…In the end it ended with a loss.
On the plus side, at least Pitt didn’t lose to a team that hadn’t won a conference game since 2010. How ’bout them Jayhawks!
I can’t bog you down with too much on the game. I missed the first half because of work. So I didn’t see Savage take a first half beating behind an O-line that went back to what it has done in most ACC games — get blown past by oppsoing D-lines. The a big question mark of whether Voytik was going to be at QB for the second half. Didn’t see the first special teams breakdown. Didn’t see Pitt’s defense not stop UNC QB Marquise Williams on the ground — even though we all knew what he was going to do. Didn’t see the missed opportunities — interception dropped and fumble in the redzone. I really am not sure I have to stomach to go back and watch that first half.
So I joined the action with Pitt down 24-3 after halftime.
Pitt looked to pick up where they left off in the first half with another turnover. That put the deficit at 27-3.
At which point, Pitt finally showed they were getting it together. The O-line kept Savage upright a little more frequently. The offense was productive. The defense began to match Aaron Donald’s intensity (okay, at least were respectable enough). Even the special teams sort of made up for their first half TD surrender by recovering a turnover.
Suddenly it was tied at 27 with nearly 9 minutes left. There was hope. There was optimism. My god, this team was going to come back in the second half for a second straight game. There was a tangible turning the corner. Sure it would be nice to see Pitt play a complete game for once, but if they can come away with the win, we’ll take the baby steps.
Then special teams implodes one more time. And Pitt can’t do it. They can’t send it to OT. Nothing.
It reboots the “same old Pitt” storyline.
I’ll just come right out and say it: This was so Pitt. I mean, this was Cincinnati, Youngstown State, Navy and every other measure of manic inconsistency one can ascribe to this program, all rolled into one. It was raising hopes just a week earlier with a thrilling upset of Notre Dame, one that moved students and alumni watching on national TV as well as those jamming Heinz Field who joyously chanted “Let’s go Pitt!” as they filed out … only to have everything bodyslammed right back where it was.
Paul Chryst might have made mistakes before and during this game, but he sure nailed his assessment afterward: “We didn’t get it done.”
No, and until that storyline changes, until the highs stop finding matching lows, Chryst’s program will stay stuck in neutral. He went 6-7 in his first season, and he’s now 5-5, including a robustly disappointing 2-4 in the inaugural ACC season, and now everyone’s right back crossing fingers for yet another Lame-O BBVA Car Care Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Why did it happen again?
Chryst told us, “I don’t know necessarily if complacency was an issue. I think it was more due to the big turnover in the red zone.”
He might be right. That unforced fumble by Savage in the first quarter swung the game violently North Carolina’s way.
But then, why did Jason Hendricks, a senior safety, openly decry not playing with “the same emotion” Pitt showed against Notre Dame?
And why did James Conner, a freshman running back, offer, “We just didn’t fight” as his explanation for the first half?
I get that. I get the, this is just another Pitt moment for Pitt in recent years. But if you are looking for a specific analog. Just go back one year. Go back to one game after the brutal loss to ND. Go back to the UConn game.
For those who need their recollection refreshed, how about being steamrolled in the first half 24-0? How about the O-line reverting back to porous qualities of a sieve? A team that looked so flat the first half? Punt return touchdown? A late attempt at a comeback? 300 yard passing game for the Pitt QB? Under 50 yards rushing?
Even the post game quotes are familiar. It was a team that did not show up emotionally in that first half. A horrid, vague, intangible that you can’t quantify but damn if you don’t know it when you see it.
Coach Chryst refuses to accept that the team was complacent or not motivated in the first half. Chalking it all up to UNC making more plays. That’s coachspeak. That’s refusing to put the blame on the players or coaches, and I get that. I don’t believe it, but I get it. Even the players knew it.
Pitt coach Paul Chryst and his players insisted that there was no hangover from the win against the Irish, but Hendricks admitted that the team came out “flat” for whatever reason.
“I think we just got off to a slow start,” Hendricks said. “We weren’t doing the things we were supposed to do, and it showed in the first half.”
I don’t know why either. I just don’t.
The comeback effort was impressive. But it was frustrating. They put themselves too far down the hole. They couldn’t close the deal. In the end it was UNC — beyond that punt return — that dug deeper to make the final play to preserve their win. They came up with the stop late in the 4th quarter. They get to claim that they never stopped believing.
