how D.J. Hernandez went from 51 carries for 69 yards and 47-89 with 6 INT and 3 TDs; to a night with 17 runs for 130 yards plus 20-29, 164 yards and 4 TDs passing.

Edsall said one of the things that had helped Hernandez in this game was that the Panthers didn’t pressure a whole lot with five and six men. And when they did, the Huskies had pretty good protection.

“He had a sense he could stay in the pocket and not get flushed, particularly in the second half,” Edsall said. “He really knew where everything was and had a feeling where everything was. Where he could step up or get inside or outside.”

Yes, because the best thing a defense can do for a young, inexperienced QB is let him have time. Glad to help. Glad that the Pitt defense was unable to pressure or contain. It does wonders for confidence and stats.

Now, if you’re like me, you saw the 2-point conversion and Clint Session take a tremendous leap at Hernandez’s little toe. Rather then try and cut him off or stay upright and just make him throw or run out of bounds.

In Connecticut, and the “Legend of D.J. Hernandez,” the story will be told differently.

The vision of Clint Session swooping in on an unsuspecting D.J. Hernandez brought a moment of silence over the Rentschler Field fans who stuck it out until the end in Saturday’s Big East football marathon.

Hernandez literally grew up in front of the University of Connecticut football faithful, spearheading the “Rally at Rentschler.” Session reached out with his two huge hands and prepared to haul Hernandez to the turf. Then, in a flash, the Pittsburgh senior linebacker lunged toward the UConn quarterback and came up empty.

Or this.

The call was a “bounce” pass play designed with freshman Terence Jeffers as the primary receiver. But Pitt linebacker Clint Session, who made a career-high 15 tackles Saturday, blitzed quickly from Hernandez’s left. Session chased Hernandez from the pocket and took a swipe at the quarterback’s ankles, making contact near the 10-yard line.

Hernandez stumbled but regained his balance and raced to the goal line. By the time he hit the 5, the sophomore knew he was in and raised the ball in triumph.

Jeffers was also covered by Revis who didn’t bite and other stories indicated that’s part of why Hernandez started scrambling.

Crap.





Say what you want about Walt Harris, but since Dave took over, Pitt has not beaten one Division 1 team with a winning record. Moreover, Pitt will not go to a bowl for the second year in a row. Dave’s team has been unimaginative and as flexible as steal pipes. But the biggest flaw, by far is this:
Can anyone say that Pitt has improved since the Notre Dame game from last year?

Comment by The Kose 11.12.06 @ 10:05 am

Just an observation, DW gained somewhat a reputation of a defensive guru, but he rode Jimmy Johnsons coat-tails in college and in the pros.

The fact is, when DW was head coach he was fired twice, he failed, The Pitt honeymoon is over with DW. To give up that many yards to UConn, no excuses, they must go in another direction for a DC.

I do not care how you spell it, RHOADS must go. There is no way Iowa State is going to hire him, he might interview but no way, he sucks and his track record is there for all to see.

I just cannot watch or go to the WVU game because Slaton and White are going to run, and run, and run. After a 6-1 start, 6-6 is very disappointing.

I love Pitt football and have been following them for about 40 years, but I do not think they have a chance in hell to beat WVU and L’Ville.

Comment by jimbo b 11.12.06 @ 10:31 am

Have to agree with you Jimbo. There is no excuse for not beating inferior teams, clamming up the O when you get a lead, not making D adjustments, and this list can go on and on.Oh did I say that there is not a snowball chance in he** that they can beat either DaVille or the Eers.

P.S. Even if they went to a bowl game they would loose.

