That wasn’t exactly fun. The OL got their asses handed to them and Tom Savage held the ball too long. The result was a putrid offensive performance. But, the defense turned in another respectable effort. They weren’t lights out like VT’s defense was, but after the dreadful performance against Duke, the defense made sure the offense was in position to win the game again. VT has certainly struggled on offense this season, but they’re not a team severely lacking talent like Virginia or New Mexico.
The first thing that jumped out to me was how they looked after VT’s touchdown drive. After the first drive, Logan Thomas was 16/30 (53%) for 184 yards along with 14 rushes for 16 yards. VT scored 12 points, although 3 of those were a gift from the officials after a BS personal foul penalty on Pitts put them into FG range. I don’t need any stats to tell you their RBs were useless. Granted, they haven’t been able to get it going against anyone else, but after the Duke game we need to be thankful when the defense stops a team they should stop.
I have one big gripe and one huge compliment for the defense. The big gripe is 3rd down defense. VT had 3rd down conversions of 9, 11, 11, 10, and 10. When faced with 3rd and 9 or longer, VT was 5/8. They were 8/19 overall. Do the math and they were 3/11 when the distance was 8 yards or fewer. You cannot give up that many 3rd and long conversions. I place those conversions squarely on defensive play calls. At least three of them were against a very passive defense. Two were soft zones and one was only a three man rush. When you’re calling that conservatively against a ranked opponent, you’re begging them to convert. I understand that you’re afraid of Logan Thomas’ running ability, but a three man rush with eight DBs just staring at him makes it way too easy for a WR to find a hole in the zone, which is exactly what they did.
On the other hand, when the defense did screw up, they clamped down. VT made it inside the Pitt 30 on six separate occasions. They ended up with only one touchdown and five FG attempts (made four). Six trips inside the Pitt 30 and they only came away with 19 points. Hell, should’ve been five attempts and 16 points, but I’ll stop complaining about the Pitts personal foul now. If you’re going to let an offense move the ball, force a FG. If there were any semblance of an offense yesterday, Pitt’s defense did more than enough to win the game. I would’ve liked a turnover and they were certainly close on two or three occasions. The only stat that truly matters is points and the defense held VT under 20. I’ll take under 20 points allowed any day of the week.
Here’s the perspective I want to bring: Pitt has beaten inferior opponents and lost to superior ones. VT is ranked #19 right now and should finish the season 10-2 or 11-1 (only team they could be an underdog against is Miami). FSU could easily play for the NC, depending on whether or not they beat Clemson next weekend. Outside of the Duke game, the defense has done everything you could reasonably expect out of them. With the benefit of hindsight, the FSU loss isn’t all that bad because of how good they are. FSU is currently the #3 scoring offense in the country and they’re only trailing Baylor and Oregon. Pitt is simply not on the same level as FSU and it would’ve taken a perfect game to pull off the upset.
If the Duke game is the only game the defense plays below their skill level, we’re in good shape. Aaron Donald leads the country in sacks per game and tackles for a loss per game. That’s insane. If he keeps up a similar pace he’ll be a first team All-American on virtually every list. Todd Thomas has had back to back great games and is flying all over the field. Pitts, Hendricks, and Williams haven’t been their best this season, but they are still quite talented. Ezell is quietly having a good year. Take a look at the upcoming opponents. For all of the offensive struggles, Navy, Notre Dame, and North Carolina are scoring fewer points per game than Pitt. Old Dominion is still transitioning to FBS football. The schedule makers gave the defense a huge gift when they put Navy and Georgia Tech back to back, giving the defense plenty of preparation for the unique triple option attack.
House’s defense can take the rest of the season and prove the Duke game was an aberration. I fully anticipate they will be good enough to put the offense in position to win in every game but Miami. I know I’m being optimistic here, but even I can’t anticipate keeping up with Miami, who’s 9th in the nation in points per game, ahead of Clemson, Louisville, and Texas Tech. Unless there are sanctions upcoming, it looks like Al Golden may finally have Miami where they belong again. Great timing, right after Pitt joins the ACC. Ugh.
The only goal Pitt can’t achieve is winning the Coastal Division, and while I liked to day dream about it, it wasn’t going to happen. Every game but Miami is against a team a notch below VT. I don’t expect Pitt to finish 6-1 or anything, but four or five wins is not impossible. The offense is a hot mess right now, but the defense is starting to step up. Let’s hope it continues.
Savage is 77 for 137, 1239 yds, 10 td passes. Not all bombs. Street avg 109 yds, Boyd 89, Weatherspoon 23, Garner 13. Orndorf has two td catches.
I would say the running backs have their hands full trying to run and block. Have had some thrown their way with little success. Agree that the tight ends can be used more, but they too have dropped their share. Obviously Savage strength is the medium to long pass.
I like it more than the dink and dunk which it seems you may be advocating. We had three years of that.
Savage is exceptional at what he does well.
I think getting the ground game working and the mid range to long pass is the way to go. It worked for the Steelers in the 70’s.