“We talk about adversity all the time and what you have to do with it,” Coach Larry Fedora of UNC said. “They didn’t blink and kept believing in each other.”
That only sounds good when it is Pitt players or coaches getting to say that.
Pitt Dad .. I’ll go to two plays … two 4th down plays. On UNC’s 1st TD drive in 1st quarter, it was 4th & 11 on Pitt’s 35 and they complete 12 yard pass for the 1st down … probably the best pass the UNC QB made all day.
Then of course, there was the 4th and short at the end.
This team frustrates me because there is talent and great potential but no consistancy. Don’t tease the Pitt fan with a great game against ND and stub your toe on NC . We beat Duke on the road , a team leading the Coastal Div, beat ND, but rips our heart out with Navy and NC. Even the GT game was winnable but for a heat ripping 3rd and 17 that the defense could not stop in the 4th quarter. Man you have to endure a lot of pain being a Pitt football fan. I love my Panthers but boy is this heart ache getting harder to endure.
What to expect next week? Didn’t Chryst’s team sleepwalk through a half against Syracuse to lose 14-13 last year? Do the players really want to go to a Podunk bowl game?
There has been no progress made since the UVA game.
Neither UVA or UNC has much of a D-Line, avg’d many sacks or anything.
Yet this O-Line on pass plays remains a sieve.
You can’t play effective sustained offense if your QB is either on the ground with a 300 lb’r on top of him or is picking himself up off the ground after completing a pass, repeatedly.
It’s all very strange, cause whoever they plug in, Schlieper, Johnson, whoever, the song remains the same.
Cue in the Twilight Zone theme here.
The 2 games before the FSU beatdown.
Cuse 20 Maryland 3
Cuse 13 Wake 0
Both teams are 5-5
Team that wants it more will win.
There are 8 ACC teams already bowl eligible.
3 more ACC teams are 5-5 with 2 games left, PITT. Cuse & UNC.
There are ONLY 8 ACC bowl slots by my count.
Can’t imagine what shit bowl they’ll put us in if we qualify. Famous Idaho, Compass (lol), Go Daddy
Comment by Wardapalooza 11.17.13 @ 12:06 pm
Agree Ward. They haven’t been able to figure out since Game 4(UVA) how to protect our QB. Their ONLY solution was to turn him into Tiny. Oy Vey!
That twerp that returned the 2 punts for TD’s was from West Virginia.
Didn’t know WVa. produced any D1 players.
Only against us !
I like Bennett in the open field when you don’t need a power run, ala Old Dominion, but the play callers just choked on that. If we gave Conner 25-30 carries, he likely runs for 3-4 more first downs over the game and maybe we clinch it.
As someone said, its decision making like that that makes me wonder if Chryst is the man for the job. I think he still is, for now, but damn that’s stupid.
Coaching my brothers. Cause it isn’t talent.
And if you can’t pass block….that would stand to reason….about 10 times over !
The name of the game in college football (if you haven’t noticed) is scoring.
Everyone is going to the spread or already has, because other than Alabama, the talent is more diluted. Even the archaic Big 10 is scoring more points.
So while everyone else is going spread, we’re going the opposite direction. And in a pro set in college, it’s too easy for the opposing team to load the box, outnumber you, blitz the qb and shut your offense down. Which has happened to us a lot since the UVA game.
We’ve all discussed the utter incompetence that SP brings to the table but it still comes down to a matter of choices.
Gus will be the most “wanted” coach in the USA after this season and can name his price. He will leave either this year or next.
We had the same problem with Majors/Sherrill/Fraud ..leaving
I like Paul Chryst. He is a teacher first, coach second. The players like Paul the recruits like Paul. He is NOT leaving anytime soon..but…..
We are paying him to learn how to be a head coach.
That’s the trade off. You can pick either side and for many reasons, but in a nutshell ….that’s it.
H2P – Let’s get em next week!
poor coaching no different then wanny just different year poor coaching we end up 5 and 7 for the year and with average coaching we could have been 7 and 5 or 8 and 4 .
There is a flaw with the analysis of four or five plays that happen to flip a game. That is incorrect. In its most simplistic form, the failure to make the first play changes all subsequent plays of the game. Sounds weird, but if you think about it, it is 100% true.
I do look for Pitt to rebound and beat Syracuse, because hey, it’s Syracuse. Seriously, Pitt should be fine. We should hope for even the slightest of bowl opportunities in order to keep practicing. Its all good fellars, quit beating the team and Chryst up. He is really only recruiting his full first class now. He has many years to go. Support the youngins!
