Where to begin…
I am not immune from bouts of ABT. As I watched the game on DVR delay, purposefully cut off from the internet, I listened to Beth Mowins and Joey Galloway praising Tino Sunseri in the first quarter. The same Sunseri who started 2-7 on the first four possessions and looked dreadful. Prompting me to wish that Coach Paul Chryst would snap and bench him on senior day.
But he recovered to do a good job in a game that earned him Big East Offensive Player of the Week honors. Yes, a 21-39 for 227 yards and 2 TDs was enough in the second last weekend of the season to be the best offensive performance in the conference. That’s not saying a lot about the rest of the conference. His game also led to this actual headline on the the Star-Ledger website: Rutgers defense meets its match in Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri.
/spit take
Heading into the game, I couldn’t help but hope Rutgers would be looking past Pitt. Thinking only about how they can win the Big East on Thursday against Louisville. That’s sure how it looked. Even as the players naturally denied such a thing had occurred.
“Guys were excited. Guys were prepared,” said linebacker Khaseem Greene. “At the end of the day, they just out-executed us.”
And for one of the few times this season, the offense, defense and special teams couldn’t bail out the other struggling units.
“They beat us. We didn’t execute. I can’t make any excuses,” Nova said.
The way this first quarter went. Offensive incompetence on both sides, but Rutgers getting slightly better field position with each punt. Well, it made me think a lot of the previous game between Rutgers and Pitt. In that game, on a cold day, both teams relied on defense (or dealt with some offensive incompetence) in the first half. Rutgers eventually capitalized on worse incompetence by Pitt to blow the game open in the second half.
Thankfully, this time the offensive incompetence was on the Rutgers side, and it happened earlier.
“I regret the whole game,” said the sophomore quarterback, who completed 18 of 37 for 157 yards and a touchdown. “I didn’t execute well enough.”
Nova spent much of his time fleeing the onslaught of Pitt linemen as Pitt surprised Rutgers, 27-6, yesterday in a Big East Conference matchup.
“They did a good job putting pressure on me,” he said. “They beat us up.”
The Rutgers O-line which had been doing a fine job of protecting Gary Nova this year, was overwhelmed today. They — well, they looked a lot like Pitt’s O-line against UConn a couple weeks ago. They gave no holes for the running game and the QB was under constant pressure to get rid of the ball.
In this 11th game, there has been so much other stuff that it is hard not to reference, flash to or fear will happen again. So when Pitt built a 14-0 lead and got the ball back with less than 2 minutes near midfield, I was flashing back to the poor work done. Especially the Louisville game when Pitt got too aggressive and ended up giving up points. So I was not feeling good when Pitt faced a 3d and 6 with a little over a minute and called a timeout. Afraid that Rutgers would just air it out before the half and get some penalties or that breakdown in the secondary that changes everything.
The aggressive playcalling by Chryst finally paid off, but I won’t lie and say that I thought it was a good plan when it was happening. Just burned by it too much this season.
If there is any doubt that Ray Graham gets up for playing Rutgers and his half-brother, the last two meetings should end that debate. He had 165 yards last year and 113 this year.
But really this game was about the Pitt defense showing up. After the UConn debacle, Coach Chryst actually questioned the desire and effort of the team. Questioning if they understood what it took to win. DC Dave Huxtable had the defense practicing without arms in an effort to get them to try and get back to fundamentals. It seemed to get their attention. Not to mention a little bit of pride probably being on the line in the home finale.
Probably most impressive was defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who had seven unassisted tackles and a sack.
“He set the standard that he should play well,” Chryst said. “It’s pretty neat to be around a guy (that) when the bar is set high, he can achieve that level.”
The Panthers found a level of consistency that has been missing in many games, appearing to draw inspiration from a respected group of seniors playing their last home game.
Coach Chryst was due for a “neat” reference.
Yes, Rutgers may be a tad overrated. But given Pitt’s inconsistent performance, I don’t feel like judging. The Panthers played a solid game that still gives Pitt a chance at a 3d straight trip to Birmingham. Though, the bigger opportunity could be the Pinstripe Bowl against the Hoopies.
If it means perpetuating the 2-2-2-2-2-2 streak. So be it. At least get one more win.
Pitt at USF. 7pm on ESPN2. Why? Because there’s airspace to fill.
Tino once again performed well, as he generally seems to do whenever the game is not in the balance and Pitt doesn’t need him to make the play that changes the momentum for the game.
PC and his assistants have to get the players’ attention this week to avoid another UConn performance. USF is a mess and if Pitt goes up by 10pts or more, I could easily see them throwing in the towel, but on the other hand, if Pitt lets them hang around, it could be the end of a pathetic streak of bowl games.