Comment by Kenny 11.12.06 @ 10:43 am

dj friggin hernandez hasn’t stopped scrambling.

i haven’t stopped throwing up.

the 8-4 fiesta bowl team wasnt the greatest…but they were a hell of a lot better than this. i was not a walt fan, and after the comments by his agent, he HAD to go. i applauded the hiring of dw and thought the addition of cavanaugh was a good move. but what we need are college coaches with enthusiam, and passion, and the willingness to take a chance. dw brings the passion…but without success, it seems more like a line from a used car salesman than the optimisim of a coach ready to take this program forward.

the offense, while putting up 45 points, was dissapointing. they refuse to recognize the opportunity to step on a defenses neck when given the chance. that is pure NFL football philosophy, and it has cost us victories this year and last.

the defense….what is there to say? how many times do we have to see the defense unprepared to stop a one dimensional offense? Toledo, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Michigan State, USF, the list goes on and on…and it has been a constant theme throughout Paul Rhoads tenure as defensive coordinator. Rhoads should not make it to Thursday. If for no other reason than to show the fans, recruits and boosters that the effort and execution seen saturday night are unacceptable.

is wanny the answer? i dont know. at this point i am more than concerned to say the least. but i do know that paul rhoads must be fired. he may be a good man, but he is a terrible DC.

to say the honeymoon is over for Dave is an understatement.

Comment by ECH 11.12.06 @ 11:12 am

I am going to make the WVU game to line up and take my beating. DW is a shitty game day coach and Rhodes and wipes his ass for him.

Nuff said.

Comment by Tony in Harrisburg 11.12.06 @ 11:15 am

Tony, I just can’t do it, I’m a Pitt grad and worked at WVU for 16 years and took too many beatings. I had to endure the Hoops on a daily basis.

The money was great but the Hoops are just in another world down there. They will be crawling out from under the rocks from down-state WVa to come up to the big city.

I’m not even going to watch the game, I do not think we will win let alone be competitive. I take losses to WVU pretty hard.

Comment by jimbo b 11.12.06 @ 11:54 am

i cant wait to see what Pat White and Stever Slaton do to us if Hernandez and the other nobody can can 200 yeards a piece

Comment by Max 11.12.06 @ 12:24 pm

Steve*

Comment by Max 11.12.06 @ 12:25 pm

Someone must be fired over this and I think we all agree who it should be. I am truly embarrassed today to be a Pitt football fan…something I never thought I would say. Our team has turned into an absolute joke.

Comment by Rex 11.12.06 @ 12:44 pm

The only hope I can hold out is that Wanny is somehow on the same path as Shiano at Rutgers….Pitt hasn’t reached rock bottom yet….Walt didn’t recruit lineman….instead he was content to mastermind complicated passing schemes that even his QB’s could barely figure out….but one glaring constant has remained….PR at DC…..the inability to scheme and contain any spread offense or mobile QB has continued to haunt Pitt since Walt took over….That Rutgers game vs Louisville was a watershed game for the Rutgers program….they will never be the same after that game….Pitt ?….ummmm…..well Okay….wait until next year…..if Wanny fails to make any changes in his staff…my prediction for 2007 is as follows…and I don’t even have a friggin’ 2007 schedule in front of me….don’t need one..just as geese migrate south in the fall and the Swallows return to Capistrano…Pitt is locked Ground HOg Day…Pitt will start out pretty good against weak competition…..there will be an early test against a competent team…..if this team runs a spread or has an athletic QB….you can bet copius yards on the ground will be had….Pitt’s O will struggle…..gaining little on the ground…and will lose to quote DW ” a disappointing loss”….the season will then progress much as the past two have…..the O will show inconsistent flashes of brilliance…followed by stretches of undisciplined, underachieving, mind-numbing ineffectiveness…. Wanny will continue to search for that elusive “power back” he’s so fond of and never find him………..the D will as usual continue on it’s glide path to total ineffectiveness….and by the WVU game….will cease to function as a coherent unit….and Pitt will once again sit at home during bowl season….

Comment by deter 11.12.06 @ 12:56 pm

I really can’t add to what’s already been said. I’m absolutely humiliated by this.

A month ago I was very pleased with direction of this program. The Rutgers loss I could understand somewhat, they’re a damn good team now and I guess we’re still kind of rebuilding. The South Florida loss was tough… but I tried to convince myself that USF was just an underrated team that we overlooked, it was their homecoming, yada yada yada…

But UConn… are you shittin me? UConn?! I didn’t get to see the game, but I had ESPN’s Gamecast up. I saw we were up by 14 with about 6 minutes to go, and left the house. I came back and shit a brick when I saw the final score!!

