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
September 30, 2011

   There is a lot to discuss about PITT’s solid, and welcomed, win against the USF Bulls at Heinz Field last night.  Team play, individual play, units charging ahead even with the injury of a key player… but most of all it is important to discuss just how wrong the author of yesterday’s article was, whoever that may be.  Here are some key Blather whiffs.

Sorry, I’m not optimistic at all about this match.  I think USF deserves it’s #16 ranking this time and shows why against PITT tonight.  38-17 USF

WRONG!  PITT wins 44-17, surprising the hell out of almost everyone and on national TV yet.  I don’t know if USF deserved that high ranking or not but this was the biggest game so far in 2011 and we came through with flying colors.

Our running game, the most overrated part of our offense, will fall short and it will be ugly out there.”

WRONG!  PITT rolls up 308 yards on the ground for 5.3 ypc.  Ray Graham slips his name under the door for Heisman consideration with 226 yards on 26 carries for 8.7 ypc and we reiterate that this is a run-first offense.  All this done with a make shift OL who played their hearts out.

He’s (B.J. Daniels) having a career year this season and has all the confidence in the world, as do his teammates in him.  Stand by for heavy rolls as he rips us up tonight (with his passing).  

WRONG!  PITT’s pass defense holds Daniels to 226 yards on 18/36 attempts with zero TDs, very respectably limiting him to a 50% completion percentage.  The best thing though is that we held fast on the third down passing situations this game.  By my count USF was 0/9 in 3rd down pass attempts… that’s zero completions folks, not just zero 1st downs passing off those third downs.

“USF has given up five total sacks this season so the supposed strength of our pass defense, DL pressure, will be minimized.”

WRONG!  We had at least two sacks in the second half and kept good pressure on Daniels to make him hurry a lot of his throws, especially on third downs.  Our containment of him wasn’t the greatest but the kid is a very good runner and made the best of his opportunities when they came.

 “…this PITT team just doesn’t know how to close out games and can’t understand what it actually takes to win against a good opponent.”

Wrong!  There is nothing as satisfying as shutting out an opponent in the second half and  scoring 24 points while doing it.  That shuts the barn door completely.  Here’s how it looked for the Bulls after the halftime break:

 START QTR POSS. YARD PLAYS YARDS RESULT
15:00 3 01:20 USF 29 3 6 Punt
10:33 3 01:41 USF 13 6 36 Punt
04:55 3 02:13 USF 29 6 22 Turnover on Downs
01:28 3 01:28 USF 20 4 24 Fumble
13:32 4 00:47 USF 39 3 -7 Punt
11:29 4 00:38 USF 30 2 34 Fumble
04:44 4 00:13 USF 26 1 6 Fumble
02:08 4 01:42 USF 25 10 71 Turnover on Downs

Offensively we could come around a bit as the passing game may smooth out a little,  but I don’t expect it to be able to carry the day anytime soon ...”

WRONG!  503 total yards on offense, 307 yards rushing, 216 yards passing and five TDs scored pretty much says it all.  Perhaps most importantly we converted 60% of our third down conversions, 9 of 15 attempts which extended our drives and allowed us to at least get into FG range.  A telling point with this is that we only had to punt twice the whole game.

   Sunseri’s play has to be both noted and praised.  He really did show a different side out there yesterday then he’s shown in the previous four games.  His passing was crisp and effective and his command of the offense, along with the projection of confidence he showed, was very refreshing.  It gives us hope that he actually could make that jump in production that a second year starter should show.

Had Shanahan not been thinking about what to do after catching the ball he wouldn’t have dropped a sure TD pass and another big gainer.  But Sunseri was putting the ball where it needed to be for the majority of his throws save for his deep attempts.  There may be no solution for that problem.

   The bottom line is that PITT played their first full game yesterday and in doing so alleviated fears that there was a lot of smoke being blown over on the Southside.  I prefer to have at least two samplings before I even begin to acknowledge that a trend may be happening but if we can follow this up with another solid showing against Rutgers next week I’ll be convinced that we really were “this close”.  It makes me think that those two games against Iowa and ND were pretty good games on our part rather than poor games on theirs.

   It couldn’t have happened at a better time either.  This big win was not only at home and on national TV but more importantly happened on the first game of our BE schedule.  We needed this in many ways but the real key is that we’ll now be able to go into the meat of our conference games knowing that we can play with anyone else in the BE.  That can’t be overstated.