As for the importance of playing in a bowl, I generally think is way overrated. I hear the talk about additional weeks of practice, and would agree if coaches used these practices and games to get their teams ready for next year playing underclassmen whose redshirts have already been burned. Instead it seems like it ends up being a farewell game to all the seniors 90% of whom will never play organized football again.
The exception for Pitt this year is that its inexperienced coaching staff needs to experience how to manage, coordinate, and plan for a post-season bowl. They’ve proven they can learn from mistakes, and it will be better for them to make mistakes in a totally meaningless bowl game like the Compass or Pinstripe as opposed to a more visible ACC bowl in the future.
The NFL will hold 10 regional combines and a 2013 super regional combine beginning late in January.The regionals are a supplement to the NFL’s national scouting combine in Indianapolis in late February.”—this is good news for marginal NFL prospects and just maybe Tino gets an invite. Otherwise, his best shot is to dazzle the NFL scouts at Pitt’s Pro Day and get into a camp somewhere with his “connections”. The problem is that FILM is what the scouts look at, not stats or who is the POTW in the Big Least.
I’ll go out on a limb and bet you a cold one he is NOT in an NFL camp next season. Too short by NFL standards, too inconsistent in the pocket (sacks, not throwing it away), too inaccurate on long throws, and plenty of bad film to go with his good. He may go Arena League, like Stull did for a while, but thats it. Not Tino bashing, as he deserves his due for Sat and some other performances. Just keepin it real.
I will be rooting for Sir Tino to outplay USF’s 3rd string QB on SAT and send us bowling at 6-6. HTP
Go Panthers!
If we live long enough I would imagine in the future, there will be an ESPN 10. Then ESPN 20.
Everygame, everywhere will be televised if someone is willing to advertise gum bands or smart phones during the game.
To play in the Liberty Bowl.
BigEast Player of the Week. ikr
Hey but an award is an award.
Maybe Beth Mowins & her pal Joey were allowed to vote.
You know you’re a low priority game when you get one of the two husky voiced girls doing your game.
I can not discern between Beth and the other one,
Pam.
Anyway Mowins & Pal Joey was much to much after just having to get thru Doris (the finkasaurus) Burke less than 24 hours previous. Talk about post Thanksgiving indigestion. Oy Vey !
For your viewing pleasure:
I may have overstated my point by saying I ‘fully’ expect him to be on someone’s practice squad, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was. However, I believe he’ll at least be a warm body in an NFL training camp.
He won’t grade-out well at the combine: he’s at least 6 inches too short, and his arm is too weak. And before you suggest that Drew Brees has similar stature: DB is an incredibly accurate passer; Tino isn’t.
Besides, there’s only 30-some of those jobs on the planet, and Sackseri isn’t close to the cut off line. Tyler Palko has had trouble catching on with the Chiefs, and he’s miles better than Sackseri.
And before you suggest Tino to Canada and the CFL: they aren’t that hard-up either.
Thanks for the laugh, tho.
The Steelers ( you know the team that drafted Sal in the Final Round in 1983 I think), need a couple warm bodies in camp for the QB position next year.
As I can’t fathom them re-signing either Leftwich or Batch.
So if no one else signs Sir Tino, the Steelers will come to the rescue. He’ll be in someone’s camp, because all the article in the local NFL’s newspaper has to do, is pull an ESPN.
He sounded like an excellent QB to all who watched the game on ESPN against Rutgers and didn’t know better.
AFter all he will finish right behind the great Dan the Man Marino in all-time passing. The average NFL fan in say, Kansas City or Minnesota won’t know any better.
He will get a free agent payday somewhere, rest assured.
I think the no-arm tackling drill in practice was huge. I think this was the first Pitt game I’ve seen that no opponent broke an arm tackle.
Tino will be in a camp. And we will hear the same things as we’ve heard at Pitt – ‘He makes all the throws in practice’, ‘He’s picking up the offense’, ‘You can tell he’s a coaches son’, ‘He was a 3 year starter in college’.
After camp is over, we’ll probably never hear about him again unless some poor team is unfortunate enough to lose 2 QBs in 2 weeks and only have some old guy as a #3.
We can make the bet dependant on a roster spot (read: practice squad), but we’d have to wait all year to drink a beer!!!! He could be added to someone’s practice squad at any time next season.
Actually, no running/spread QB has ever won a Super Bowl (unless you include Steve Young).
Prototypical NFL QBs are becoming more rare with the proliferation of the spread in the NCAA. That’s the ONLY reason I think Tino will be given a look.
Of course it doesn’t matter since we all know that Chryst can’t recruit.
By the way, Rutgers never was a concern given the pattern of performance this year.
