So Pitt piled up 393 yards yards of offense and held BGSU to 254 and lost. That gives Wannstedt the excuse that the turnovers were what did Pitt in. That’s a load of crap.
142 of Pitt’s total yards were in the 1st quarter. Pitt had 0 turnovers. They failed to capitalize on a BGSU turnover inside the BGSU 40 — 3 yards and a punt from the 34. Pitt also punted from the BGSU 35 when a drive stalled out.
Pitt finished a drive started just before the end of the 1st quarter with a TD. That was an additional 36 yards. So Pitt had 178 of their 393 total yards on offense in the first 19 minutes of the game and had 14 points to show for it.
As for the Pitt defense that held the “high powered” Falcons to only 254 yards. Of course the Falcons were lacking their starting tailback, who was suspended for the game, but that’s just quibbling. The numbers, though are skewed by a strong 1st quarter by the defense where BGSU was held to only 6 yards. That means BG had 248 yards the next 3 quarters to Pitt’s 251.
Pitt’s offense simply struggled against a less than solid BGSU defense. Delude yourself any way you want, but Pitt’s offense never was proactive. The playcalling was predictable and poorly executed. It panicked, but it sure wasn’t able to dictate anything.
In the second quarter, Pitt had it’s first turnover. At the BG 48. BG went 52 yards and scored to tie the game. BGSU had 125 yards of offense that quarter on just two drives.
Pitt had dominated time of possession nearly 2-1 in the first half (19:51 to 10:09). They had a yardage advantage of 234 to 131. Turnovers were equal. The score, however, was only 17-14 Pitt.
Here’s something that stood out in the 2nd quarter and continued into the 3d quarter. The Pitt defense let BGSU go 7-11 on 3d downs and 1-1 on 4th downs. Any shock that BGSU scored 20 points in those two quarters? The Pitt defense just could not get off the field.
As someone who cheered when Rhoads left, and argued that yards alone don’t tell the whole story, this game was more of the same. New DC Phil Bennett has preached the need to create turnovers. Pitt’s defense had at least two balls bounce out of their arms. BGSU actually put the ball on the turf two additional times but recovered their own mistakes. So, yeah, there are plenty of problems still on the defense.
I said before this season started that the time for excuses was done. That there could no longer be the inexcusable losses. You know what, it seems even the beat writers feel that way.
Enough with the excuses.
Pitt got outcoached and outplayed by Bowling Green Saturday. It’s that simple. Point the finger at who you will, whether it’s the coaches or the players, but it doesn’t change the final score:
Bowling Green 27, Pitt 17.
I can pinpoint pivotal plays in the game, which I’ll get to later, but this game was an obvious sign that Dave Wannstedt’s football philosophies aren’t in tune with the college game. With all due respect to Bowling Green, the Panthers were outmaneuvered by an inferior opponent.
The excuses from last year don’t even apply when Pitt’s experience was supposed to be one of the reasons they would be better.
It was the kind of offensive output that plagued the Panthers last season — but last season they had to play two freshmen quarterbacks.
That wasn’t the case Saturday, yet the offensive game plan was every bit as conservative as many last year, lacked imagination and, most importantly, failed to put any pressure on the Falcons’ defense.
For instance, the most explosive receiver in Pitt training camp was freshman Jonathan Baldwin, and he showed that again Saturday when he blew past the Falcons’ defense on a deep pass.
But Baldwin played sparingly and had only one other ball thrown his way.
Then there was Greg Cross, the athletic junior-college quarterback who was recruited to pump some life into the offense and be a change-of-pace player. He had a package of plays drawn up for him and is an exciting player and was expected to contribute.
Cross, and his spread-formation package, stayed on the sideline the entire game.
And McCoy, who clearly wasn’t on his game, rushed 23 times for 71 yards and also had a critical fumble. McCoy was replaced early in the game by LaRod Stephens-Howling, who is quicker, and Stephens-Howling produced 71 yards on only seven carries — but he only had one carry after the half.
