I try to avoid immediate analysis after an ugly game as emotion clouds reason. Now after I’ve sat down and watched the game at least twice over on DVR, I have a much better feel for what went wrong and I’m much more comfortable about what happened. I’ll break it down between offense and defense. Special teams didn’t have anything that really required a breakdown as outside of Blewitt’s miss everything went reasonably well.
Offense:
Overall, the offense struggled, but most of the game they were without Boyd and Conner plus the OL was banged up. Let’s hope that’s the cause of the inconsistency after the first . The first thing to note was the wide variety of alignments. They were in pro set, pistol, and shotgun. They used three RBs in a wishbone and had an empty set with no RBs (on the Voytik fumble, sadly). This could help the offense in the long run as that many alignments make it more difficult to prepare for.
The offense was feast or famine after Conner went down and a lot of that had to do with pass blocking. Here are my notes:
-On Voytik’s second quarter sack, Bookser was beaten badly, but Voytik could’ve stepped up. Still mostly on Bookser for putting him in that situation.
-Voytik’s pick wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. In person, it looked like a bad read or throw. On TV and after a few views, it’s clear Voytik expected Holtz to cut inside instead of outside. Not sure who was wrong, but I’d guess it was Holtz. Chris Peak suggested it could’ve been a difference in schemes between last year and this year. I’m not sure if that was speculation or if he knows something. Either way, it’s the type of mistake you want to make in the first game of the season. Next time, they should get it right.
-On the Voytik fumble, O’Neill was at LT and beaten outside waaay too easily. Voytik could’ve escaped but JP Hotlz was manhandled and pushed back, giving Voytik nowhere to go. Orndoff was also in to block (so seven guys were back to block) but he was spying a potential blitzer, which put him in a tough situation. I’m not sure what Orndoff should’ve done there, help Holtz or watch the potential blitzer.
-Speaking of Orndoff, he was wide open before his deep touchdown and Voytik failed to connect with him. I put this on Chad as Orndoff was facing inside and Chad threw it to his outside shoulder. Orndoff looks like he could’ve had it, but the QB has to lead his receiver, not force him to turn around.
-The late game play-calling got very vanilla. I think Narduzzi was too confident in his defense. There was one series in the fourth where they ran a toss sweep on four of five plays.
-They tried a few things with Chad that I don’t think he was comfortable with (empty set, long developing routes) and it showed.
-It also showed that the WRs out there didn’t get a lot of separation. That’s concerning. Chad isn’t comfortable throwing into tight windows to guys that don’t have “23” on the back of the jersey and against YSU separation shouldn’t be an issue. But, without Conner or Boyd, YSU got aggressive in their coverage.
-Get well soon, Bisnowaty and Artie. The OL will look a lot better when it’s Biz-Dojo-Rowell-Officer-Bookser. You can scheme around one issue on the OL and that’s not necessarily saying Bookser is an issue at RT. His big mistakes were at LT.
Overall, the offense was vanilla, had OL issues, and a rusty QB missing his best target. With some health on the OL and the return of Boyd and Conner, things could look very different against Akron. The offense spotted YSU 13 points and you won’t beat a P5 level team with three turnovers very often. Thankfully, it was a FCS school.
Defense:
Live, it looked the defense completely fell apart in the fourth quarter. Upon further analysis, it’s more complicated than that. Without the 13 points the offense handed to YSU, the two late touchdowns mean nothing. The game should’ve been over at that point. Here are my notes:
-I’ve mentioned before that Narduzzi’s scheme puts a lot of pressure on the safeties and this is something YSU attacked with some success. Often times the safety will be responsible for the slot WR in a 3-wide set (when the D remains in their base 4-3 alignment) and with the safety off of the ball, YSU threw several screen passes to the slot WR. Some worked, some didn’t. Screens will be an issue early as the defense adjusts to a more aggressive scheme. Thankfully YSU aggressively used them so the coaches have tape to use for adjustments.
-This scheme will work great if safeties and LBs make the right reads. We saw Grigsby make the right read often and the results were stellar. Safety play took a nosedive in the second half when Reggie Mitchell was out. More on LB ans S play later.
-On some of YSU’s big passing plays, their QB Hunter Wells made some great throws. He’s better than what we’ll see at Akron next week. He’s a better QB than at least two others Pitt will see.
-The DL played a great game. There was very little room to run inside and the only success YSU had running the ball was with misdirection or to the outside.
-In fact, that’s exactly what happened on the first offensive touchdown for YSU. There was pressure inside that forced the RB out wide. Poker was at DE and he lost contain and Galambos was very, very, very, very, very late. Did I say very? Galambos could’ve made the play with a better read and more effort but to be blunt, neither was there. Hell, this play may not happen if Galambos doesn’t make a lazy tackle attempt earlier in the drive that set up YSU with 3rd and inches instead of 3rd and 3 or 4.
-The long touchdown run also had poor recognition and effort from Galambos. The play flowed to the right and Galambos over-pursued. When the play turned out to be a run left, his angle was too shallow and we were off to the races. YSU was in a 4-wide set so there weren’t many bodies in the trenches. YSU had three WRs on one side, one on the other, and they ran to the weak side. Safety help should’ve been able to at least clean up the touchdown, by Jevonte Pitts was too late to reach as well.
-While on the topic of poor safety play, it was Pitts and Webb who allowed the long TD pass. The slot WR (like I mentioned before is covered by the safety in base defense) ran a skinny post and Webb just didn’t react. Pitts appeared to be responsible for deep contain, but I can’t say that for certain. If he was, he was late to come over. If not, irrelevant. Regardless, Webb made it too easy and the QB threw a perfect ball.
