(This is one of a weekly series of articles entitled “Monday Morning Quarterback”. I will try to post them two days after the football games are played so as to have our wilder emotions under control by then. It will be my take on the positives and the negatives we saw happen and a chance for commenters to agree or disagree and to add their own thoughts.)
This is will a Friday morning edition of course and that’s good because I don’t want three days to think about that game before I can put it into the history books… and I don’t think you want to either.
We’ll get back to all that in a second… here is the obligatory highlights video:
Now lets get the hard part out of the way with Narduzzi’s post game press conference:
Here is the info dump on the game and the cumulative stats for the season:
Box Score
Box Score (PDF)
Season Statistics
Postgame Notes
Postgame Quotes
USATSI Photo Gallery 
OK, now is the hard part and it is a bit like looking into a ‘Way-Back’ mirror to the last week of camp where we talked about things that might bite us in the ass… sprinkled with some new problems that have shown themselves growing week-by-week.
One thing that I’ll keep first and foremost in my head for the next ten days is that a good, solid, football team came into Heinz Field and won the game. North Carolina is no stumble bum team that just happened to get luck breaks to win the game. That wasn’t the case, they came here and won the play on both sides of the ball and scored more than we did.
Acknowledging that I have to say the team that played best last evening took the spoils home to Charlotte with them – those being the top spot in the ACC Coastal division. But I’m going to stop with the superlatives there because I firmly believe that our opponent didn’t out play us as drastically as I’ve been reading fans say… or that NC was ‘a much better team’ as I’ve read also.
I don’t think so, at the very least I don’t think they are all that much more talented at the players level, save for the quarterback position. We stack up with them pretty well across the board in my opinion. No, where our problem was last night, and why we’ll look in the Way-Back mirror in a moment, is that they out coached us in almost every way. It was frustrating as hell to watch the game unfold the way it did and know that we have the talents to put more points on the board if a balanced and reasonable offensive gameplan was deployed.
So, for the after game impressions:
This offensive coaching staff has an etched in stone blueprint.
Their approach at game week planning for over the season is slow, unproductive and trite and they aren’t adjusting it. Even given the results of how the well players are actually executing during the games this staff is a one horse offense. And the horse that they should have if they want to play football this way isn’t in uniform.
We heard many times since Narduzzi was first hired, over the off season and all through the fall camp that he wanted to build this team as a run-heavy, run-first offense and have the passing game exist to complement that. OK, that was the plan last season with a different offensive line in front of the QB and James Conner behind the QB gobbling up yards and scoring TDs. However sooner or later someone has to slide into the staff break room and scream “Bu… bu… bu… but Coach, Conner aint’ playing this year!“. Then I’d set off the fire alarm for emphasis so they’ll remember the words.
Hell, someone has to say it and it really should be done directly to Narduzzi’s face so that sinks in. I can’t do it, I live too far away and I don’t think he likes me much, but someone has to. Hell, Scott Barnes can get Bob Junko to do it. Narduzzi can’t fire him no matter how angry he gets. Junko helped carry the Cathedral of Learning’s cornerstone over to the Schenley dig site; he’s untouchable and he’ll out last all of them at Pitt.
But when your running game isn’t anywhere near as effective as last season’s you have to make changes to the gameplan. This season we are averaging 169 ypg and doing it at a 4.2 ypc clip… which has us sitting firmly at 69th national. Compared to last year’s 250 ypg and 5.3 ypc average it pales in comparison and is hurting us now, and if it keeps on like this will be killing us later. We have to offset that drop in production to give ourselves a fighting chance going into the rest of the games.
It isn’t like we have this kid sitting on the bench for Conner’s relief:
So how do we change that trend?
Peterman’s 42 passing attempts last night had all of one legit deep ball attempt if memory serves. He had 20 attempts in the 1st half and 22 in the 2nd so Chaney will dialing up passes when we are down by 10 or 17 points… but he won’t ever come out with the intent to put points on the scoreboard right off the bat.
This staff’s intent is to establish the power run game early on no matter what and only go off that track when we get behind. That worked OK on our first series when Ollison had 19 yards on his first three carries while Peterman added 37 in the air as we moved downfield for a field goal. But we did nothing on our last five series of the half.
Granted the staff didn’t know we’d strike out for the rest of the half but couldn’t we just for once have an early lead and try to drive a stick in our opponent’s eye with a quick strike TD? It is obvious at this point in the season that Chaney is over-the-top risk adverse and I can’t figure out why. Peterman hasn’t thrown an INT in forever and his back up QB didn’t throw but one the whole 2nd half of last year.