The failure of Spoon to fair catch that punt, and letting it hit and bounce, roll to our 7 yard line.
Led to the more conservative play calls, which then led to a 3 and out. The punt, the return, the loss.
Snowball effect. One action (or lack of it in this case), led to another action and a course of events.
Good teams don’t make those mistakes. Even if we finish 7-5, some crap bowl, this is not a good or well coached team.
1) catch the punt
2) call for a fair catch if there isn’t much space to work with
3) if their punter booms some long ass punt and it appears to be inside the 10, let it bounce into the endzone
I believe on the previous UNC punt, he didn’t handle that one properly either. As he called a ‘fair catch’ and there were no UNC players around for 10-15 yards. Even the TV announcers commented on it.
Again poor coaching and it appears NO ONE even talked to him from punt return to punt return.
he blasts pitt it is abought time some one besides dockih has done so if enough sports writers do something might change.
he says he should have none better than to think pitt might win in outher words same old pitt read what he wrote and weep but what he says is true.
Hasn’t helped the O-line much, they are as bad now as they were in week 1.
The bowl practice time would ONLY be well spent if it was used to get Voytik ready to play in the Bowl Game. You know, next year’s presumed QB.
Especially as wbb pointed out, that our 2 main gunners on the punt defense team, the Clairton kids were out with injuries. Duh .
Agree with your comments btw @ 7:28
I just found out or I would have come up to the Burg for the funeral
RiP Coach
Joe saw me throw several no-hitters in Baseball against Morningside and recruited me to play for the Bulldogs.
Joseph Natoli, the founder and longtime coach of the Morningside Bulldogs football team who taught the sport to hundreds of young players, including Pitt All-American Bill Fralic, died Wednesday. He was 85.
Mr. Natoli, who resided in Morningside, was so well known for his coaching that the football field in Morningside is named in his honor and a book was penned about his coaching exploits. The book, “We Flew on a Single Wing,” details the story of the Bulldogs, who were 271-19-8 from 1950 to 1980.
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
Hopefully as we get more better players, the coaches will also be more mature. Wanny had the three best years in a long time but he also had three bad ones to start with.
Howard and Coles being out does partially explain the special teams difficulty as does overall depth. Coaches should make adjustments, but players have to make plays. The kid from Charleston kicked our ass, we did not just fall down, he was fast and broke tackles.
As Chryst and Co. recruit more and better players they will become better coaches. Wanny wasn’t that special until Shady McCoy and Dion Lewis.
Chryst is recruiting the offensive pieces. When he gets first rate pass rushers and linebackers House will be a better D coordinator. Quality depth will improve special teams.
But let’s get real fellows, Pitt is never going to spend 6 mil on it’s coaching staff.
Apparently, a lot of people weren’t as sold as I was on Pitt’s win against Notre Dame. There were empty seats all around Heinz Field on a day when Pitt laughably announced a crowd of 50,049.
Many fans were gone early in the third quarter after Pitt played horrid football and fell behind, 27-3.
Pitt wasn’t ready to play, wasn’t focused for a long time and, worst of all, wasn’t competitive against a North Carolina team that came in with a 4-5 record.
Read more: link to post-gazette.com
Near everyone left I guess, because they had no hope we could come back (3 years of Tiny will do that I guess).
There is an institutional expectancy to lose for Pitt football. Quite naturally after 30 middling years, botched hiring’s and a seemingly indifferent administration and BOT.
This doesn’t exist in Pitt basketball where we expect to win. What we have to be careful of is, the middling-ness of the football program doesn’t leak into the basketball program.
I always felt when DW was here, we were headed in the right direction, regardless of the first couple years and a lot of bias against DW’s Pittsburgh-ness.
And the reason why I felt like that, was mainly because DW believed he could bring PITT back to it’s former glory. If the leader of the troops doesn’t believe, nor will the troops.
I see nothing remotely close to that belief now.
And the coaching gaffes now are 10 times that of when DW was here. But since the coach is supposed to be a OC genius and not a yinzer, he gets a pass.
Actually I think we might beat Cuse this week, they aren’t that good, neither are we. But doesn’t it really matter in the long run.
