This is the kind of game that makes me feel wishy-washy. Plenty to love. Plenty to hate. Things that are promising. Things that look ominous. You get the picture.
Ultimately it was a win and it was not a true nail-biter (moments of angst, but not the same). That makes it more of a half-full view over half-empty.
The offense looked great. New OC Cignetti has grasped what he has in Dorin Dickerson and the best way to use him. It’s about getting him touches and giving him a chance with the ball. Dion Lewis has been a revelation so far. Bill Stull has done his job. The O-line has been solid.
Yes, there are things that can be improved — an intermediate passing game, using the middle of the field occasionally. Can Lewis take this kind of load?
There are things of outright concern — like the entire secondary. Or what is going on with the snaps for extra points?
The really bad news, Andrew Taglianetti is out for the season with a torn ACL.
Pitt starting free safety Andrew Taglianetti is out for the season because he has a torn ACL in his left knee. Taglianetti injured his knee in the Panthers 54-27 win over Buffalo yesterday.
It was initially diagnosed as a sprain but an MRI this morning revealed the ligament was torn and will require surgery.
Taglianetti will get a medical redshirt, so he keeps his eligibility. The loss, though, is of the smartest and most aggressive safety on the the team. Dom DeCicco has struggled with the physical play, while Elijah Fields just struggles to think about what he should do. Still relying only on his physical talents.
The offense was the story as they not only piled up the rushing yards, but took advantage of the turnovers handed to them by Buffalo.
The difference, however, was turnovers as Buffalo committed four and the Panthers had none.
Not only did the Bulls turn the ball over four times, the Panthers capitalized on them, turning them into 27 points.
“I wanted to see how we would operate on the road, coming into an environment like this, against a good football team,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “When we created some turnovers early and were able to capitalize on them and score, that was huge.”
Those turnovers were vital as the defensive line never could get pressure on Buffalo’s QB with the Bulls using a quick drop. The secondary. Wow. Just a miserable day.
The Pitt defense allowed 500 total yards — 433 passing — as Buffalo rewrote much of its Division I-A record book at UB Stadium.
“We didn’t play good at all in the secondary,” junior strong safety Dom DeCicco said. “We can’t play like that every week and expect to win.”
Because Pitt scored 54 points, the most by the Panthers since rolling up 55 against Temple in 1999, the defensive breakdowns weren’t as glaring.
Still, the missed tackles and gaudy passing numbers by a sophomore making his second career start were a point of concern outside the Panthers’ locker room. It was the fourth-highest yardage total allowed in coach Dave Wannstedt’s four-plus seasons.
Shades of the Rutgers game from last year, only this time a win and no concussions.
At least Greg Williams had a good day on defense.
Williams redeemed himself Saturday. He had five tackles and returned a fumble 50 yards to give Pitt a 40-20 lead with 8:42 left in the third quarter.
Said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, “[Williams] needed that. He was real serious all week. He didn’t play well last week and bounced back.”
The big thing is that the defense is so geared to stop the run. The games where the defense was at its worst last year was against teams that could throw the ball — Cinci, Rutgers, and even ND. That remains disturbingly unchanged.
Unfortunately, there are two sides to the ball and the defense was putrid. That is especially true for the secondary, which I wrote about after last week’s game because I didn’t think it played particularly well, but the missed tackles, blown assignments and bad angles added up to a very, very long day for that unit.
You cannot give up 500 yards to Buffalo, a team which has not had 500 yards in a game since 2001. The secondary missed a lot of tackles today but much like last week, it really didn’t cover very well at all the entire game.
The defense got bailed out a few times by turnovers and also by some errant throws by Buffalo quarterback Zach Maynard, who was making his second career start.
In fact, with about five minutes to play and Pitt leading only 40-27, Maynard missed an easy touchdown pass to a wide open Terrel Jackson in the corner of the endzone. As soon as Maynard let it go, you could see he was upset with himself becuase he knew it should have been seven. And if those two connect, then it becomes a 40-34 game and things get much, much more interesting for everyone involved.
This is something that needs to be fixed and immediately because the Panthers won’t survive many more games with their back four missing tackles, falling down and missing assignments.
The turnovers will haunt Buffalo, as they can wonder what might have been if they had taken better care of the ball.
Before the offense even took the field, UB was down, 14-0. That made for a long day in a game where the Bulls were clearly under the spotlight, hoping to shock the Panthers from the Big East.
Pitt (2-0) is the lone Bowl Championship Series program on the Bulls’ schedule and a win over the Panthers could have propelled the program closer to the Top 25. Instead, with the spotlight glaring, the Bulls (1-1) forgot their lines.
“It hurts, it really hurts because we thought we had a shot to go out here and beat a BCS school and that was one of our goals this year,” said senior free safety Mike Newton, who led the Bulls with 10 tackles. “We have to come back and rebound from this.”
The good news for Buffalo, is that their future looks bright. At least at the QB spot.