Chaney has keep locked chains on Peterman’s right arm so far this year with his his conservative play calling, but Peterman has the arm for deep throws and he has two targets in Boyd and Ford who can get down field in a hurry.
If that risk-taking would have happened a possible 10-3 lead early in the game last night would have changed a lot of things for both teams. I think Chaney, and maybe Narduzzi to some extent also, has forgotten that they are playing a football game out there. Not conducting life or death brain surgery where one mistake sends the guys off to the Land of Nod forever. Take a risk sometimes.
Earlier this week Narduzzi in an interview was asked why we aren’t throwing deep more often and he said that ‘You don’t want to be in 2+10 downs, do you?‘. Well, he’s the rub about that. This is what we did on 2nd down plays Saturday:
In first half we had 12 2nd down plays and they averaged out at 2nd and 9.5 yards. I say again; 2nd and 9.5 yards!
In first half we had 12 2nd down plays and they averaged out at 2nd and 8.6 yards. I say again; 2nd and 8.6 yards!
We had 24 2nd downs and we averaged out at 2nd & 9. If our running game is producing that poorly, and it is, then I think there is room for a deep ball or two in there somewhere. It truly couldn’t have been any worse for Narduzzi’s fears than what we saw last night. It isn’t like we are betting the house on every attempt.
This is part and parcel of having a defense-first minded head coach and we are seeing it with this conservative offensive approach that Chaney is forcing on the offense. Narduzzi’s experience has been get the offense to score a few points and let his defense take care of the rest. And, so far we have had good results in the win/loss column, but we need to score more points than only six going into the late 4th quarter against the good teams on the rest of our schedule, we need to put up points at every opportunity.
In our five ACC matches we are averaging 13 points going into halftime. That isn’t terrible but when you realize that we are only scoring 10 points after the half on average it is pretty scary. Which made me start wondering what the previous year’s totals for points for and points against were; here are the last six years of all opponents, not just ACC.
| Year | Points Scored | Points Allowed | Record |
| 2015 | 26.1 | 22.1 | 6-2 |
| 2014 | 31.8 | 26.3 | 6-7 |
| 2013 | 26.3 | 27.2 | 7-6 |
| 2012 | 26.6 | 21.1 | 6-7 |
| 2011 | 24.2 | 22.8 | 6-7 |
| 2010 | 26.3 | 19.0 | 8-5 |
| 2009 | 32.1 | 19.8 | 10-3 |
We don’t learn anything about our capabilities if we are afraid to fail sometimes so air that damn ball out and score some quick points. Use the deep passing plays once or twice per half and see where it gets us. We may just be very pleasantly surprised.
Just because Chad Voytik isn’t the starter any longer doesn’t mean that his skill’s have diminished.
Unless Chad Voytik slept with someone’s wife and has been sentenced to the dog pound in another county (a dog house would be too lenient), he has to be a viable part of any offensive gameplan. He doesn’t have to be a big part of it, but even if for only a series he has to be kept involved in the offense and the option to go to him if needed has to have a place in Jim Chaney’s mind.
Pitt has been horrid in the red zone offensively all season; bit better last night albeit late in the game, but we need real progress there. Kicking field goals when you are less than 20 yards away from seven points (or six as we saw once last night) is unacceptable in the long run. Every one of our ACC games has been pretty close and low scoring and we are going to need every point we can get from here on out.
Each of our last five games, all conference ones, have been won or lost by seven or less points. Every game has had a final total winning score of 31 points or less and four out of five have had that top score as 26 or less… we are not in any shoot outs this season and can’t pass up four points no matter what the score is at any point in the game.
Enter Chad Voytik. If we aren’t pushing the ball into the red zone enough, or once in the endzone not scoring enough with the starter in there then give the other guy a shot at it every once in a while. Peterman can move the team up and down the field OK, his personal accounting of 303 yards of offense last night, in a game that went down to the last 55 seconds is evidence of that. Where he is stumbling, along with the rest of the offense players and the OC over the season, is crunch time going in for those needed points.
So shake it up every once in a while. Give Voytik the ball of a red zone series or two and see how he and the offense responds. Voytik’s short passing game is fine and he can get 5-10 yards with his legs on a regular basis… so let him do it.
