A quick stat for yinz that I just tweeted.: last season Pitt averaged 23 points per game on the road. That total INCLUDES the 58 points from the Duke game. If the Duke score is removed, Pitt only scored a total of 57 points on the road last season, a mere 14.25 points per game. Pitt’s offense was not perfect. Voytik had a bad turnover, there were some early pass protection issues, and the defense let Tyler Murphy run wild on the first drive.
The football team opted to do the exact opposite of the fan base: not panic. The offense scored 27 more points. The defense only allowed 7 more points when the game was still in contention. This game easily could’ve turned into something similar to the UNC or Miami game last year with one more mistake. But that mistake never came. That’s a testament to the mental fortitude Paul Chryst has instilled in this team. No one represented that better than Chad Voytik.
Voytik didn’t have a great start to the game. On the first series his line didn’t give him enough time. On his second series a great play to Garner was wiped out by a penalty. Then on the third series he threw a terrible interception. He responds by throwing a dime to Tyler Boyd in the end zone on 3rd and 10. With a 10-7 lead, Voytik and company never looked back.
It’s easy to laud the superlatives of Boyd and Conner. What really stuck out to me was defensive play-calling. Matt House has been a whipping boy and the fan base needs to give credit where credit is due. On Tyler Murphy’s long run, Reggie Mitchell came in on a corner blitz and had Murphy dead in his sights–nothing a coach can do about that. I can’t figure out what happened on the deep pass to Phillips in the 3rd quarter. It wasn’t a blitz, but only Pitts was deep. My assumption is one of the safeties had deep responsibility and didn’t do his job. Also, Murphy had a lot of time to throw that ball; the pass rush didn’t get there.
One thing that jumped out to me was Ray Vinopal on read option plays. I counted at least three occasions where Big Play Ray read the read option and immediately went after Tyler Murphy. I’m guessing the coaches gave him the free reign to blitz when he saw it coming rather than let BC set the pace. I love the aggressiveness and trust in your senior leader. That’s the type of thing Matt House couldn’t do last season; he lacked a trusted player in the back seven to give that sort of freedom to.
Onto the awards!!!!
The “Shove Your Puns Right up Your A..” ward: Chris Blewitt. Blewitt nailed three FGs beyond 40 yards including a new career high of 49. I saw far too many “ZOMGS PITT’S KICKER IS NAMED BLEWITT!!!” tweets and it’s great that no one had the chance to say it.
The “WHAT THE F$&# ARE YOU DOING?” Award: Terrish Webb. Just click this link, but beware, it’s NSFW due to language.
Big Time Youngin’ Award: Rori Blair. Blair had his first career sack and played extensively in the second half in pass rushing packages. Blair’s success has kept James Conner off of defense because Pitt is at least three deep at DE with David Durham, Shakir Soto, and Blair.
Grown Ass Man Award: James Conner. ’nuff said.
Get Better Soon Award: Artie Rowell and TJ Clemmings. Get better soon guys. Take next week off if need be, FIU would probably lose to Delaware.
All in all, this was a huge win. Pitt proved that last year’s offensive road woes won’t plague them, they can overcome a rough start, and they can dominate for long stretches of time. This team dominated the second and most of the third quarter. Next up is FIU and as I mentioned above, they would probably lose to Delaware. Anything short of a boring dominance next week will be a major disappointment. FIU lost to Bethune-Cookman from the FCS 14-12 in week one.
Defensively there were a few bad plays. They lost contain on Tyler Murphy on that first drive and that last garbage time td that Murphy threw was a blown coverage. There should have been safety help over the top for Lafayette Pitts that was nowhere to be found. Other than that, the defense handled business. They got pressure with some creative blitzes and Reggie Mitchell got to the qb again today. Rori Blair got his first career sack. The interior dl did a good job stuffing up the middle. BC’s offense is really bad but Pitt handled their business other than those few big plays.
This was basically a 30-14 win as the last td BC scored was in garbage time. I feel a little bit better about this pitt team as their run game is going to be extremely difficult to stop this year. The injuries to the OL are something to be afraid of, though. I also want to see how Voytik progresses as I think he’s shown more good things than bad but he still has a ways to go.
The loss to YSU was bad, but considering a 1st time coach replacing a one and done coach who had to suspend 6 guys right before the game, I wasn’t shocked. The 2nd game against Cincy and the great Munchie Legaux and I remember thinking this team is going 0-12.