But beyond the players, Panthers offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh didn’t have a great day either, as the offense was too predictable and didn’t take many shots down the field. That’s especially questionable play-calling considering Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon admitted they basically were daring the Panthers to throw the ball over the defense the entire game.
What does that say when beat writers who depend on access to do the stories seem willing to suggest there is some real frustration about Coach Wannstedt after only one game?
After calling Wannstedt “our coach” at Big East media day July 29, Pitt athletic director Steve Pederson was silent Sunday. Pederson didn’t return phone calls seeking comment a day after No. 25 Pitt lost to Bowling Green, 27-17, at Heinz Field.
Wannstedt also is in danger of losing support from his players.
Whether it was a sign of disappointment or dissension, only LeSean McCoy knows. But the Pitt star sophomore tailback placed his displeasure with the way the Panthers ended the first half squarely on Wannstedt.
“We stick with our coach,” McCoy said when asked about Wannstedt’s decision to let about eight seconds tick away before calling a timeout to kick a field goal for a 17-14 halftime lead. “Whatever our coach calls, we try to execute. It would have been nice for us to get a touchdown, but we followed our leader, you know?”
What remains to be seen is whether the Panthers will continue to follow Wannstedt. The coach now returns to the hot seat after being rewarded with a three-year contract extension through 2012 last Dec. 1, hours before the Panthers stunned then-No. 2 West Virginia, 13-9.
There’s a bit of the conventional wisdom from Gorman that Pederson would be proactive on coaching changes, but I already made that counterpoint. And sure enough, Pederson is giving the always valuable “vote of confidence” in Wannstedt.
After previously saying Wannstedt had finally figured out the college game, it was back to basics.
Twice, the Panthers were inside the Falcons 35 facing a fourth down, and, on both occasions, Wannstedt chose to punt instead of go for it.
Then, the Panthers drove to the Falcons’ 20 with 37 seconds to play in the first half — and played for a field goal despite having two timeouts left (they used one to stop the clock after getting the first down).
Pitt then threw a short pass on first down, ran up the middle (setting up the field goal) for 1-yard on second and allowed 27 seconds to tick off the clock before Wannstedt called the final timeout and sent out Conor Lee to kick a field goal on third down as time expired, giving the Panthers a 17-14 lead.
Wannstedt explained that the play calling before the half was necessitated by the fact that he didn’t want the Panthers to make a mistake — throw an interception, take a sack, fumble the ball — and squander the opportunity for three points.
And, as for why he didn’t go for it at least once on fourth down, Wannstedt basically reverted to his time in the NFL and brought up the field-position game.
Even if Pitt goes 7-5, it won’t cut it this year for the fans. It means there was at least one more season with an inexcusable loss. The knock on Walt Harris as head coach was that he only beat the teams he should — and only rarely pulled the big win. Wannstedt, with one exception, has struggled with winning the ones he should.
I can’t believe I’m being put in the position of defending the beat writers, but…
They write something you don’t like and they’re hacks. That’s just being defensive and paranoid.
My main complaints about Zeise and Gorman — and this generally applies to beat writers — is that they tend to be too deferential to the coaches and administration. Now, they actually get critical and damn it, they are hacks.
Pederson has always been a heavily media friendly and accessible AD. It’s one of his good traits. After this kind of loss he disappears from commentary until Monday afternoon?
No, nothing to read into that.
But a vote of confidence from an AD after 1 game into a season means much? Afterall, those have been historically valuable to so many coaches over the years.
Now, that’s just being defensive and paranoid. I wrote something that you didn’t like, sorry.
Do you actually believe that they are accurate prognosticators or that they’re even objective?
It seems to me that they are more interested in stirring up dissension. I’ve complained about them for a long time, they never seem to have anything constructive to say.
I’d like to take the opportunity to say that I think you really do a good job with this blog. You’re a better beat writer than they are and you should have their jobs.
If any of us lived our everyday lives by that philosophy we would be living in our parents’ basements and working in the drive in window at Burger King. NO GUTS, NO GLORY. Hell, that wasn’t even a real risk for Wanny. HOW DARE YOU PUNT 2 TIMES AT THE BGSU 35. Those were calls of cowardice. That’s like if I went to work and avoided a promotion because I didn’t have any confidence in my abilities.
