[EDITOR NOTE: Thought I hit “publish” on this before leaving for work this morning. Whoops. Justin ended up hitting on some of the same points I made earlier today. But I’m still putting this out there.]
For some reason, my DVR failed to record the game, so there is no reviewing this one. I am pretending it rejected the recording as being too offensive to save.
As the game fell apart, I asked on twitter if the blame rested more with the offense or the defense for the loss. The overwhelming view was that it was the offense. The defense may have caved late, but the offensive failings throughout the game put them into that position.
So let’s start with that offense.
Quarterback Tom Savage had a statistically decent game. 20-27, 203 yards, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions and only sacked once. Yet, he was never comfortable in the pocket. The playcalling tried to use the short to medium passing and Savage continues to look uncomforatable with those passes. Best guess on why they are trying to do that, so Savage isn’t holding the ball as long and getting killed on sacks.
Whether going deep or short, he is throwing it at the same speed. The problem that was obvious back in training camp is still there. He doesn’t seem capable of taking too much off the throw when needed.
He also had one of the most baffling postgame quotes to try and explain the inconsistency and mistakes of the offense. Especially late.
When the Panthers needed to control the ball late in a 24-21 loss to Navy on Saturday at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, the offense reached down and couldn’t help.
“I think we got a little complacent,” quarterback Tom Savage said.
What. The. Hell. Complacent??? What? What? What at any point in the game would make the offense think they were in control and could be satisfied with the situation?
Pitt led by 6 and then 7 points in the game. They were always one score away from being behind or tied. The O-line committed five pre-snap penalties in the game. Does the word mean what he thinks it means?
Is he talking complacency at the the end of drives like in the first half where Pitt drove well on Navy only to have to settle for field goals? Putting Pitt in a position where they could not take control of the game on the scoreboard the way they actually were on the field for the first half.
Is he talking about being complacent in the second half, expecting to have more success and then unable to handle things when it doesn’t happen?
The thing is the offense has been this way in the second half all season. Seven games into the season and Pitt has failed to outscore opponents in the second half. Yes, some of that is on the defense, but this offense essentially has fallen off a cliff. In the last four games the offense has scored 0, 6, 14 and 8 points in the second half. For the season the team has 200 points with 134 in the first half and only 66 in the second half (and that is generously including a pick-6 by the defense in the Duke game).
As much as the defense seems to wilt in games, perhaps more blame should be heaped on the offense. Pitt had three 3-and-outs on Saturday. All of them taking place in the second half. Which means a wilting defense is expected to do more and more. I’m sure we are all shocked that this approach doesn’t work.
About those five pre-snap penalties. I don’t know about this O-line any more. Cory King being out should not be this big a deal. The only thing I can figure is that they are so sick of being beaten by the defenses that they are moving early to try and be in a better blocking situation.
Coach Chryst can seethe on the sidelines as much as he wants. He can yank James Conner out of the game for his fumble. But it really seems that the coaching has to take a lot of questions. The inability to handle adjustments made by opposing teams in the second half is the most glaring.
“I thought early we did a good job of running the ball consistently,” Chryst said. “They made some adjustments and made some plays, so we couldn’t just run at will on that. That’s the game.”
“Couldn’t just run at will on that.” How about just being able to run the ball?
The defense, well, Justin hit on that. Bad luck in the first half. They too didn’t handle adjustments in the second. They faded late in the game.
The final question is on the fact that Pitt has been fading late in games. If it isn’t all adjustments by the other team, then it also raises questions about the physical conditioning and the job by the strength and conditioning coach.
nice chocolate/candy analogy. lol
DW should have been left to follow the same path of what happened to Alvarez at Wisconsin.
Coach as long as he wanted, hire his successor, from his staff most likely and then he (DW) becomes AD.
That is stability, not the nightmare Cornhole served up to us. With Dopey the latest installment.