What I really gathered from YSU’s three offensive touchdowns was all three were caused by poor LB and/or safety play. CBs and the DL were great all game. Assuming Reggie Mitchell is back, safety play will improve dramatically. It’s clear to me that Whitehead and Amara are ahead of Pitts at the other safety spot. I saw good things from both there. At LB, there was one player that really jumped out as an issue and that was Matt Galambos. This isn’t just my opinion; a quick twitter search for his name and you’ll see it isn’t pretty. I don’t want to bench him immediately, but another game like yesterday against Akron and another player needs a shot there.
I also think the coaching was a bit too lax. Narduzzi clearly wanted to get certain players on the field and I think that held the team back. On the other hand, this team made the plays when they needed to late and if you look at who made those plays, you’ll see who’s going to play more in the future. Many have suggested that Chryst led team would’ve collapsed and there’s certainly evidence that supports it. The important thing is the team pulled off the ugly win, something that several other P5 schools can’t say.
For the love of God though, Pitt has to kill the Sweet Caroline tradition. I don’t care if it get’s the entire stadium singing. It reminds me of being at a bar at 2AM and the lights go on and a last song is played … then everyone rolls out.
One thing personally of note, not really having to do with the team – during the game and for a few hours after i was pretty embarrassed, although, relieved that the team pulled out the W. usually following a game like that I think “same old Pitt”, but i dont feel like that this time around. I almost feel more confident about the team and about Narduzzi. When you look at all of the injuries and consider that, other than galambos, most of those breakdowns defensively were made by 2nd and third stringers.
obviously that doesnt appear to bode well for the long haul because injuries happen and subs need to be made, but there was ZERO game film of guys like jevonte pitts, zach poker, elijah zeise, dontez ford. And these guys have the raw ability to improve. I think it was by design to play a ton of different guys in different situations. That was clearly playing with fire but if it gives these backups a chance to improve its worth it considering they still won.
offensively i think the play calling was quite vanilla despite the wide variety of formations(which i really like). I would like to see them open up the passing game against akron.
Qadree Ollison is a stud. Quadree henderson will be a star. On his first kickoff attempt and that first play that was a jet sweep he was about to break off HUGE plays but there was an issue with his cleats on the real grass that wouldnt allow him to break laterally. He clearly has elite speed and quickness. Whitehead will also be a star, maybe by later this year
pitt 1972, I agree with you, the pass protection, or lack thereof, was a major contributing factor.
Voytik did miss a completely wide open Orndoff, but the passing game looked out of sync all day.
Also not sure why they kept rolling Voytik out to his left. Much easier pass to roll out right.
I think it was wbb who pointed out how quickly we scored. Need more long sustained drives to keep the D on the sidelines. This was a problem last year as well. But when you got Boyd, Conner and now Ollison, breaking big plays, hard to tell them, Don’t score so fast.
How good is YSU? Hard to tell, but to me they passed the eye test. Good experienced O-line, good QB and receivers, superfast running back.
On defense, good pass rushers, and a couple good D-backs. Decent size.
A team you should beat, but not roll over, a much better learning experience than Delaware.
Now we need to become road warriors. I think that is why we will still see mostly Voytik, experience counts on the road.
Can’t lose 3 net turnovers next week.
Losing the reigning AC Player of the Year… whether for just one Game or God forbid an extended length of time… would be DEVASTATING to this Pitt Football Team.
As much as I’ve touted Ollison, unlike Conner… he has YET TO PROVE that he can CARRY THE LOAD when the other Team has had a week to Gameplan against him.
By the way, it’s Conn-ER.
Certainly not as GOOD as Temple… which is BIG… has Athletes… and is WELL Coached.
This was probably mentioned somewhere but why wear dark blue on dark blue uniforms on a hot, sunny day? White jerseys and blue pants would have made more sense.
Next week we will see a much different Voytik with Boyd, his security blanket, back. Hopefully Conner will be back, but with Ollison in reserve that is not a big worry. Also Ollison seems rational so no worry about him leaving due to not being used enough. Pitt offensive line built for backs like him.
I hope we see a change at middle linebacker next week. Also this week Pitts need to seek medical help for his stiff neck, it does not seem to be able to turn around at all.
On defense, thought the DE were productive for a change. Galambos must play faster or he will be riding the pines.
Akron may not be as bad as they showed against Oklahoma, Oklahoma is probably a top ten team.
Prioritizing the ball is always a concern.
Not saying we win that game without Ollison is kind of like saying we blow them out with Boyd. We will never know. Each play, dictates how the next is called until the game is over. That is why execution and discipline is so important on every play. Commit to and beat the player lined up against you every time and the team should win.
Aaron Mathews should be salivating at the opportunity to get in the fold. Same with Miles Sanders. Would be nice to land a consensus 4 star qb in the next year or two. And by all means, keep stacking up the big uglies. And no upitt, you are not a big ugly. Medium ugly….yes! Ha!
I didn’t like NP entering the game when he did. CV should have had 4 or 5 series to get into a rhythm. Especially since the first series was a lost series due to the slips on the turf. I also did not like the the no return guy look while anticipating an onside kick. That had disaster written all over it.
With all the formations that we saw, Chaney’s offense seems pretty complicated. It will take some time for everyone to get on board. I can see why it took a season for Arkansas’ offense to really take off. Once it’s established though, it’s going to be nasty. Everyone will have to be patient with it because we may not see any returns until next year.
Boyd leaving will still be a big hole but losing Connor won’t be as impactful as some thought it was going to be. That’s not to discredit Connor but the RB position will not be an issue for the next few years.