   So, the above shows you why I chose a career in the military rather than hanging around sports book shops.  I’m usually off on my score predictions anyway but, for the most part, I think I’ve been pretty good in the past with figuring out how the flow of the games would go.  Last night shocked me on both counts.  I had figured that if we won at all we would just squeak by.

My thoughts were about 180 degrees off the mark for the USF game and the state of our team and thank goodness for that.

 





That was a really great game to watch last night. It’s nice that you came back here to “eat crow” and admit your wrongs, but it probably feels better knowing that Pitt finally proved someone wrong, on national TV nonetheless.

The biggest problem I had last night was feeling embarrassed over the attendance @ Heinz. I don’t know what the official numbers were but a Thursday night game on national TV vs the #16 team in the country and it looked like a ghost town. Especially after it began to rain and Pitt had the game pretty much in hand late – that place cleared out at a breakneck pace. Unfortunately I live 6 hours away, have no time off, and as a somewhat recent graduate with a family I am dirt broke and couldn’t attend, but a lot of the student section was filled with yellow seats…I know those student tickets can’t be more than $50 a season because I never paid more than $35 from 04-07, so it’s even hard to use the broke college student thing. Hopefully a game like this will really lift the overall feeling about the program and start to draw more down to the North Shore.

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 6:48 am

Kudos’ to Coach Todd for this win. Our first three games, though important for our ego, meant nothing in the Big East Conference standings and the team played that way — including Todd’s coaching. Now that we are into the Big East Conference teams, Todd is unraveling his High Octane strategy and the defense is playing up to Pitt defensive standards. Pitt’s defense shut out USF in the second half. I’m impressed and knew that Todd was suckering us all in…

Our players now know what it’s like to win big and on national TV. Hopefully, they will keep the momentum going into NJ. Hail to Pitt! ?

Comment by MariettaMike 09.30.11 @ 6:49 am

Wow, like most I didn’t see that coming. Pitt steps up for a must win. The O-line pushed them around even without Nix. Sunseri was sharp even after Shanahan dropped a couple. Graham back to form. It’s great to be back in the Big East.

Defense was aggressive. Coach Graham redeems himself in one game, impressive! Hope this starts a trend.

Comment by gc 09.30.11 @ 6:58 am

Terrific win, and I can tell you that crow doesn’t taste all that bad when smothered in Hunan style sauce.

Jarred Holley, congrats. You’re the toast of Easton and Metuchen. Plus the whole secondary did great, scaring Daniels from the throwing the long ball (as did they last week vs. ND).

Seriously, next weekend do not wear Pitt regalia for the RU game. We/I will otherwise get mugged.

Comment by steve 09.30.11 @ 6:59 am

Correction: First four games… 🙁

On the attendance: I agree with the Big10 (12) on not scheduling Thursday night games because students have class the next day and alumni from out-pf-town can’t make the games — I live in GA and can’t make weekday games. GA Tech loved playing weekeday night games. I had season tickets to Tech’s games and never got home from Thursday night games until after midnight which cut into my beauty sleep. Pitt played on a short rest week but now get’s a few more days rest for the Rutger’s game. The win last night makes it more satisfying.

Comment by MariettaMike 09.30.11 @ 7:00 am

A few things I wanted to say about the actual game . It was how refreshing it was to see adjustments made. Adjustments from prior weeks, adjustments mid game..it was amazing! When Daniels ran the ball around on them on the first drive they made the necessary adjustments and forced him to make quick decisions with Brandon Lindsey in his face. Tino actually forced USF to respect the option (aside from that one Ronald Jones botched toss). When they got into the 4th with a big lead they RAN CLOCK! It must have killed TG but it was so amazing to see. I don’t know about anyone else but it looked like they just stood around until the 15 second mark on the play clock and then started running their offense at “normal” pace.

Last but not least I myself need to eat some crow. It certainly looks like I was wrong about Tino. Maybe myself and many others were just too impatient with him trying to really grasp the system. If Tino can play like he did last night through the rest of the season it will be a big year for Pitt in the BE. His decision making seemed to be spot the majority of the game, he made plays with his legs not allowing USF to jus hone in on Graham, He did miss on the deep routes but he did have the one pretty nice ball to Shanahan that was just flat out dropped. I’m not sure Tino will ever be the guy who heaves the ball 30 yards in the air spot on to a wideout, but he showed last night that he DOES have what it takes to win big games.