NOTHING has changes since the Harris regime. The offensive line is still shakey as hell, and defensive line is pure crap. Wasn’t that the main complaint about Harris?!?! His teams weren’t tough enough up front and got pushed around. And still the same shit is happening under Wanny… same shit.

Last year it was “Well DW’s got to work with all of Walt’s recruits etc etc”. That was an acceptable excuse.

This year Paul Rhoads is the scapegoat, and deservedly so.

What about next year? There isn’t going to be an excuse next year. The Wannstedt honeymoon ended the minute DJ Whateverthehellhisnameis pranced into the endzone for that 2 point conversion yesterday. There needs to be NOTICEABLE improvement from this team next year, heading into that magic “year four” when all of these 4 and 5 star recruits will be juniors and (hopefully) contribute.

Comment by Jimbo Covert's my dad 11.12.06 @ 2:29 pm

Dolphin fan and current Pitt student here. This was the same crap I saw with Wanny’s teams in Miami as we’re seeing now. Beat up on the bad teams, questionable against the mediocre teams, gets creamed by the good teams. Any success he had was with the previous regime’s players (see Ditka, Mike and Johnson, Jimmy). He drafted horribly and was simply not a good X’s-and-O’s coach. And the one quote that still rings true with Wanny was when a New England Patriot player in a 2002 game said, “Hang in, they’ll fold!” The Dolphins proceeded to choke that game, an AFC East Championship, and a playoff berth away on the same day. The week before, Wanny hung a lobster trap in the locker room, emphasizing that the Minnesota game was a trap game. The Fins went on to lose that one. Maybe if he stopped emphasizing gimmicks and started emphasizing, uh, you know, THE GAME, this team would still have a shot at a bowl invite. The cold, hard facts that Pitt fans still haven’t realized, but I did the day Wanny was hired, still remain true: Wanny was a bad hire based entirely on nepotism and has a history of diminishing returns.

Comment by Joshua 11.12.06 @ 7:45 pm

I’ve finally figured out what our “base” defense is…It’s the “Bowling Pin” defense. Yup, we line up in the same formation every time, the other team’s coach stands at the end of the lane with zero pressure, runs their play with complete confidence and knocks us around like bowling…completely helpless to stop the ball as it is coming at us. BTW, I want Rhodes out too, but the players were flat out terrible yesterday as well…I can see a few missed tackles in a game, but a few dozen…c’mon…we are consistently bad and just not very good. Now, having cleared my head of that, I will be at the WVU game on Thursday, and nothing would make me happier than to beat dem hoopies…What’s that you say…can’t happen? I guarantee you the K State fans were all telling each other how bad Texas was going to beat them…We are way over due to be on the positive side of a dramatic victory!!!I really don’t see how WVU can rack up much more offense than UCONN did. We will need to score 40+, but we can do it…Hey, can’t a guy dream!!!

Comment by HbgFrank 11.12.06 @ 8:56 pm

Changing gears a bit…
Just uploaded a simple chart to Flickr that illustrates how goofy the BCS bowl system is in my humble opinion.

link to flickr.com

I think that it shows how desirable a playoff system is in comparison to the current situation. The playing field leveled out a bit this weekend and I think it’s a shame that a lot of great teams are going to be on the outside looking in.
I think we should let the players decide it on the field. Also, you can’t tell me that the NCAA couldn’t make money of the scenario depicted in this bracket. Not to mention the fact that these would be some fantastic games…

Comment by Dave in Orlando 11.13.06 @ 1:45 am

I’ve read so much about this ‘bend, don’t brake’philosophy on defense. I take that to mean that our defense is designed to not give up the big play. My question is: Why would the opposing offense need to try for a big play? All they need to do is simply execute a basic offense and gain 5 – 6 yards per running play with a couple safe passes sprinkled in. Our defense sadly has no way to stop the run. Why wouldn’t Wanny or Rhoads put 8 or 9 guys up front and make teams pass? I would rather get beat by a big play than give up 300+ yards rushing per game.
I’ll end by saying that WVU may set a rushing record against our ‘bend, don’t brake’ defense.

Comment by BP '93 11.13.06 @ 8:48 am

Powered by WordPress © PittBlather.com

Site Meter