I’m with you on DW he shouldn’t have been fired he had some good recruits coming and had Pitt on a positive upward swing. He was also frustrating on game day to watch at times. His first two years weren’t exactly fun to watch either, 10-14 maybe with no bowl game. We all know what has happened since that December day, and it has fallen into the lap of Chryst. I think Chryst thought he had Savage and was probably thinking Chapman would move up quickly. I can’t blame him for Chapman can you? Bringing in a top notch juco in April to play in September is asking a little much don’t you think? I don’t know what you see in guys like Savage and Bennett that makes you think Chryst should be doing more I think Chryst is getting the most out of average ability at best. I think that there is a lot to improve in Chryst and Houses coaching but they are going to be here awhile and before I bash them I would like to see how they get themselves out of the shit storm that they inherited.
You know I’ve watched a lot of football games in 50 years, as I’m sure a lot of ppl on this blog have as well and perhaps you too.
No coach is gonna make the perfect call all the time, that is a given. However when they have a track record and that track record says they’re a good to very good coach, you assume that was the right call.
I, of course realized during the DW era he didn’t always make the right call during the games, etc. However his pluses far outweighed his negatives. And he provided PITT something it needed drastically, a pretty good coach, who was a pretty good recruiter, had a relatively pretty good staff, had loads of real coaching contacts he could pull from and was true blue to PITT.
But his biggest plus was, he wasn’t going anywhere.
For him PITT was his ‘destination’ job. So he provided stability for PITT. Had he still be in place when the Pedo State and WVCC circus’s began, we would have been in position to clean up in recruiting moreso than at any time since the Sherrill era. That more than anything bugs me.
That opportunity will more than likely, NEVER PRESENT ITSELF AGAIN.
As for the current HC, he has many of the same problems or maybe more that DW had on game day coaching. But he lacks all the other attributes that DW gave us. So net result was a lose/lose.
Savage is a more than a serviceable QB being ranked #35 among 114 FBS QB’s in Passing Efficiency. Bennett, I’m not too impressed with either his running skills against real FBS defenses or his pass blocking, which is terrible.
But here’s the key to this whole mess Steve, we still have more than adequate talent on hand to rout the likes a scrub FCS team like ODU and a middling service academy team. And the other key is, this team’s play seems to be regressing from week to week ever since the end of the Duke game.
I would like to see him succeed as well.
I would also like World peace and to win the Lotto
HTP !
You contradicted yourself when you posted stats about Savage that you, relentless Tino Sunseri basher that you are, never would have accepted about Sunseri.
I do however agree with you about Dave Wannstedt. Pitt’s best year since Walt Harris left was the year AFTER LeSean McCoy left for the NFL.
BTW, Dan Marino was booed at home while at PITT. Certainly during the 48-14 agonizing beat down at home by PSU. He threw four interceptions. This is Pittsburgh for crying out loud, Bradshaw and Roethlisberger have been booed for less.
However Savage has only played 7 games for Pitt, I wasn’t anti-Tino at the 7 game mark. It was after a larger sample of games.
I never felt in the 3 years TS was QB, if we got behind we had much, if any of a chance. With Savage I feel we still have an inkling of a chance if they just give him 3-4 seconds to get off a deep pass.
Appreciate the comments, we don’t always have to agree, which is what this blog and America great.
HTP !
VeV !
Football is what he knows and that’s about it.
I’m sure some of these other AD’s who were ex-football coaches at their college, it’s run similarly.
And he was savvy enough to be a NFL head coach not once, but twice.
And the current AD isn’t exactly Einstein.
Booing has NO place in college football. If you want to boo
stay home.
I thought DW would coach Pitt for ten years. Was shocked
when he was fired. Would like to ask the AD why DW was fired? Also why he found Fraud attractive? Then PC? Does
the AD really believe he made the right decision on firing DW?
Being a Pitt fan is just plain painful. Why I put myself through
this every season is an unknown. As mentioned yesterday
losing to superior talent is understandable. Losing to Navy
is not understandable. Also the team is not progressing.
more painful weeks ahead.