And Phil Bennett’s D doesn’t attack. It reminded me of the famous Paul Rhodes “Read and React and don’t adjust.”
Don’t worry guys…..they are saying “Boo-urns”
Haven’t read all the comments in all the posts but speaking of Harris did anyone else happen to see Walt leaving after the game? This time .. it’s not his fault and I sure wish we had his offense in there and him developing Bostick for the program’s future.
I say someone young, innovative and not in-bred.
After losing 13 of 18 games, we couldn’t get anyone worse than Dave.
my 2 cents.
The local beat writers weren’t the only ones trumpeting Pitt as a potential top 25 team. Practically every prominent national media outlet and football preseason magazine that I read had Pitt either in the top 25 or well within reach of it. Lindy’s had them at #23. Athlon had them at #27. The AP Poll had them at #25. Stewart Mandel does the power rankings for SI.com, and he had them at #23.
Expectations were raised by the win over WVU and some of the talent that emerged last year and was coming back this year, not by a couple of beat writers with potential agendas.
Exactly, the local beat writers just copy what they read someplace else, instead of thinking it out for themselves. After all who is closer to the team that they are? Obviously those rating services don’t or can’t pay great attention to detail. And it seems that there is some colusion going on for them all to be so similarly and very wrong.
If it was based on talent, we’d be 10-2. If it was based on coaching, we’d be 0-12. 5-7 seems about right…
Collusion?
*Smacks forehead*
Why the hell didn’t I think of that? Of course, I’m sure Stewart Mandel has NOTHING better to do than sit around on a conference call with other writers and find out 1001 ways to break the hearts of Pitt fans by raising the expectations with a top #25 ranking they so clearly don’t deserve. I’m sure they’re all sitting around a table right now, having some pizza and wings and clinking together beer mugs while they laugh maniacally at all the sucker Pitt fans, Clemson fans and Rutgers fans who bought into those expectations.
Give me a break.
Its the coaches. And if you can’t figure that out by now, then you never will….
We have TWO games all year against pretty good teams – USF and WVU. The rest are clearly winnable. Rutgers, LU, ND, Uconn, Buffalo, Syracuse, Iowa, Cinci, and Navy. Unless our staff continues to try to lose games, there is no reason we can’t win those.
Enter former UCLA quarterback Rick Neuheisal as the head coach for the Bruins in 2008.
Pitt parallels UCLA big time. While Wanny may have been safe even with a 4-8 record last season, this surely would have been his last if things did not drastically improve in 2008. So far, the season is young but it is easy to see this season being an underachievement.
So, following the UCLA logic, Dan Marino will be the head coach of Pitt next season and take us to the promised land. Seriously though, the players are here. We may suffer a bad recruiting class this year, but if Pitt hopes to save the program they must do something drastic before next season. I am not saying get rid of Wanny, but at least Cavanaugh.
One other thing that sets UCLA apart from Pitt. It is much easier to recruit to Westwood, Ca. then it is to Pittsburgh, Pa. Pitt is not the ideal coaching position for any coach without a Pitt background. Even Johnny Majors used Pitt as a stepping stone in the 70s to get to Tennessee (UCLA’s victim this evening).
Anyway, I just thought I would point out the eerie similarities between these two programs.
You can’t defend the coaching staff after this loss. Sure we are going to have turnovers. It takes this offense 15 to 20 plays to march slowly towards the endzone. The more plays you have to run the better the chances that someone will turn it over. Not to metion that EVERYONE in the stadium knows what plays are coming and when.
We will be lucky to finish over 500 this year. The only good that will come of that is All the coaches will be Sh_tcanned.
We have had Players drafted by NFL teams year after year. The coaches tell us they don’t have talent to win.
How many players were drafted by the NFL from U Conn, Ohio U, Navy and how many NFL players do you think we saw on BGSU team on Saturday? Answer not many.
This Pitt team has plenty of players that will be drafted by the NFL but these coaches won’t let them play.
Palko was contained and turned from a very good QB into a average QB.