And I will be there….count on it ! And we’ll get us a Pitt victory in the Bowl game !! I’m going to force us to score 58 points again. lol
Once again don’t let facts get in the way of your narrative. Pitt, without the spread, somehow managed to put up 58 on Duke who now has the inside track on the division. Conner had 173 yards in the game. Street and Boyd each well over 100 yards.
They also out-gained NC yesterday on offense. Take the sacks away and Pitt easily has over 400 yards of total offense.
Don’t be afraid of facts. Embrace them.
Still agree with you on DW. Also agree with you about OL. If they protect Savage Pitt wins every game this year but FSU.
Which narrative. I have several. 🙂
Just think the pro-set is old thinking in college football sans a program like Alabama who can pick and choose which 4 & 5 star athletes they want.
In a mano on mano the better athletes will beat the large slow footed 3 star O-lineman you need to control the box in the pro-set. We weren’t even close to competing with teams this year with better defenses. It was like a HS JV team playing against the varsity.
I agree we gained a lot of yards against Duke & UNC. Can’t remember anybody saying either of them having good defenses.
And hardly anyone agrees with another on everything so that’s ok bro. Appreciate the agreement on my other points !
Students filed in late to games at Pitt Stadium, too, the only difference being a short walk up Cardiac Hill and not a bus ride in traffic.
Go figure.
The Pitt administration is going to use the $14 – $17 million from the ACC to upgrade their pathetic Olympic sports.
Next season’s game day attendance is bound to take a hit – no Notre Dame, no Miami, no Florida State. Finishing 7-5 or maybe even 8-5 might add another 10,000 fannies to the official tally for game days.
One aspect of Pitt football the PG’s Cook and the Trib’s Starkey cover is fan support.
By the way, I predicted 4-8 for this squad. Win a couple more and I’ll be elated.
link to m.si.com
1. First half thought, same old PITT. Second half thought, holy crap they are going to win. Final thought, same old PITT but with a caveat. This team doesn’t quit on HCPC and I think playing all of these young kids now will equate into more wins going forward next year
2. Would be nice yo have Savage for one more year. For all the criticism, he’s gotten better every game. Should have worked the middle of the field more but that’s on the coaches.
3. Related: I hope Voytek gets better in the off season. He floated a weak ball over the receivers head on his only attempt.
4. PITT does need a special teams coach. Period. Or at least a dedicated coach with an additional duty…think TE Coach, D-line coach or recruiting coord / special teams coach. Just need someone, especially on game day.
5. Holy negativity. I listened to 93.7 after the game and the host, a Syracuse alum, ripped PITT non stop. You would think PITT was going on an 0 – forever streak.
This is a young team, and I like the direction HCPC has the team going. If anyone should get the blame it is the PITT ADMIN. Fires successful coaches after winning 8 games and going to bowl games (Harris and Wanny), cheap when it comes to paying coaches and especially assistants.
Let’s hope PITT closes out the season strong and wins 2 more!
H2P!!
You have the rest of the evening to party … you mean you can’t sacrifice sleeping 8 1/2 hours instead of 10?
Barvo, how many games has the offense looked completely horrible this year? The offense looked amazing against a horrible VA team right? But yeah pick out one game and ignore a bunch of others. Emel is spot on, pro-style is only for teams like Alabama. Or Big Ten teams that can’t ever beat anyone outside their conference.
Facts are, Pitt is just very inconsistent in their play. They’ve produced a couple wins that just as easily could have been loses, Duke being one of them.that’s a good thing, but It takes a special group (including coaches) to be 100% prepared and emotionally ready to perform at their peak potential for EVERY game. Pitt is far from there. Some of it is on the players but more of it is on the coaching staff! It is their responsibility to get the team up and ready to play! This UNC contest had “trap game” written all over it, I called it. This is just the type game that Pitt loses and they followed that script.
The only thing the was a little different than “the same old Pitt” was that they didn’t fold their tents in the second half and actually played some inspired football for a while there in the 2nd half. Sorry, but a team as bad as Pitt can’t get by on 30 minutes of good football.
Now, of course, the Sunday morning QB analysis by the fans have come up with all the technical reasons for the loss. Play calling, putting players in poor positions, you name it, but the most important thing that was missing from THIS loss was a lack of that intangible called “want”. Pitt simply didn’t want to win this game enough and when that occurs it effects all of the other more tangible aspects of the process.
This team needs to LEARN how to win. Sometimes they need to learn by negative example. The bad taste left over from an ugly loss like the UNC game needs to be savored all week long.