That said, this Saturday is a concern.
However, believe Pitt will win anyway. Got to believe Chryst, his assistants and the players have all learned from the past and will come ready to play.
All I’m saying is…. he will be in some NFL’s team camp next July. I don’t expect him to make the Final cut, but he will be on someone’s pre-season roster.
There is an extreme shortage of qb’s coming out of college with pro-set scheme experience, as more and more teams are playing the spread, where the QB is always in the shotgun and never takes a snap directly under center or learns how to back peddle while looking for the open receiver.
The dossier will look very impressive. Around a 65% career completion percentage, over 6,000 yards career passing, with over 35 TD passes and half as many picks. Led his team to 3 straight bowl appearances(we hope). Had to play under 3 different OC’s. Finished 3rd all-time in passing, etc. etc.
And ESPN likes him so their boy Mel Kiper might give him a boost too ! lmao
This is after all, just business. And we all know (or should know) how business works.
hope he is back for big east play.
4 series/ 14 plays/ 36 yards / 4 punts
So had we played a more competent
offensive team we probably would have fallen behind and we all know what that means.
Luckily we were playing a dreadful 1rst half team in Rutgers as they went:
4 series / 14 plays / 38 yards / 4 punts
RU’s ineptitude continued into the 2nd Q as they went: (this is a team that’s scored 7 TD’s against FBS teams total in the 1rst half this year
4 series / 13 plays / 21 yards / 4 punts
Whereas Pitt went :
5 series / 25 plays / 241 yards / 3 TD’s
Gotta say I was screaming at the TV when Chryst went for more points up 14-0, with only 1:30 left before halftime. As I’m sure a lot of other bloggers did as well. As we had ALL the momentum
at that point and RU had done nothing up to that point, so why risk a momentum swing (fumble, Interception, points on the board for RU)) instead of just running out the clock up 2 TD’s. It worked but still…
I watched a replay of the ND game yesterday, and low and behold PC did a similar thing against ND, up 10-6 on the road, 1 minute to go till half, 4rth and one at midfield, he goes for it, we get stopped well short of it and ND promptly gets into FG range which would have made it 10-9 and changed the whole momentum of the game.
Luckily, the kicker pushed it right, and it didn’t cost us, but you have to punt there.
And to top it off, we didn’t even have our powerback (Shell) in on that 4rth down play and while Ray Ray is a great back, he is rather small and slightly built(ever look at his arms) and is NOT a power back.
So while it worked against Rutgers, it hasn’t for most of the season. And it’s kinda alarming these calls are still being made.
On the positive side we get to play a team this week down to their 3rd string QB. So please let’s not let him have his career highlite against us.
HTP !
You know nobody who remembers how many we took to Memphis that year. Plus we got creamed by Southern Miss I believe. Memphis does have Blue’s Alley and the great Peabody Hotel, which everyone should stay in at least once in their lifetime (if nothing else but to see the frickin ducks). The March of the Ducks. lol
One of these days I’ll attend those Pitt alumni events in Dallas for games. Having a family and being on the SW side of the metroplex makes it difficult.
If the ACC does fall apart, I’m hoping a Big 12 invite is on hand. I think both Texas and Oklahoma stay in a more expanded Big 12 (only 10 teams now so say hello to the Big 16) and say no thanks to any impending PAC 10 invite.
Pitt vs USF @ 7pm
Pitt vs Detroit @ 7pm
Obviously the football game is on some form of ESPN, so that time isn’t changeble. The Detroit game on the other hand….are you telling me that can’t be moved to 5pm?
For those of us with BBall tickets, what do you all plan on doing?
I have been a vehement ABT commentor on this blog, but I also think we should give the kid some credit. He’s not the sole reason we had such a mediocre season…He’s not a clutch QB by any stretch, but with a few breaks our way and Pitt could have put together a decent season. Frankly, I’m excited to see what Chryst can pull off next year, especially if Savage is as good as advertised.
By any measure Sunseri has played better than Savage so far in their careers. Don’t forget that the RU fans were happy to see Dodd take the field over Savage back in 2010.
Our QB position for 2013 is very iffy IMO. We have one experienced and average player who hasn’t taken a snap in two years, one rsFR who hasn’t taken a snap at all and a true FR. We also should consider Trey Anderson and I think he’ll be in the mix in camp.
We PITT fans could very well look over our shoulders at Sunseri’s 2012 production and wish we had the same out of our QBs in 2013.
I say NO way.
He has the worst footwork for a QB I have ever seen (I counted 6 throws off the wrong foot Saturday), has no arm strength long or any accuracy over 20 yards. He is a head case who many times during a game forgets the snap count…see Saturday at the 1 yard line, ND 3x under pressure late. Scouts watch and take many notes to go with hours of tape. Hope Tino has another profession in mind.