One last thing…I really hope that Lucas Nix is okay and his MRI comes back negative. He is a great kid and would be an enormous loss. The OL played admirably last night, but Nix is head and shoulders above anyone else in that unit.

Here’s looking forward to more of what we saw last night from the players and coaches alike! Hail to Pitt!

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 7:09 am

Man…I am WAY to active on here this morning…Maybe I over compensated my lack of sleep with too much coffee today, but I am posting like my boy “E”Mel today!

On a few off the field notes, I was happy to see the Bisnowaty commit. For all the people worried about Graham’s ability to keep the western PA talent look at his current list of 2012 commits. Outside of Voytik, all of them are from Pitt’s traditional recruiting grounds. I’m sure Rushel Shell enjoyed watching Pitt smoke the #16 team in the country on national TV last night especially the way they did it by running the ball….You want an up and coming team that can feature you to the tune of 200+ yards on ESPN in primetime??? Well example A was that game last night. Playing and winning games like this really goes a long way with recruits…Just ask the 08 recruiting class

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 7:23 am

I said 31-14 Pitt yesterday and figured I’d be wrong… but not in a good way!

So much has been said about the offense but like steve and BCPITT said Holley and the defense were excellent. I do think Daniels is overrated, but the ability to force him to make plays with his arm was crucial (because he can’t). Seemed like the plan was to always keep K.Williams one-on-one on the near side and give up those underneath yards, helping out everywhere else. Got a bit nervous at times because it seemed they could pick him apart fairly easily, but I guess the overall results speak for themselves.

Fun game. Wish there were more folks there but thought the energy was good.

Comment by JW 09.30.11 @ 7:52 am

I’m glad you were wrong Reed! The game was a lot of fun to watch, Graham and Brown ran great. Tino had his best game and PITT overcame some drops by the receivers.

Comment by Pittastic 09.30.11 @ 7:55 am

As Pitt fans, we have too much history on our side NOT to be skeptical when a new “system” comes along, and promises future success.

But I have to say, this was the first game where “high octane” was present, and it was shown to work very well. I give credit to Coach Graham, Tino, and the entire team.

One data point does not make a trend, however. A slip-up against a team they should beat, will cause a lot of people to question this game. Going undefeated into their game against West Virginia, will proove the “high octane” philosophy can work for Pitt.

Comment by Lou 09.30.11 @ 8:01 am

This was a great win, but it really makes the previous two losses sting that much worse. Lets go PITT

Comment by Maryland Andy 09.30.11 @ 8:07 am

This was one of those games that everything seemed to go right; usually we are on the other side of these.

The one caveat is that I suspect that USF does not have a good defense. Note that against the only other good team they played (N Dame), they also gave up 500 yards. I am going to be very interested to see if this offense remains hot vs Rutgers; not expecting 500 yards but am expecting a productive unit.

Nonetheless, everything is good (except Nix’s injury) Plus, Graham’s performance not only gave him some well earned national exposure, it certainly didn’t hurt the recruitment efforts of R Shell

Comment by csf 09.30.11 @ 8:08 am

I was expecting to see a butt whipping last night, I just didn’t think that it was going to be Pitt doing the whipping. Great victory on the national stage last night gentleman!! About time!

Well, I vowed that I wasn’t going to post here again until Pitt started winning, and I inferred that that wasn’t going to be for awhile if Tino Sunseri was allowed to keep fu*king up the offense with his unacceptable play.

One game does not make a season, but WTF did Todd Graham put in Tino’s Wheaties yesterday??? Sunseri deserves all the credit that is due him because he knocked it out of the park in last night’s game. I know that Ray Graham was “THE GUY” last night but the real key to victory was Tino Sunseri’s play. Without him doing his job effectively, we lose.

With the two heart breaking loses that Pitt has taken over the last couple of weeks, this one could have had Pitt folding their tents with another loss. Pitt showed that they were there for business however and played like a different team than the one we’ve been watching for the first four games. I sincerely hope that this is a turning point for the team. I was amazed on how well the offensive line played last night AFTER Nix went down with injury. How does that happen??