HCPC & Co. Should be asking their players how they enjoy that flavor of defeat. They should be impressing on them that if they really intend to purge that taste from their mouths, that it begins on Sunday when they begin their preparation for Syracuse.
Believe it or not, Pitt currently has the troops and the talent to win their next two games. My question is, can this coaching staff extract that talent from the team by getting inside these player’s heads and create within a desire to win. Once they get that right, we’ll start seeing a truly different Panther team taking the field. One that will consistently find ways to win games like the UNC one. Until that occurs we’ll have to endure more of the inconsistent mediocrity that has become a Pitt trademark over too many recent seasons.
Chryst still gets the time that he’ll need to assemble a team filled by his guys. My question is will he be a good enough coach to be able to fill their heads with the prerequisite desire to be winners?
Yeah sure it’s coaching, Chryst sucks and Pitt is cheap. Now I see posters going back to the everyone is running the spread offense crap again. Didn’t we do that a few years ago, and everyone of you complained and went crazy talking about Pittsburgh loves hardnose football, they need to go back to playing the Pittsburgh way. Well they are, and they simply don’t have the players to do it.
If you all don’t like Pitt, and it’s the same ole Pitt, stop paying attention to them, so you won’t be so disappointed in the same ole Pitt.
And who cares what Ron Cook says. He’s a big blow heart, they never gets anything right. He doen’t care for Pitt anyway. Cook thinks he has all the answers, and when any caller disagrees with him, he gets on the offensive.
Pitt didn’t come out flat against NC Saturday, they had the lead with ball in the redzone and fumbled. How is that coming out flat? Again we are in the ACC now, and according to all you experts, Pitt are not going to win more than 4 games this year.
Criticism of Savage is a joke. If you put up 27 points with the numbers he had you should win.
The D was horrible. If Gonzalez ever makes a tackle near the line of scrimmage I will have a heart attack. He gets pushed five to ten yards down field on every run play. Your two safties should not have have more tackles than one of your starting LBs.
Savage was 23-38 for 313 yards and 2 TDs. 7 different players had catches. That is a good game. He made some bad plays but so does every college QB.
Connor 19 for 104, 5.4 average
Yep, this coaching staff is learning on the job. The operative word being LEARNING. If that lesson taught during the UNC loss has been paid attention to, then this organization has some preparation to attend to.
My prediction, Pitt comes to play against the Orange to become bowl eligible next week. Keep them angry all week Coach, they play better when they’re pissed off (as they should be after Saturday).
In the second half of the UNC game Pitt imposed their will on UNC. That’s what wins games. (Like wins over Old Dominion, etc.) Now I want to see Pitt impose their will on teams that are at least as good as they are, then we’ll start to see wins. I like the young players who are not used to losing, and hopefully they won’t get comfortable with losing.
H2P!
In the second half of the UNC game Pitt imposed their will on UNC. That’s what wins games. (Like wins over Old Dominion, etc.) Now I want to see Pitt impose their will on teams that are at least as good as they are, then we’ll start to see wins. I like the young players who are not used to losing, and hopefully they won’t get comfortable with losing.
H2P!
Great article, but as you noted it doesn’t happen over night. Both Briles and Cutcliffe were hired in 2007 – 6 years ago – and both had been head coaches before. It sucks having a headcoach who’s not only new at the school but also new to headcoaching and have an extremely young team with a few quality seniors and not much in the junior and sophmore classes… it takes time is exactly right.
I keep saying either look for a JUCO or transfer in or HCPC may just go with a true FR. Notice I said “may”. But the fact is that Voytik is not a Chryst recruit and I very much doubt he’d be on the roster if he was being recruited this year or last.
Let’s hope that after the last play of the regular season Voytik gets every snap in the pre-bowl practices (if any) and all of Spring and Summer camps. My only hope is that if he is Bollinger’s sole pupil then there will be improvement enough to be a starter at this level.
However, I’ll also say that Voytik’s arm isn’t on the same level as Savage’s or even Sunseri’s but if he can execute with out the “Sunserisms” (that second drive fumble by Savage is a perfect example of those) we have seem out of our last two QB then we may have a chance at QB.
But the other knock on Voytik has been his slow grasp of multiple defensive reads and that has to get better quickly if he’s to succeed.
We’ll see over the off season and into 2014 but I fear we may be saying the same thing at this time next year ” Wait until Freebeck (or Bertke) gate on the field next year!!”
So, as always…
H2P!!!