Really not much to say about it.

Dion Lewis was the stud. It may have been against 1-AA competition, but it was impressive with gaudy numbers of 129 yards and 3 TDs. A great debut for the freshman.

The offensive line had no problem with run blocking. Pass protection, however, was a different issue.

“We have work to do. When we had to throw the ball, I wasn’t happy with the passing game on third down from a protection standpoint.”

Said Pinkston, “They brought a lot of fire-zone blitzes, but we’ll be better at it next week. We missed a couple of calls. It’s something we have to work on, but we’ll pick it up next week.”

YSU still has not scored a TD against 1-A foes, as the best they could do was a FG.

Pitt’s D-line gets the credit for stuffing YSU all game. Especially not letting the YSU QB get outside the pocket to create or do much of anything. That’s the goal all season.

Before the game, an article about how Pitt would use screens among other things.

…but fans who are expecting big changes in either scheme or philosophy surely will be disappointed.

Cignetti said he and Cavanaugh share a lot of the same ideas about offense, and the changes he has made have been subtle.

“There might be some different formations and some different shifts and motions,” Cignetti said. “And maybe there is a little more wide-open approach in terms of screens and deceptives, but the foundation is the same. Make no mistake, the foundation that Matt Cavanaugh built here in the run game, protection system and passing game is the same.

“You will see some wrinkles that our offensive staff put together.”

Cignetti said he comes from the same mold as Cavanaugh and has always favored a pro-style offense which is centered around a solid run game and uses multiple-personnel packages and gives opposing defenses a variety of looks.

And he also made it pretty clear that the offense he installed had to first receive a stamp of approval from his boss, head coach Dave Wannstedt.

The screens were there, but the most noticeable thing to me was that they were not slow developing screens that relied on deception or overuse of the bubble screen. Instead, they were quick and fairly crisply executed. Get the ball out there and let the athlete do what he can. This definitely works well with a player like Dorin Dickerson.

There was also that bit of foreshadowing about it is still a Wannstedt team. So, as usual there are always questions about the coaching and decisions.

* The passing game is not ever going to be dominant. I think we all can see that the deep ball is never going to be a strength of Bill Stull’s. But once the game was in hand, say at 21-3, I’m not sure why this wasn’t worked on more. Yes, it is nice you can line up and knock a I-AA team off the ball and run it at them and it is nice that your receivers could make their corners miss on those wide receiver screens. But a game like this enables you – almost like an exhibition game in the NFL — to work out some kinks and I’m not sure Pitt did any of it. Instead, they proved what we already know — that they can beat a physically inferior opponent by running the ball and playing defense.

* I’m not sure what was worse — the fact that there was a mix-up with putting Bill Stull back in the game or the fact that Dave Wannstedt admitted as much. Luckily Stull didn’t get hurt or throw a pick six or something because someone would have had some explaining to do had something bad happened.

I don’t think there was any way that Wannstedt could plausibly deny the mix-up occurred. Stull was out of the game. He had a baseball cap on. Sunseri was holding his helmet on the sidelines. It was clear to anyone watching the sidelines that Stull was done for the day — until he wasn’t.

Still don’t know how that could have happened, but as far as inexplicable Wannstedtian coaching brain farts go, this one was of little harm other than some booing the action and creating this hand-wringing over booing. I, however, find this explanation highly plausible.