Chaney and Narduzzi can’t worry about bruised egos at this point, and I don’t think that would happen with Peterman anyway, as he’s a tough and mature young man. Obviously Peterman has been playing well enough to keep that starting job, that isn’t in question. But his play hasn’t been so outstanding as to preclude sitting him down once in a while either.
The goal of football games isn’t to make the players feel 100% comfortable in their own situations, it is to put more points on the scoreboard than the opponent does. Against a good team last night we didn’t do it and slogged our way to a loss. A jolt in the arm for the offense may be just what it needs sometimes.
Paul Chryst was the very worse recruiter of cornerbacks in the history of college football… or is our defensive staff allowing opposing QBs to shoot Narduzzi directly in the foot with the big passing plays that we knew we’d give up even before the season started?
I’d say both sides of that equation are true. Narduzzi and Conklin’s defense is fun to watch… at times. At other times it is horrible and loses games for us. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and remember what Narduzzi said about his pressure defense back on fall camp’s Media Day back in August:
On pressure on cornerbacks to play well in a run-based defense:
“It does [put pressure on them]. But we have ways of giving them relief. We’re trying to make everything look the same, but there’s pressure on the corners without a doubt. I think our corners are good enough to handle that pressure. We have guys that can do good things. It’s also our job to change it up and make sure, if you’re the [opposing] quarterback, you don’t know what’s on that island out there. When you look at it from the press box, you’re going to look and say, ‘It looks like those guys are on one of those islands out in Hawaii.’ It’ll look like that, but then we’ll have ways of changing it up and giving those guys some help.”
It has dumbfounded me since mid-2013 that we can’t find someone to take the cornerback position off Lafayette Pitt’s hands. He’s gone steadily downhill since then. It is hard watching him out there, especially this year with the extra pressure on him to perform well given what the defense is tasked with doing in front of him. It is sad making also as he’s always given his best shot out there – we just haven’t had one staff member look at the game tapes and say “Oh man! We have to try something different!”
It wasn’t just his pass coverage last night, that was about average but also his whiffs on tackles where carriers got big gains after Pitt’s missed them. I don’t know if Pitts is playing Superman in practices and that is what impresses this staff or what, but the fact that he’s been in the starting lineup for every single game of every single season over the last three years is a mystery to me. He was benched later in the gamne and should have been, but we need to take a serious look at replacing him if at all possible.
It wasn’t just him though…
Our passing defense overall last night looked pretty well lost. We allowed their QB, Marquis Williams, to complete only 14 passes (out of 23 for 270 yards ) but Holy Hell! what those 14 passes did to us at a 19.7 yards per completion rate. Three plays last night in particular gives us pause going forward; Tied at 3-3 the Tarheels had the ball on their 13, ran four plays then hit a wide open WR running loose from Pat Amara for a 71 yard TD pass to take the lead. The worse part about that play is we had a chance at a clean sack on the QB.
Later in that half down 13-3 we had the ball on our 25 yard line and looked like we were getting moving after Peterman hit two passes to James for five yards the Ford for eight and what would have been a 1st down had not Ford fumbled on a big hit. So NC gets it on our 38, they run two quick plays and then boom! a 32 yard TD strike to another wide open receiver. 20-3 with about five minutes left in the 1st half and a tough hole to climb out of, especially given the way the offense has been being called this season.
Now the good news. The kids are still fired up from the opening whistle to the end of play. That may sound basic and pretty lame for a post-game highlight but that wasn’t the case over the last ten years. In the past there were always one or two games a season, regardless of who the HC was, where as a fan watching you could just tell the team was mailing it in when starting the 4th quarter behind in the score.
I think that with this staff and this administration are setting a good foundation for a new football culture at Pitt; these and future players are going to be more personally and emotionally invested in the team and their teammates than they have been in the past. As in any strong conflict between two violently opposing sides the guys actually doing battle invariably look over at their teammates, who are also busting ass, for inspiration; they don’t necessarily turn to the leadership.
I see our staff instilling that ‘want-to and can-do’, and maybe more importantly trust in their shipmates, into the players’ minds each and every week. It is building and becoming the norm rather than the “hope it is” that we’ve seen in the past. What I hope to happen that is if those problems mentioned above don’t get fixed, but we are still in a dogfight to the end of the last quarter of a game, that love of team will give us a successful push forward. Sometimes that is what it takes when all is said or done.