Since then 15-11 including bowl games and more and more becoming Chryst’s team and his vision. And I F*!#ing love it!
Hail to Pitt!!!!
Whatever happened to that guy? Lol
Rori Blair, KK and Render (91?)did a nice job. Blair is going to be nice. He is fast and represents my alma mater well. Agree that we need to come out strong next week. Not 62-0 strong, but getting everyone some reps strong. I don’t want James to lose confidence because he was pulled after the almost fumble. No Rachid today which was odd to me.
A couple bogus holding calls. A lot of staring down receivers by our qb. Tyler did well but Mannessah seemed to give up on a few routes that ended up coming his way. OL is big and “burger” Jones looked massive in there! Jaymar Parrish had a good game too. Well done everybody. Let’s get healthy and stay healthy this week. An extra day might help there. Can’t get to 4-0 if you aren’t 3-0. Go get em boys!
Get excited? If I was 10 years younger I would bash my head through my living room wall…
I still might? FIU, Iowa, Akron, and UVA…this team can be 6-0 rolling into VA Tech thurs Oct 16th. We could also be 4-2…
No way you lose to FIU or Akron. You just can’t. Iowa and UVA more than likely are the difference between 4-2 or a ranked 6-0 on primetime against VA TECH…
Hail to Pitt!!!!
I’ll take 30-20 with a meaningless last minute TD by BC. Really 30-13.
Beating BC at BC isn’t a cakewalk as even Florida State had trouble at BC last year. Before losing 34-48.
After 2 games PITT is avg’g 46 ppg and were not throwing 40 passes per game doing it.
Rock em Sock em old fashioned punch em in the mouth football. With a few timely passes from our gamer QB. Who will only get better as he grows more confident. And like Pittfan28 suggested he made a very critical tackle after throwing a pick, which the end result was no points for BC and no momentum change in the game.
Mr. Connor won’t be playing DE this year or any year if they’re smart. What a freight train looking to run you over. He’s a faster, little lighter version of Ironhead. Wish he would have kept his old number, it only made him look even bigger and more menacing on the field.
Miami here we come, get out the sun tan lotion !
Let’s hear it for special teams.
A kicker that makes long field goals and kickoffs through the endzone. A punter that goes deep and has finesse inside the 20.
Tyler Boyd, enough said.
A little on side kick practice and we’ll be perfect.
What a difference a year makes.
Proud of my teammates to finish that game.. Thanks to everyone for all the support, I’ll be back in no time. Love my Pitt Family
Possibly the 2 most important plays of the game were poor passes by their QB to wide open receivers that may have scored.
1) The 1st play after Voytik’s interception, their receiver was wide open and probably would have scored which would have made the score 14-3.
2) Late in the 3rd, BC scored to make it 27-14, forced a punt, then on 3rd and 4 had a perfect screen pass set up that would have gone long way. If not a TD, it would have put the ball deep in Pitt territory but the pass (which turned out to be a lateral) was poorly thrown.
I’m not a Negative Nellie but our pass defense has to be shored up for when we actually play against a decent passer. And if our CBs can’t cover, then our DC should consider other schemes … there were receivers open too frequently.
Overall, I’m obviously very pleased with the game outcome but when you see something so obvious, it needs to be fixed.
Last year when we beat UVa, our offense had scoring drives of 17 and 19 yards and that was it. It was obvious that there were issues, and sure enough, that was he start of pretty bad offensive games (ODU being the exception but even that game was close.)
But now that I’m off of my pulpit, I am very pleased at this moment
Offensively, besides the obvious Kudos to Boyd & The Beast, I really feel good about the progress our OL seems to be making. Just last year, that was an achilles for us.
FINALLY – We need another WR to step up, otherwise there will be too much pressure on both TB & CV. And we need CV to throw to those other WRs. Are you telling me Jones or someone else couldn’t get open all night? We need more balance.
The defensive stats ook good. If you take away Mitchell’s missed tackle on Murphy in the first quarter and the presumably blown coverage on the TD pass, the score and BC’s yardage would be pretty dismal. Big plays like those two killed Pitt against Miami last year.
On the other hand, BC dropped/missed a lot of catchable passes. That screen pass attempt that ended up being a lateral was a TD in the making if Murphy throws anything remotely catchable. Very smart play by BC intended receiver to cover up on that play.
I liked the defensive play. They just need to tighten some things up.