Go get them from here on out. Tino, prove me wrong and keep performing like you did last night. Beat Rutgers, lets see Rushel Shell declare Pitt as his future team on the 14th during Hopewell’s national TV exposure and then lets give the Utes some payback at homecoming. If that all pans out, then us Pitt fans are going to be in a very, very good mood for the rest of the football season I suspect.

Hail to Pitt!

Comment by Dr. Tom 09.30.11 @ 8:27 am

I really should have mentioned Sunseri’s runs off the option play this morning. He showed some against ND when, if you take away the sacks, he had 39 yards on six rushes (6.5 ypc), and then again last night where he had 55 yards on six rushes (9.2 ypc) and one TD in the 1st half alone.

This is what I’ve meant when I said over the offseason that Sunseri had the tools for this offense, but that he wasn’t exercising the option to run enough over the first three games this season. I watched him in practices before the season and he was doing very well in keeping the ball and taking off, then that disappeared when we started playing actual games.

What it does, when you have that component in the gameplan, is open up the way for both Graham and for the passing game. The defense has to respect the chance that the QB can hurt them with his legs. This is exactly what the triple-option is designed for and the role of a running QB in it can’t be underestimated.

Sunseri has shown his scrambling ability in the past when the play breaks down, but he really needs to understand in his mind that his legs are that third weapon in addition to the handoff and pulling the ball back and passing.

It is also why I’ve been so adamant that there is a real reason that both Sunseri and Anderson are #1 & #2 respectively on the depth chart. Myers just isn’t the type of QB to fit that role. You can’t try to understand Graham’s philosophy about his offensive system without knowing that the QB has to be both a good passer and a good rusher.

Comment by Reed 09.30.11 @ 8:35 am

A couple of recruiting notes that slipped into this morning’s Post-Gazette…

Apparently Bisnowaty’s high school (Fox Chapel) runs an offense similar to Pitt’s offense. Hopefully any adjustment period will be relatively short.

According to the PG, Shell has narrowed his choices to Pitt and Alabama.

Pitt is very much in the mix for Chartiers’ Wayne Capers.

Last night’s game certainly didn’t hurt!

Comment by Pantherman13 09.30.11 @ 8:55 am

The most encouraging thing I saw last night was that TG was willing to change his 4th quarter thinking. If he would have ran the play clock down like last night in the last two games, we would be 3-1 now at worst.
Ray Graham might be the best back since TD graced our fields and there were some great ones, I only hope they don’t run him to death.

Comment by Jimbo 09.30.11 @ 9:22 am

Unbelievable execution. Wannstache recruited solid players and they finally looked prepared tonight. An amazing job by the offensive line, especially with Nix getting hurt early.

They looked really good. A few breaks went Pitt’s way, but very promising.

Comment by Chris 09.30.11 @ 9:23 am

Jimbo – Shows Graham’s willingness to adapt. Basically learned from his mistake last week. That last TD drive took 6m7s off the clock.

However, once Graham feels that this offense is truly up to their potential and running on all cylinders I wouldn’t be surprised if he stops doing that and reverts to keeping the hammer down at the end of the games.

Comment by Reed 09.30.11 @ 9:34 am

Whats that song..”Its a beautiful mor-ningggg, ahhhhhh”

Pitt Family, have a great weekend and bask in the win until Monday and get ready for New Brunswick.

HAIL TO PITT

Comment by H.landPitt 09.30.11 @ 9:37 am

Pantherman thanks for a couple of good notes.

Although I think OL is the hardest position to start at for a freshman, familiarity with the schemes would certainly help bridge that gap. We all know how much we will lose on the OL next year and pumping new blood will be important — FYI Scout has a 4* OL from Olney (same school as stud WR Stefon Diggs) with a Pitt offer and “High” Interest.

As far as Shell is concerned, I said it in my earlier post…He just watched Pitt ride it’s stud RB for close to 230 yards to a win on national TV vs the #16 team in the country. He would be “THE GUY” on this team, not just one of many horses a roster full of stallions @ Bama. Honestly as far as the pros are concerned both schools have been churning out NFL caliber backs recently…
Bama:: Glen Coffee (before he retired after 1 yr), Mark Ingram, and soon to be Trent Richardson Pitt:: Shady McCoy, Dion Lewis, and soon to be Ray Graham.
He will be playing in the ACC against more marquee opponents and getting more national exposure because of that.