This helps that to happen:
Notre Dame at noon next Saturday. This staff has a lot of work to do and, I think has to reevaluate exactly what this first season in their tenure at Pitt actually has to accomplish. This was a complete ‘gimme’ season as it is his for Narduzzi in his first year here. That doesn’t mean it would have been OK to tanked to something like 2-3 wins but the bar was pretty much set at a .500 season this year and we’ve met that.
The point is that because we’ve got those six wins under our belt this is the perfect time of the year to try new and different things. If the staff can honestly self-asses they will see that some things they have been long-range planning and sticking with isn’t working all that well. I mentioned two issues of that happening above; open up the deep passing game on offense and on defense look very closely if that QB pressure at all costs approach can’t be modified a bit so the LBs can give the back four some help in pass defense.
Sack are sexy and everyone loves them but the main plus of what they do is that they eat up an opponent’s down and give them one less chance at a 1st down or a score… exactly the same thing a incomplete pass does if our pass coverage works the way it should.
We don’t have to completely get away from what has given us some wins in the past weeks, but we need to get stronger on both sides of the ball to give us fighting chances against our better competition coming up.
Happy Birthday Reed – he’s 29 years old today.
Reed, you cannot throw long when your receivers don’t have the discipline to run proper routes. In the second half, one of our receivers was supposed to run a 20 yd curl. He kept running straight and Nate damn near threw an easy pick. Later that same receiver was supposed to run a skinny post but cut it to the corner…never looking back for the ball. Nate threw it inside and that almost got picked.
If you don’t have time to throw under max protect and your receivers don’t run disciplined routes, coach ain’t gonna let you throw long.
I saw a clear path to victory vs UNC. Run up the middle with Ollie, keep it close first half, then open up second half.
I see no path to victory vs ND. They are light years better than Pitt on both lines and their passing game vs Pitts secondary is a huge mismatch. Our special teams vs theirs are even.
I’ll be there hoping for miracles and rooting my ass off. H2P
Sorry but UNC was faster, quicker, both lines were stronger, and yes, better coached for this game.
We don’t have all the athletes we need yet.
At least we are going in the right direction. If we can keep a coach like Narduzzi for three more years, we will see the rainbow.
Anybody have a link on what happened during the Miami-Duke game?
I agree with Old Pitt Grad…the game was won/lost with line play…their lines dominated sufficiently to give their offense time to do,what they needed, and for their defense to constantly pressure us. Plus, our DBs were a step behind their WRs, who were big and physical.
And also, agree, this team never gave up and kept their heads up!
We’ll see what almost 10 days to prep for ND can do.
Hail to PITT!
-al-
Pitt’s next game is being planned for with a ten day window. The ND game is a “want to win” game not a “need to win” game like the final three ACC contests are (if we want a shot at the Coastal title).
I disagree with you (jrnpitt) regarding the Temple game. I think “team” can beat talent with the right leadership. Temple is a good team and has good leadership. The same can be said about Pitt. Temple was driving at the end of the ND game for a winning score until the game ending INT.
Our Pitt team can beat ND, but it will depend on two things – which team shows up and who is leading.
The focus this week will be on the ND exhibition football game – the prep work will be for the ACC Coastal title quest.
HTP!
Glad to see you coming around about this wretched offense, which is sort of reminiscent of the Tiny led dink and dunk your way down the field.
If one remembers that offense was great between the 20’s or 30’s and mostly ‘petered out’ (forgive the pun) in the redzone.
We had lots of yardage and Tiny threw for lots of yardage, again between the 20’s, but didn’t amount to lots of points or lots of wins.
We have been kind of fortunate in that we have played some teams with just dreadful offenses and/or QB’s. (see Akron, VT, UVA, Cuse) And just barely managed to eke by them.
So now we are finally playing some teams with at least competent QB’ing and the time is now to take the ‘training wheels’ off this offense and this QB and throw the damn ball downfield.
Hey and you know what, by stretching the field vertically, that might actually help the running game.
Gee what a novel idea.
I was 29…..
…once….
..a while ago. 🙂
1. You have to get the receivers running routes that are beyond the CHAINS…..ESPECIALLY ON 3RD DOWN!!!!!!!!!!
2. It’s all about the recruiting — yes, help is on the way.
On another subject – ATTENDANCE – I watched a lot of ACC games this past weekend and the attendance was terrible. The games at Duke(Miami),at BC (VT), at WF (Louisville), the stands were empty. They looked to be half of what Pitt gets, even the week before at Syracuse (Pitt) the announced attendance was 29,000 . While we all want a full Heinz field our attendance isn’t that bad . We need to compare ourselves to our ACC counterparts not against large land grant universities. Ignore the yellow seats and enjoy our games , believers will start coming with the wins. Hail to Pitt !
