For some reason, it won’t let me log onto the moderator account for Chas’ cbox, and I can’t figure out how to embed it in the post. So, if you could just click here, it should show up in another window.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Then again if i was Kevin Harper, I release a public statement along the lines of “We missed read after read offensively, thats why we lost the game. It came down to offensive signal calling at the line of scrimmage, and being able to read a defense, and we have’t been able to do that in crucial situations. I give Notre Dame credit because their 19 year old RS Freshman was able to do that, while our 36 year old RS 18th YR Senior can’t.”
“Not a fan of Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri saying after his kicker, Kevin Harper, missed a 33-yard field goal in overtime, “We missed a field goal. That’s why we lost the game.” What a teammate Sunseri is. Pitt blew a 20-6 lead in the fourth quarter, and Harper made four of five field goals in the 29-26 loss. But he missed the one field goal that would have won it in the second overtime. Everyone who watched the game, and everyone in the Pitt locker room, understands a makeable field goal would have won the game. But to put the spotlight on one guy — that’s not what the quarterback on a team should do.”
Read more: link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Enought said.
As bad or inconsistent as Harper has been all year (and I am one of his biggest critics), he didnt deserve to be called out like he was by the supposed team leader. A team leader who to my knowledge has never been called out by a teammate during his stellar career for ineptitude under center.
On to CT! Win.
HTP
Now as far as how I would respond to the rest of your most recent post, read CNorwoodAZ’s reply to you just below your post, and I respond with “what he said”.
Regarding your perspective on reality, let me use an analogy that you can relate to in your professional life since you, “are objective, take a critical perspective, and analyze numbers without emotion”. First, any objective observer viewing Saturday’s Pitt-ND game who saw the PI call in question and understands football, would agree that the ref made a horribly bad, game changing call on that play. End of discussion.
Second, any objective observer who had critically analyzed the teams in this game, before hand, would conclude “no contest” prior to the game. In essence this is what the Vegas line is all about and it was ND -17.
So just by crunching the numbers, Pitt beats the spread 2 TD’s, that’s a good thing right? And that was because Pitt looked good rather than ND looking awful. And considering Pitt takes the game into the fourth quarter up by 14, that makes Pitt’s effort even look better up to that point.
So what was the turning point in the game? Seemed pretty obvious to me, it was the PI call in question. So here is the business analogy.
If an “average” company showed great profit margins over the first 3 quarters of the year, under adverse market conditions against stiff competition, I would consider that very positive. If in the last quarter, outside factors that the company had no control over imposed harsh financial penalties against the company that adversely effected the profits in the last quarter and caused repercussions for the total years financial sheet, then how would you evaluate the company at year’s end?
I don’t think that you throw that company under the bus and discredit it’s previous accomplishments under such trying conditions, especially since the performance overall was way ahead of expectations in the first place.
However, that is just what you did IMO. Your quote “For the people blaming the officials. Winners celebrate victories and losers blame the officials. Good teams are mentally tough and can overcome a bad call here and there”.
Well, if you are lookig at this Pitt team “objectively” I would be hard pressed to classify them as “good”. And the PI call was not a “here or there” call, IT WAS “THE” CALL THAT TURNED THE GAME’S MOMENTUM TOTALLY AROUND.
You ended up even apoligizing for your negativity (whining). That’s what pissed me off. Expectations that were totally unrealistic!!!!! Just because Pitt cannot finish a game against the third ranked team in the country is no reason to be negative about their effort, which IMO was close to supernatural. This is a team that 7 weeks ago was being given up for dead for Christ’s sake. Then after they take a team like ND into triple OT in a losing effort they have to hear supposed fans still consider them losers, I don’t think so.
Don’t get me wrong, I share your desire to see Pitt a top 25 team annually again, but trashing a great effort, even though it was in a losing effort is not the way to get it done.
This team should really, really suck right now, considering what they have been through in the last couple years. And I know what bad Pitt football feels like living through a 1-10 season the year before Coach Majors showed up. But instead, these guys played out of their minds and almost pulled off a historic win that would have gone down in the books as one of the best Pitt victories in their long and storied history.
That didn’t happen, but it sure as hell doesn’t mean that these guys played like “the same old Pitt”. In fact it is a team that just does not yet have the ability to finish a game well and that got screwed by a critically important bad call.
You weren’t even born when Pitt won their last national championship, but let me tell you the air is pretty rarified up there way at the top. There is not a lot of room for error to get there either. Pitt may never get there again for as far as I know. So enjoy the process, is my recommendation. Celebrate the victories, no matter who they beat, mourn the losses no matter whom is victorious over us, but be realistic and rational in your expectations so as to keep the proper perspective on the process. And always Hail to Pitt!
“This is crazy. I did not blame the whole game on Harp! I even said it twice to make sure it was clear that I didn’t. This is stupid!”
“Taken out of context! Somany more plays in a game than just one kick. To think that is idiotic and dumb. Teams win and lose.”
I didn’t see the interview, but the words were definitely said. Out of context or not, they should not have been said.
Admittedly, I just glanced over the 200 or so posts, and really didn’t see anyone questioning the kids efforts.
Maybe there were, my eyes are about shot.
In my opinion, it wasn’t the playcalling as much as the execution not being up to the level of the play being called.
On that last drive, all Chryst and Rudolph were doing was simply asking Tino and the rest of the offense to execute the same plays as if it were the first drive of the game.
If there’s a complaint to be made, it is Chryst’s reluctance to recognize Tino’s tendency to make mistakes at critical moments.
This is no different then the end of of the first half against Cincy and the end of the game at Syracuse when Chryst was calling on his quarterback to think on his feet and execute “A PLAY” like it was designed and undoubtedly exectuied successfully countless of times when the game was no so much on the line.