If you think Boyd wants to catch floaters across the middle, I think you might be mistaken. We had a guy that was good at throwing the high one over the middle, just gets your receivers killed.
The sideline passes to Street and Boyd are a thing of beauty. You give that up with anyone else.
Interesting point about HCPC talking with Anderson during the second half. I noticed that too and it made me curious. Might have been nothing worth mentioning. Who knows?
Hats off to the D. Did they play perfect? No, of course not. However, they did play well against a top 20 team with a talented, albeit inconsistent, QB. Plus, they were on the field a lot Saturday and continued to battle, knowing the offense couldn’t get much going. They even had a chance or two at a big play. The near INT by Pitts on the sideline early in the game comes to mind.
I think (hope) we’ll see more variety on 1st down moving forward to get us into 2nd and manageable, thus, opening up the run.
If we had to lose on Saturday, it is good that there are 4 ranked teams in the ACC, not counting Maryland and BC is pretty good as well. Hopefully more kids will want to play at Pitt in a pretty good conference. Louisville next year, another ranked team. Much more exciting than the Big 10, which added Maryland and Rutgers, two more patsies.
#5 F.S.U.
#8 Louisville (ACC next year)
#10 Miami
#19 Va. Tech
Not too bad. Actually, pretty friggin’ good.
Next year will be different. The o-line will be one year older, stronger and more experienced. Should have more depth at running back and maybe a freshman star to go with Conner. I might be wrong but I have written off Bennett.
Right now it looks like ball control with Voytik, but who knows. I am more concerned about a defense sans the great Donald.
You still may get want you want, if Savage goes down, he has been taking a beating. By the way we don’t know how tough Voytik is and Anderson has been knocked out before. So careful what you wish for.
If you don’t have that, you need an Oline that can block and provide sufficient time for the passer, a la Bama (you like that!!!) When we had that, we had decent output the past 2 years .. but especially when we are behind and the defense loads up on the pressure, we are in trouble.
I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again. Out best season recently was 09, and it was no coincidence that we had out best recent Oline that different have many injuries.
10 TD’s is good but half came in 1 game. 10 TD’s to 6 INT’s is no bueno.
Six INTs is too many, but none of them have cost us a game. Fifteen of the 21 sacks came in the last two games, coinciding with our inability to run the ball.
It is what it is. I just don’t think Voytik is the answer, yet.
My concern with Pitts D is two things.
Zone coverage h when we have 2 good corners , no safies. Also Price at DE is overmatched evry play he gets in a four point postion he is to small.
Everyone said clemmens is to soft to play D. The problem was that he only played one year of h.s. football. Mayh VMI and Navy coming up put him a DE, perfect size 6-6- 280. Put Johnson in move the kid from fox chapel to Guard to fat and slow to play tacklbig . This over 300 lbs only works in the big ten need OT about 280 with quick feet.
Thomas is a monster/ let him play a Polamolo move Price back to OLB
I see zero value in playing Savage over anyone else that isn’t 25 years old and will be here for 2-3 years. So next year when it’s Chryst’s third year we will be going with a totally unproven QB. Makes no sense. If Savage was light years ahead and we were competing for a ACC Title or better but he adds no value in a rebuilding effort.
I have 20+ coming in for Navy. If anyone needs a hotel or tickets try all the brokers. While game is sold out, tickets still remain. Hotels available in Columbia, Towson. And north
Should Shell have got more carries than Graham because he would have been better this year. No the coaches decide who is best and play them accordingly.
Who knows who will be the best QB next year? Maybe one of the freshman comes in and like Pat White, lights it up.
Savage deserves his chance to beat Notre Dame and Miami, he has earned it. Voytik had his chance to beat him out and he didn’t. You can’t play him because of something he might do next year.
(I can’t think of anyone on the squad who is.)
I would’ve taken him out only because I feared for his safety.
It isn’t fair to the rest of the team if the best player isn’t out there .. whether QB or any other position except for legit disciplinary reason
Long has done really well with his hiring
of the former Wisconcin coach. The
coach is learning that the SEC is not the BT.
Look for him to fired.
To GC: your Votik argument is weak. Votik
would be playing if he gave the team the
best chance to win.
To GC: I happen to think Savage is our best
option and also believe the coach is a better
judge of this issue than us.
The o-line play is much more disappointing and mediocre than Savage.
How well have Big Ben, Manning and Flacco played behind weak lines with no running game? Have they been showing poor leadership skills too?
Giving him a series or two against weak opponents is like giving the third string back a couple carries.
Read the whole thread.
I don’t think that effort is the issue.
Makes you wonder why PC only played Savage for a few series in the Spring game when he needn’t reps in a game like situation on his short passing, checkdowns, etc. I believe PC also played him limited in the big August scrimmage.
One question why? When he needed as many game type reps as possible. Why ?
However just as last year, we have to defer to the coaches on whether anyone is better than Savage on the current roster.
And seriously this offensive line is a mess, they can’t pass protect, NOR CAN THEY RUN BLOCK apparently against decent (I guess) (UVA) to above decent teams (VT). Although after the last two UVA losses you have to question whether they have a good defense, after giving up close to 1000 Total Offensive yards.