If Pitt can keep this level of play and competition going the rest of the season, I see a very bright future for the Panthers.

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 9:39 am

I have to question how good SF is. ND handed them that game and they beat 3 sub BCS opponents. Lets temper our enthusism.

Comment by alcofan 09.30.11 @ 9:40 am

Jimbo, Yes, dispite what Graham said after the Iowa game about not slowing it down with a big lead, he learned a valuable lesson and ran some clock to close out the game. Great game.

I knew Pitt would come to play, particularily after 2 heart-breakers in in a row. This game was a “must win” for them and played the game like it. You could tell in the very 1st possession that Sunseri was getting rid of the ball much quicker and Pitt’s up-tempo offence kept South Florida off-balance all night. In the 4th quarter when it looked as if South Florida might get some things going, the Panthers’ defense pressured them into mistakes. They took a giant step forward last night and the offensive line moved them off the ball without our two best offensive lineman. Not a bad way to start their Big East Conference season.

Comment by Justinian 09.30.11 @ 9:42 am

My crow doesn’t taste any better than yours, but it beats the alternative. Ecstatic to be wrong on last night’s outcome. Best thing I saw last night was eating clock when the only thing that could beat you was the other team getting the ball.
Other than that, this is the best win since the WVU upset, although I think, in retrospect, that many of the posters on here were right in that maybe SF wasn’t as good as a #16 would suggest. No matter. Graham has changed everything with this win and now has 9 days to build on it. One thing is for sure in my mind: the big difference between last night’s win and many of the wins over the last 20 years is that last night FELT like a win versus a survival contest in which Pitt was the tallest midget. Good for the kids in that locker room, especially Tino!

Comment by wally 09.30.11 @ 9:52 am

Hey Reed, I was wrong too but that’s life!

This was a great win and a confidence booster to the entire team, off to Buttgers!!!

Comment by Dallas Panther 09.30.11 @ 9:54 am

Tino got it done good for him. but it will take more than one game before i climb on bord his band wagon but for today good job tino.

Comment by FRANKCAN 09.30.11 @ 9:57 am

I prefer “Rutgirls” over “Buttgers” personally.

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 9:57 am

BCPitt, Thursday night games are tough for anyone with a job. It’s understandable coming off 2 tough losses and it being a Thursday night game that the attendence was low. A friday or Saturday night game is much more managable for fans to attend. One thing I can tell you is if they continue to play the way they did last night, they will put fannys in the seats. I always perfered attending the 12:00 noon games that way I could get there in the mroning and enjoy the day. But with ESPN and TV they will always be looking to fill the prime TV time.

Comment by Justinian 09.30.11 @ 9:58 am

All I ask of a coach is that his teams improve each week and TG’s team certainly has, espcially last night. Did anyone notice the lack of penalties,pre-snap and otherwise. This was the most solid game Pitt has played in 7 years.
Congrats to Pitt..see you at Rutgers!

Comment by Dan 72 09.30.11 @ 10:34 am

Despite my criticisms one thing I saw in the ND and especially the Iowa game we had better talent than Iowa and equal to ND. TG not the players lost the game to Iowa and to a large extent to ND. This bothers me only that even with Tino (although I would love to see what Pitt could do with Myers) their is a lot me talent on this team than the press and TG implied. TG used this, in my opinion, to disguise hais lack of head coaching experience. My worry is that TG ignore recruits such as those playing now for lesser players in PA., Ohio, and N.J. who he sees as a better fit (smaller players )that will have trouble matching up against Clemson, Miami, Boston College, and VT. The spread offense can be run with all sizes and types of players.

Comment by DRW 09.30.11 @ 10:35 am

Great win last night! I was there. Student section in the lower level was ROCKIN & Sold out. Most boisterous and involved they’ve been since the Cincy debacle a couple seasons ago. Most of the lower seats were all filled. 500 level not so much, but even the ND game did not fill them up. Just have to accept it; that is how college football is in this town.

Graham had a monster night. From the look of it, FLA looked gassed on O & D line right after halftime. If we had made a couple more plays early in the game & had TDs not FGs we would have broken 50 pts!

Kudos to TG for not being a rigid idealogue and making adjustments in the preparation, game plan, and in-game planning/ adjustments. The scheme was much more suited for Tino’s abilities. While he still missed some throws and was not tremendously accurate, plays were called that allowed him to perform.