Pitt is:
#91 Total Offense 364.9 ypg
#98 Passing Offense 195.5
#92 Passing Yards per Completion 11.25 ypc
#34 Team Passing Efficiency (dink & dunk)
#96 Sacks Allowed 21
#68 Rushing Offense 169.4
#13 Time of Possession 33 minutes/game
#89 1st Downs
#45 3rd Down Conversions
#29 Fewest Penalties Per Game
#21 Fewest Penalty Yards Per Game
#49 Fumbles Lost
#65 Net Punting
#69 Red Zone Offense 83.3 %
#90 Scoring Offense 26.1 ppg
#64 Turnover Margin +1
On the crazy lateral kick to end the game, if that was reversed two things were going to occur: 1) You could see the kids on the Miami bench ready to rightly explode.
2) It would have been all over ESPN that the fix was in on this one. Even though there was a block in the back on the return, allowing it to stand was the only way the conference could save face on that one.
In the ACC, only Clemson, FSU, VT and probably the two North Carolina Schools outdraw us. And LoserVille.
(probably due to all of Pitino’s hookers in the crowd)
“The entire officiating crew from Saturday’s wild Miami-Duke finish has been suspended for two conference games and the Hurricanes’ winning touchdown shouldn’t have counted, the ACC announced on Sunday.”
Does Bud Foster get his chance now ?
When you have a strong QB like that who has time, that puts too much pressure on one of our most glaring defensive weak spots our CBs. The answer is effective pressure on the QB, we have those troops to get the hurries and QB sacks required to lighten the load on our CBs. In the temple game, you saw INTS due to Temple pressure on the QB. Pitt HAS to duplicate that pressure for a chance to win against ND.
Now talking offense, the entire debate about dual QBs playing during games is now resurrected. Why? Peterman is not the issue, play calling is the 800 LB gorilla in the room. We only need one player to make this run heavy offense go, James Conner. Unlike many who feel he is never again going to show up in a Panther uniform, I expect him back against Duke and thereafter. He makes this current Chaney play calling work. We NEED Conner back, and IMO, Conner needs to pad his resume by getting back on the field after his knee surgery to prove to the NFL scouts that he is still the James Conner of 2014.
Lastly, Reed and me are finally on the same page. He is believing in this team now as I do. This team is not that far away from being really good. As always it’s all about recruiting and Pitt’s recruiting is on the verge of a few more big gets if this season doesn’t fizzle in the final 1/3 of the season.
I see Pitt finishing 8-4. Conner back in uniform and Narduzzi closing the deal on at least a couple more big recruiting targets in the process, Zack Gilbert and Damar Hamlin mostly and,,,wait for it,,,,BOOM! a flip by Miles Sanders to the Panthers.
No Koolaid intoxication from me here just the way I see it. This program is going to get better quickly. Narduzzi is the right coach to get done. AD Scott Barnes, remains to be seen what his impact will be. I’m on board with Upitt’s gripe about the field logos and how our “Front Porch” is portrayed to the world on game day, especially on nationally televised games. That would be job one if I was Pitt’s AD.
Finally, I’ve caught heat recently for calling out other posters due to their opinions. My reply is, if others can speak their mind, then I can too, get used to it. I’m through with irrational negativity that so often permeates this blog. This is a Pitt fan board. If you want to trash Pitt athletics you’ll get a more receptive audience on those penn state websites. Critical critique is fine, irrational negativity and outright trolling will get the appropriate response. BTW, there are few rational reasons to expect a Pitt win against the Domers, but Pitt always seems to play ND tuff. If Temple can play hard alll the way to the end, then so can the Panthers. They’ll need to play a perfect game and get some breaks, but they beat them in 2013 so Hail to Pitt!
I’ve been to NC and NC St for games and they don’t draw any better than us. Louisville with their by any crooked means to succeed in both basketball and football draws better but at a price that would embarrass me for Pitt to stoop to such levels to achieve a winner.
I met Pat and he could take a joke…me. You gotta give him credit for that at least.
It’s clear our offense problems stem from too much focus on time of possession!