Against UVA we ran for 8 yds on 35 attempts.
Taking out the sack yardage it was still an embarrassing 65 yards on 27 attempts for a paltry 2.4 ypc.
A lot of folks said, while UVA had a very good defense. Maybe so, but it didn’t appear very good in it’s next two games following the Pitt game. Ball State ran for 160 yards and threw for 346 yards, over 500 yards of Total offense. Apparently MAC teams have better O-lines than Pitt that can actually run & pass block. I bet Ball State has an offensive line of mostly 2 star recruits. So they’re either extremely motivated by their coach to play above their limits or they outschemed (outcoached) the UVA coaching staff.
Or maybe BOTH !. As that Mike London seemed like a dolt to me.
This past weekend Maryland ran for 136 yards on UVA’s supposed good defense and threw for….wait..over another 300 yards just as Ball State did, actual total 332 yards and close to another 500 Total Yards offense.
So this would lead one to conclude PITT’s O-line is more of the culprit, much more the culprit than the QB. And if it’s not the O-line, it has to be the offensive tactics meaning the scheme.
I won’t even get into Va TEch, since UVA seems more than enough to prove the point.
Watching it on TV was torture enough.
We need later games since it’s tough to drink enough to bare these games sometimes. Especially with all the anticipation that built up in the 2 week period leading up to it.
Wonder how many words were typed on here in the 2 weeks leading up to that game (?).. flogging more like it in Blacksburg.
We were worse prepared than a Wannstache team after a 2 week layoff. Dare I say !
You’d hardly know PITT is even in the conference with this ding-a-lings report.
We’re passingly mentioned twice, both in a negative manner.
God I hate ESPN and their nitwit women analyzers, in studio hags and sideline no nothing eye candy.
And at one time football was a man’s sport !
Thanks for helping to ruin a once grand sport.
I don’t see this as creating a QB controversy, nor does it mean Pitt has to abandon the current offensive strategy.
Voytik is a completely differnt style of QB and his play (on a limited basis) may cause fits for opposing defenses. Thus, it might improve Pitt’s chances of winning now and also gives him some needed experience.
As to ‘lighting a fire’ under Savage. None of the motivational stuff would work because it doesn’t need to. Savage isn’t dogging it out there, he’s giving 100% and taking a lot of physical beatings doing it. He is held back by his limitations that are a habitual result of four years being in college ball and doing the exact same things. He’s doing now that he did back in 2009 at RU, rely on the long ball to succeed.
The fact is that Savage has locked on and looked for the deeper throws, at the expense of open shorter routes, since he went to RU and then came over to PITT. He’s always done this and in his case I really think its the saying ‘can’t teach an old dog new tricks’. We saw him doing this in practices as far back as last summer camp.
gc – Savages stats look good over five games but take the freaky Duke game out of the equation and you’ll see that Savage has play average at best in the other five games. In those matches he’s averaging less than 200 ypg, has a 53% completion rate and has 4 TDs to 6 INTs. Sorry, that isn’t what a winning team gets from a decent QB.
Savage is like a home run hitter in baseball, he may strike out a lot but he has the potential to change the game.
I don’t disagree that he has all of the weaknesses that we speak of, I just don’t think he is the weakest link.
Interesting that Chryst came to the defense of his o-line today and said Savage shared the blame. Yes maybe a couple of times, but as Justin’s evaluation and my eyes tell me that was one of the poorest efforts of blocking I have ever seen.
Maybe Tom Brady and Peyton Manning can get the ball away in under two seconds, most guys can’t.
The reasoon there is a 3 year gap between our only non walk-on options is because our porgram has been a mess for 3 years. If we were in any kind of shape to compete as program, we wouldn’t be talking about Voytik starting until he’s a redshirt sophomore or junior. But instead, we have massive holes in our recruiting and no matter who the coach is our program will take a few more years to get back up to par.
Finally, give Savage and this team a chance. We could very well post an 8-4 year, finish 5th in the ACC with our only loses coming to FSU, VT, ND and Miami. Maybe we finish 6-6 again, but lets give them space, support the program and give the coaches and players time to build the program up.
Just like two years ago when Sunseri tossed for over 400 yds and two TDs against UCONN and everyone and his brother said that was a fluke game for him, which it pretty much was that season. No, we PITT fans looked at his other games also to form an opinion of how bad or good he was.
Personally I look at the four games Savage played ALONG with that Duke game and my opinion is that he isn’t doing that great for us overall at this point. Now, I also think that Savage is the best QB on the roster and deserves to keep playing as you never know when another monster game might break out. Plus, he has the ability to change the score by seven point on any one play from almost anywhere on the field which our other QB don’t have.
A major difference for me in watching Saturday’s game was that when we were down in the 4th quarter I knew we had a chance to pull it out and quickly if things went our way, even if it was getting an onside kick with little time. I’m sure I’m not the only who didn’t feel that way with our last QB.
I assume that somehow MIch is still ranked, easily the most overrated team around.