Comment by Big A 09.30.11 @ 10:40 am

Well one thing… great performance.. but realize BJ daniels can’t throw for beans.

Comment by Snala The Panther 09.30.11 @ 10:44 am

Where’s all the Wanny supporters this morning?

They aren’t saying a word and they finally shut their mouths at Heinz field last night as well because Wanny NEVER beat a ranked opponent by 27 points. You have to go back to Walt Harris in 2001 and Pitt smoking VA Tech to find such an ass whipping.

I hope that this game quiets the “We never should have let Wanny go” crowd forever and if any of you still think that PLEASE MOVE ON.

Comment by Tony in Harrisburg 09.30.11 @ 10:49 am

3 cheers for the O Line!!! Despite being really banged up they played their hearts out and made me PITT PROUD!

This is the kind of game that hopefully will be an eye opener for our potential recruits. Filling the pipeline with high quality players who want to step up from the Big East to play VT, FSU and Clemson. HAIL TO PITT!!!

Comment by isnore 09.30.11 @ 10:51 am

Great win by the Panthers with great effort on both sides of the ball. We need to continue this type of effort against Rutgers.

As someone pointed out earlier, one game does not constitute a trend. On the other hand the team and coaching seem to be improving every game which does constitute a trend. The coaching staff did adjust their philosophy of “pedal to the metal all the time” by running the clock in the fourth quarter. On the defensive side of the ball more blitzes were called and the defense became less “vanilla”.

This will be the first of many wins against ranked opponents by Coach Graham. We now need to take care of business against lesser ranked teams by keeping this same focus and intensity. Hopefully Heinz Field will be packed for my yearly trip to see Pitt play against Utah.

Hail To Pitt!

Comment by John In South Carolina 09.30.11 @ 11:06 am

this one was for the tina haters,maybe the kid has his fathers heart.shut up and show up

Comment by paul shannon 09.30.11 @ 11:06 am

It was a great win for us, all the better with it being on national TV. As for eating crow in respect to Tino, I prefer to take the cow view and have to more stomachs to chew on. LOL!!!

On a serious note this was Tino’s best game. He came out better at reading/reacting quickly and it showed. He had the hiccups he had been having but they were not costly. But will not rag on him in this game because he actually showed credible solid improvement. Keep it up Tino, continue to slow things down in your CPU so you make the right decisions and you and the team will do well.

Ray graham was great, the young Oline guys impressed and what can you say about the D. I got fired-up when they showed Graham talking to them on the sidelines. We know the O is going to be great under Graham, if the D can be great too…………………LOOK OUT BABY!!!!

Comment by Kenny 09.30.11 @ 11:09 am

Agree with several of the posts on here: All I could think about as I watched Ray Graham was that I hoped Rushel Shell was taking notes. My only criticism of Todd Graham in this game would be that he kept Ray Graham out there entirely too long. Giving this kid carries with 7 minutes left in a blowout is shortsighted, to say the least. It’s a long season and Pitt’s going to go as far as Ray Graham takes them.

Comment by WorkinOnMyPittness 09.30.11 @ 11:13 am

I think I’ll celebrate the victory by going down the Strip today and get a shitake mushroom eggplant sandwich at Sunseri’s.

Comment by alcofan 09.30.11 @ 11:28 am

i dont want to eat anything called shitake

Comment by toga toga toga 09.30.11 @ 11:30 am

I’ll miss the Pitt-South Florida games when we split for ACC. Always entertaining contests.

Comment by TonyinHouston 09.30.11 @ 11:51 am

Was at the game last night, my first one this year, so I’ll take credit for the win. LOL

Have been in the Burgh all week, but couldn’t attend the ND game due to another obligation. It was just coincidence that USF was the next team up, given they’re my “hometown” team.

The Panthers seem to have their number. I commented to the folks around me that there’s at least one team that will be glad to see Pitt going to the ACC. We ruin their BE season almost every year. I gladly reminded my USF alum friends in Tampa of that.

USF is no slouch. Holtz is a good coach and they have talent. I expect them to handle WVU in Tampa, which will be good for us.

Graham was awesome. Tino looks like he’s finally getting it and understands that he has to pull the ball and run to make the offense effective.