Offensively I would have liked to see some play action in the second half. BC wasn’t biting too much on it in the first half. However it seemed to me that they were really stacking for Conner in the second half, especially on the tight formations. Our TEs are studs. I would have liked to see some play action for Holtz or Orndorff in space in those situations. Other than Voytik’s INT and Rowell’s injury, absolutely nothing to complain about in the first half offensively.
Conner might be our biggest hitter on either side of the ball. I think his willingess to deliver contact is infectious on the team. He may be our next Ironhead.
I definitely felt that the team played confidently throughout and didn’t let adversity get to them at any point.
I see a lot of upside to this team. There are a lot of younger guys playing. I am excited to see continued growth.
On the 2 examples I provided above, the receivers were WIDE open, but there were certainly other plays where they had openings …. and this needs to be rectified.
But my main point is that you don’t credit the coach for all of the good then blame the players for all of the bad. I’ve seen this crap all too often on this site. If our players can’t cover man-to-man, then we need a scheme change.
Count the blessings:
Conference road win for a young team
Smash mouth running oriented FB
Young QB learning on the job; note 47 yards rushing
Virtually no penalties; that is coaching/discipline
Tough RB hurting defensive players; remember the Ironhead?
Kicking game very nice
Like the “D” vs an experienced O-line; LB play very nice
Tyler!
Pitt 2-0!
First half, BC had an intensity level on O and D which was helped by home field that Pitt did not match but neither did Pitt panic. HCPC’s interview at half showed that – NO panic.
CV is not a great passer and does stare down his receivers..errr…receiver(TB). Pitt wants to get him the ball, but THAT needs to improve. CV IS very good scrambling and hustling(tackle on int.)
O-line is very good and hopefully stays intact. JC uses them well and if they get better, THAT is the part of this Pitt team that is top 15 in the country.
Defense is overall inconsistent. Line was generally good with pressure but coverage was beaten enough to be a concern. A very good game by the BC QB and this game would have been in question. IT WASN’T.
Kicking game is already top 10 level. Only question is kick coverage ability, punt coverage looked good, kick-off looked vulnerable. Without Blewitt, this game could have been in question. IT WASN’T.
JC, TB, HCPC, CV’s composure – enough has been said. Only question about HCPC is having JC in the game at the end. As much as everyone recognizes what a loss TB could mean for this team, a JC loss might be worse.
DO NOT look past FIU, no matter how bad a team Upittbaseball says they are. This game could be invaluable to give critical game experience to our two deep. I would love to see guys like Callings worth, James, Maclean, Jennings, Moody, Caprara, Officer and of course Anderson on the field in the 2nd half getting their mojo going.
Watching both Artie and TJ going down last night, both in kind of freakish circumstances, it makes it quite apparent that many of these names could be just a play away from starting.
Love the vibe that this team is projecting. “Here we are, we’re going to run the football on you, what are you going to do about it”? That has to get real old for opposing defenses by the middle of the fourth Q! How would you like to be that exhausted 180 lb CB responsible for staring a downhill running James Conner in the eyes while lining him up for a tackle at the end of a game? UNCLE!
H2P!
He doesn’t have a strong arm and may not be the most accurate passer, but in the very small sampling we saw him, he appears to be a playmaker and rise to the occasion when needed.
Remember the 3rd and long in the bowl game last year when he completed a pass for the first down from his own endzone?
Time will tell how good he turns out to be but so far I am OK with it.
Pitt newspapers and their web sites are BAD. Even ESPN not much (to much junk about their own shows). FIU on FOX Sports One next saturday.
When Conner ran it was hard to tell who was supposed to be delivering the blows and who was supposed to be absorbing them.
BC cornerback Manny Asprilla was on the wrong end of a collision with Conner on Conner’s 9-yard touchdown run that made it 27-7 with 5:15 to go in the third quarter.
BC would have had as much luck trying to tackle an Amtrak train as it did Conner at times.
You’ve heard of shock and awe. This was shock and ouch for the Eagles, who got both their bodies and their egos bruised trying to tackle Pittsburgh running back/human battering ram Conner. The 6-foot-2-inch, 250-pound sophomore left tire marks — and other marks — on would-be BC tacklers.
LMAO
If you want anything in-depth about Pitt FB in the PG, you have to go to the Redshirt Diaries blog
If Murphy was actually a threat with his arm there would have been more guys dropping back into coverage. We knew BC couldn’t throw worth a damn consistently and our defense played accordingly.