To anyone else reading this please pardon my rant.
I HATE WATCHING THIS TEAM! I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE! IT’S NOT MUCH FUN WHEN THEY WIN AND IT DOWNRIGHT SUCKS WHEN THEY LOSE!
We went from “wide receiver U” to “plodding, boring, dink & dunk, run it up the gut, WE SUCK U”
We have NO big play in this offense. NONE a player has to break 2 or 3 tackles to get more then 10 yards.
Our QB’s NEVER throw it across or down the middle. NEVER EVER. Other teams need not defend the middle of the field.
Tight ends are an after thought.
I can’t remember a receiver catching a pass in stride.
I have had season tickets for 8 years I drive from Harrisburg to every home game. If Wanny is back next year with Captain Boring offense Matt C. I will not be back until they are run out of town on a rail. I will be happy to be contacted to help carry the rail.
I mostly free bad for the Kids who came here thinking that they were going to part of something special not that they were going too coached by people who were enrolled in special ed.
I forgot that was even legal anymore…
We bitch slap Buffalo in a few days, take 2 weeks and recover, get our heads straight and get back to it with Iowa. We can turn this around.
Double entendre.
By collusion I meant that they talk to each other and compare notes, not that they were plotting against us and laughing at us. In the strictest sense of the word it was a poor choice, sorry. But I never suspected it being taken from the sublime to the ridiculous. “sitting around … having some pizza and wings…†That’s funny.
I apologize for being a bit harsh in my response earlier. Still fuming over the way this team lost on Saturday and the frustration I have over Cavanaugh’s complete refusal to run anything other than a Pop Warner-style offense is something I’ve watched for three years too long.
From everything I read in the preseason, the coaches gave the fans the impression that we were supposed to expect to see something remotely resembling a 2008-style college football offense. And that very clearly wasn’t the case.
Did the players make their own mistakes? Absolutely. But did the coaches do everything they could to put Pitt in a position to win? Absolutely not.
As for the game, PATHETIC!
In 1981, I believe, 11 Pitt players were drafted into the pros, I think 4-5 of them became all-pro. By that measure, there has been a considerable drop in talent. Just like total yards don’t necessarily mean a win, these rating pundits aren’t very accurate either. Although we have had some good recruiting, there are glaring holes to fill. It doesn’t look like this year will be as good as the last 3 years. This pervasive attitude of “fire the coach†is detrimental to recruiting among other things. On one hand you argue that there is a lot of talent that is being clamped down on, and on the other, the program is having a lot of players drafted. Again the number of players drafted don’t extrapolate into wins. Here’s some numbers for you that you might be interested in on the players drafted last year. BG and Buffalo have some talent. If we expect to beat Buffalo, we can’t drop passes, miss blocks and tackles, let punts go, or turn the ball over.
2008 NFL Draft
Bowling Green 1; Buffalo 2;
Louisville 5; UCF 3; Rutgers 2; Connecticut 2;
Pittsburgh 3;
Within the last decade or so there is, to a large degree, parity in college football.
After a game in Wannstedt’s 1st season he was asked what does Pitt have to do to be competitive? He replied “run faster.†Wow, the Pittsburgh sportswriters had a field day with that. But he went out and radically altered the overall team speed. Still there is a long way to go.
The first TD drive took 8 plays, the second 11 plays, not 15-20 plays.
There were 7 caught passes by tight ends and several other throws to them that were either misses or drops. So they were throwing in the middle and a fair number of the 51 thrown passes were to tight ends.
I still believe that
1. The talent on this team is overated and inexperienced
2. We’re not giving opponents enough respect.
3. The coaching is better than perceived.
4. There are some large holes to fill on this team.
I seems the more I write the more I piss people off, which is not my intention so I’ll stop.
Here’s to Pitt out scoring BU by 50.
Go Pitt
It says that they are irresponsible and not very good at their jobs. Why don’t you demand that they be fired? They’re the same sots that amplified the idea that Pitt was a top 25 team. They actually watched the practices and didn’t notice Pitts deficiencies. They’re a waste of their press passes.