K. Williams is still giving too much cushion but overall the defense did a good job. Even saw Tristan Robert showing good tackling form a few times.

Maybe things are coming together like TG promised. Too early to get cocky, but I like what I saw last night.

Comment by TampaT 09.30.11 @ 11:55 am

WorkinOnMyPittness, Agreed, I also thought RayGraham deserved a curtain call exit a little earlier. But…………..after the Iowa game I’m sure Tod Graham and his staff were going to make absolutely sure that they closed this one out. Also with all the pressure following the last two heart-breakers, that they were on cloud 9 and enjoying the moment.

Comment by Justinian 09.30.11 @ 12:03 pm

I think once Ray got over 200 on that last drive TG pulled him. He was chatting it up on the sidelines for most of the 4th quarter with Brown getting all the clock eating carries. I had no problem with how he used Graham…He is averaging around 25 carries a game and that is what I expect given how he is the focal point of the offense AND how many plays this team runs per game.

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 12:04 pm

I think once Ray got over 200 on that last drive TG pulled him. He was chatting it up on the sidelines for most of the 4th quarter with Brown getting all the clock eating carries. I had no problem with how he used Graham…He is averaging around 25 carries a game and that is what I expect given how he is the focal point of the offense AND how many plays this team runs per game.

Comment by BCPITT 09.30.11 @ 12:04 pm

Actually, I thought they should have pulled Tino and given Anderson some reps. Surprised Dr. Tom didn’t bring that up.

With Tino running more and more, Anderson is potentially one play from having to take the helm. They need to get the kid reps when they can and being up 41-17 was probably a good time to do that.

Hard to criticize TG, because he did a lot of things right last night, but that’s one that stood out to me. Plus I still don’t understand his timeout philosophy. Sometimes I think I’m watching the NBA with his choices of when to call a timeout.

Comment by TampaT 09.30.11 @ 12:17 pm

methinks that TG’s philosophy at the end of the game (by keeping most of the starters) was to make a couple of statements:

1. You didn’t “finish” the last 2 games, but you’ll finish this one – together

2. Haven’t earned the right to “high five” around the sideline with 6 minutes left..

3. and – we keep pushing until the refs tell us the game is over.

It may take a couple more games before TG backs off of this. Whether we like it or not!

Comment by CompLit 09.30.11 @ 12:21 pm

Not to split hairs here, but wasn’t it USF in the white hats (helmets), and Pitt in the gold hats? :-\

Comment by Lollard 09.30.11 @ 12:21 pm

I called it in this blog yesterday. I said the offense will kick in and Pitt will win.

Also I see that Dokish has a new blog and yesterday before the game, he wrote that Pitt could be a national power again. Even an optimist like me thought he was going too far but not after seeing that win last night. That offense is the real deal.

link to panthersprey.blogspot.com

Comment by Mike 09.30.11 @ 12:22 pm

YES!! I’m so pleased with the “blowout”, I will even give a nod of appreciayion to the Post Gazette journalists. Mr. Zeise, Reed and even Ron Cook were gracious enoygh to write accurate accounts of the encounter. Well done, gentlemen.Rev. George in Columbus

Comment by Rev. George Mehaffey 09.30.11 @ 12:30 pm

@TampaT. I was nervous about how Pitt was going to handle the fourth quarter, given their recent history. By the time we shut the door with our final score, there was just time enough for Tino to bask in the warm fuzzies of victory with the rest of the offense, so that is why there was no call for Anderson to get reps from my camp today.

Hell, if Tino plays like this for the rest of the season, you won’t hear much protest from me if Anderson gets nothing but mop up duty from here on out.

The guy that left me scratching my head about last night was my man Shanahan. I’ve never seen him drop such easy balls, and not just once but twice back to back. Usually automatic for him with such easy catches. Thank God we ended up not needing that first drop for a sure TD. I forgive you, now go sic the Scarlet Knights.

Considering how good I feel today about Pitt’s win, I can only imagine how the guys who were actually responsible for it, the players and coaches, must be feeling today. ENJOY!!!!!! Beats the snot out of losing two close ones in the 4th quarter doesn’t it?

Comment by Pitts a Hit 09.30.11 @ 2:02 pm

All is well in the burgh right now.