I hold him responsible and him alone for our current 5-6 record.
After next year, Chapman is the future… or at least untill Kincaid actually signs and gets a chance to show if he’s really that good.
Voytik is the odd man out. Maybe a future at safety.
Since Tino the Magnificent is one of the worst QBs in Division 1, there are 100s of better QBs for those 30-some openings just this year, let alone those from recent years. I suggest you better save some serious $$ to pay off your bets.
Go back and watch tapes — the NFL scouts will — of some of the collosal 4th Qtr screw-ups dude had in his career, losing dozens of games all by himself: SMU Bowl game last year, all three vs. ND, two vs. WVU, two vs. UConn, Iowa last year, Cincy last year, ‘Cuse this year.
But if you’re right, God help the poor NFL franchise that signs Tino Sackseri because of how well he practices, without also considering how abysmally awful he performs in the 4th Qtr of most (not all) games.
As for Reeds’ comment about us looking back longingly to Tino’s production numbers from 2012, I’ll take my chances.
A bigger factor will be the loss of Shanahan, who apart from the ND game was MVP. Shanahan will play on Sundays.
Have only seen video of Chapman, both highlights and game. He’s more like 6-2 or a little more.
Has a bit of a hitch in his throwing motion. But has a surprisingly strong arm. No question stronger than Voytik’s who now admits to having less than a “cannon.” This is contrary to the scouting reports and guys like Dokish.
Chapman had a really good senior year. Based on the various comments from teammates and others he’s more of a natural leader.
Although his team lost in the playoffs and he did not play exceptionally well in the game they lost, reports say he was basically the whole team throughout the season.
My gut tells me he has a chance to be good and give Chryst someone who can be counted on to make a play when the game is on the line.
I will say this. Kincaid looks good too and reportedly is also a leader among his teammates.
But don’t count out Chryst’s nephew just yet. I’m not.
all of that is certainly true.
However you are overlooking one key ingredient, Sir Tino is a coach’s son (who btw coached in the NFL for several years under John Fox (another one with some serious connections) with the Carolina Panthers). And they take care of their own. Rest assured Sir Tino will be in a NFL camp.
He might even end up on someone’s practice squad.
Stranger things I’ve seen. lol
Keep in mind too that Tino is known to be an EXCEPTIONAL practice player.
Chapman is a lot like a guy that Chyrst got a ton of mileage out of. In fact rode the guy to a Big 10 conference championship and a Rose Bowl Bid, where they shot it out with Oregon. And in fact that success led to PC getting his first HC job.
A guy that should be known to Pitt fans, that being the Russell Wilson, who is only 5’11”.
He also didn’t fit the mold of a traditional Wisconsin game manager QB. Think Chryst liked the options Wilson gave him over a game mgr QB. Don’t you ?
Which is why I thought it was (and still is) reckless on PC’s part not to get someone,anyone some more game experience next year. Especially after if became evident we weren’t going to win the BigEast.
Because if Savage is a flop, he’s then going to have to play someone with no game experience at all.
Even now, is a 6-6 season and a trip to some schmuck bowl worth jeopardizing next season.
When Pitt was up 27-6 in the 4rth, not even a hint of maybe bringing Anderson in to mop up. Because at that point he could have done exactly what Tino did in the 4th quarter. Nothing. lol
Nope not to be, nothing in 37 starts is allowed to get Sir Tino off the field. Only Graham had the pure gaul to take Tino off the field (for horrendous play). And we saw what happened to him….lol
He left in the middle of the night, was so scared to even come back to Pittsburgh, he had to text his team goodbye and left so fast, his Christmas Tree lights never got turned off. lmao
Still had his bonehead mistakes, over throws, taking the sacks, etc. etc., but, I for one, who easily threw him under the bus the past couple years, have to say, that he did improve vastly this year.
A good or great qb, no, but vastly improved on himself.
Look forward to what they can do with some new blood!!
Reid was always too cute. Fell in love with his “genius” and focused on pretty when sheer muscle was required, IMO. Tried to be too flashy and that kept them from 2 Lombardi trophies, also IMO.
With a dead son and the other a dead beat I suspect, ain’t much left in the tank….and that is one XXL tank! Just goes to show you that regardless of what God you pray too, if any, life can sometimes be very difficult.
Time for Andy to focus on something else and it ain’t the dirty birds. Please God, any God, take Pederson with Andy somewhere far far away…..Detroit would be far away enough.
Despite all the criticism of Pitt’s recruiting… Kabala was highly thought of with the Razorbacks.
Wait a minute. He was offered by Alabama.