Comment by FRANKCAN 09.30.11 @ 4:50 pm

Amazing how one game can change things. Almost everything seemed to click at once…

Curious how we lose our 2 best o-linemen and then have our best blocking game of the year…

I was also hoping to see Tino & Ray take a seat about a drive earlier…An injury there would have been devastating…

Could have been natural improvement but Tino & Cam Saddler seem to have had a fire lit under them last night…

Although there were lots of coverage issues again, the defense continues to improve week-to-week. I thought last night was the best hitting and most physical the D has been this year.

Ball security is an issue with the young receivers. Three fumbles last night could have very easily made us feel like ND playing South Florida.

A great morale boost for the team and even better national publicity. Can we continue to build on it and will the fans start to show up with a couple more wins?

Comment by Bowling Green Panther 09.30.11 @ 5:09 pm

Here, here gents.

I agree with most all if not all the previous posts,
it was actually fun again to watch a PITT game.

Wooohooo.

I’m glad Tino had a good game since that will usually lead to a PITT win. Still not totally sold on him, as this is only 1 game and RG was tearing up the USF D. But Tino started to run the Triple Option somewhat against ND and keep that ball and get some positive yardage and they continued that in the 1rst half against USF. And that’s when the QB has to keep the ball in the read Option, THE 1RST HALF, for then you have the opposing DE’s always worrying about that play and therefore they can’t come off their stance and mount a full charge without that read option in the back of their mind for the rest of the game. They have that little indecision and they hesitate and that’s all you want. That success on the Read Option ALSO SLOWS DOWN THE OPPOSING PASS RUSH, as was evident last nite as well.

Anyway, what a phenomenal game from RG, words can’t describe his value to the team. And had he not sat out most of the 4rth quarter, he might have hit 300 yards. The Zach Brown had I believe had 16 carries last nite, which considering we almost lost him earlier in the game, was good to get him some work.

I like Tampa T, was expecting Trey to come in the game in the 4rth quarter when the score was 41-17, if only because you’re only one play from losing your QB and he could use the reps.

Other highlighes:

Kevin Harper after a shaky start to the season, has come on like gang busters, hitting 2 long FG’s over 45 yds and another at 39 yds or so.
Read somewhere he hit the longest FG at Pitt since the famous 48 yarder by Conner Lee in 13-9 Hillbilly no National Championship game for you game.

Cam Saddler finally did something, catching 6 balls to lead the team.

Todd Thomas’s amazing speed, tracking down BJ Daniels when he broke out of the pocket for a huge loss. He almost made an incredible one handed interception as well. When he fully understands the defense, Thomas is going to be great.

The O-Line was very good. Hats off to Ryan Schlieper(sp?) from NA(who came in for Nix) and Cory King who replaced Jacobson. If you remember WVU, under DickRod, they never had highly recruited O-linemen, with this Zone blocking it never hurt them from running for gabs of yards.
Also the center of Pitt (name?) had another near flawness game.

The Punter Yoklik (sp) also had a nice game including a 50 yarder. First game we didn’t pooch punt, THAT MIGHT BE THE KEY, NO MORE POOCH PUNTING TG!! lol

The D-Line did a good job in containment.

Now the bad:

The LB’s in pass coverage are still very weak.

Devin Street didn’t have one catch, and last week only had minimal catches. That is a concern, for he is one of our few WR gamebreakers.

Was a little worried there when we were up 34-17 and we got the ball on a fumble at the 50 yard line or so….and we went nowhere…3 and out.
Also the next series was another 3 and out.
I was hoping we would bury them then, especially on the series we got the ball at the 50. Oh well.

As a said yesterday, this game was HUGE and WE HAD TO WIN IT, or the season could unravel.
PITT stepped up bigtime. Now on to Piscataway, which is…thataway>>>>

Comment by EMel 09.30.11 @ 8:00 pm

Generally I do not read article on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, quite nice post.

Comment by P90x Worksheets 10.11.11 @ 5:06 am

Hey! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My website looks weird when viewing from my iphone. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to fix this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. Thanks!

Comment by Tempe Hardwood Flooring 10.12.11 @ 1:13 am

hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve certainly picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise some technical points using this web site, since I experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and could damage your high-quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective exciting content. Make sure you update this again very soon..

Comment by Austin Apartment Locator 10.18.11 @ 1:46 am

Powered by WordPress © PittBlather.com

Site Meter