My thoughts were similar – we didn’t win in the trenches. Didn’t even come close! Zero sacks, and hardly any hurries. Their QB had all day to survey the field. And that is asking our CBs to cover entirely too long. Sure, Pitts is bad, but in games where we’ve gotten to the QB, he’s looked pretty good.
We threw 42 times! It’s no wonder we can’t score in the red zone. You’ve got to be able to run from anywhere, in order to throw for a TD in the red zone.NC was able to pressure us with 4 a lot of the times. It’s tough to throw in a shortened field with 7 defenders back! That’s one reason TB has circus catches for TDs. He can’t get open! A good running game would open him up much more.
You touched on something early in your report – Chaney won’t let Nate throw long, “and I don’t understand why!” You are exactly right. There is a reason why we don’t go long. There’s a reason we don’t see Chad, as a change of pace, too. We don’t know why, but there is a good reason! And PN could change it, but he evidently doesn’t. But trust me, there is a reason. We’ ll probably never know.
The last 4 teams are the best we’ll face all year. Hope we use all our weapons!
If its 1st down Jaymar should be dotting the I or if you running the shotgun let him be a sidecar along with Ollie.
I’m actually 60 but don’t tell anyone. Some old very close friends of mine are having a birthday dinner with me on Friday evening up in PGH… and I invited all my old girlfriends and they said the’d show up. If they do I think we beat ND by four points.
In all honesty I was enamored by Chaney’s hire when it happened. I tried to show the opposite side of the coin with the others – the HC and the DC but I liked Pitt getting those guys, even though I copped that wait and see attitude. But when I looked back at Chaney’s work history Drew Brees’ time at Purdue was the only real bright spot I saw.
He hasn’t impressed me one bit this year and as I watched the game I, along with Dan72, wondered if Chaney is going to see 2016 in a Pitt hat. It seems like Chaney is in over his head somehow and that is strange because he has a long coaching history in college.
Dr. Tom – my point about Voytik wasn’t to play “Dual QBs” but to use him, sparingly, when we might need a different skill set in certain circumstances.
I watched these game twice, once real-time on gameday and then again yesterday afternoon to make sure what I wrote was valid before posting it. I took pains to really watch the passing game because I think Chaney is completely misusing it. Peterman is doing well IMO and his arm, while late on a couple of out passes, is getting the ball to the receivers in a quick way.
So I had a conversation with someone who knows more than I do and was led to understand that Chaney is a big offensive ‘scripting’ guy. He plans out how he thinks (wants) thing to unfold and what he’ll do in certain situations and doesn’t deviate. Therefore we have that silly side-to-side offense that he sticks with under the bridge is burnt under us and we have situations like the almost delay of game when he couldn’t get a play into the offense and wasted time at the end of the game.
Chaney also has his QBs sticking to progressions pretty firmly. The announcers mentioned it and that is happening and what that does is take that open guy downfield and he gets missed because the QB is looking at receiver #1, #2 and #3 in sequence. #3 might be the deep route but when a QB is getting the pressure he’s getting like NC brought he’s lucky to get the ball ti #1 or #2 before he gets sacked… which Peterman was five times on Thursday.
This happened with Voytik a bit last season also and if you remember he when he completed a deep throw he was usually scrambling out of the pressure and the safety’s came up in run support.
That is why I said above that Chaney, for as much as he seemed to want to make sure Peterman was the starter this year, seems like he doesn’t have any idea of Peterman’s skill strengths – which is the intermediate and deep game.
When I look at QBs rushing totals I do a separate calculation and factor in yardage lost and numbers of carries due to sacks… which leaves the yardage that the QB makes positive moves to gain such as scrambles, options and called running plays. In that sense Voytik’s numbers were very impressive last season. We know he can pick up yardage with his feet when his job is specifically to do so. That’s why I say his strength can be used sometimes and the fact that he can pull up and pass the ball is icing on the cake.
Looking at Peterman’s rushing game against NC the box score reads 12 carries for 41 yards at a 3.4 average. However, taking out the sacks and when he purposely ran the ball he was 7 carries for 87 yards (lost sack yardage) for a 12.4 ypc average – which we saw when he had those nice runs of runs of 8, 24 and 28 yards he ripped off.
Chaney doesn’t have to run him a ton of times like he did against VT but he’s not using him to his best skill sets either.
Bottom line: is that there is no rule that states you have to play only one QB every play of the game.
Real bottom line: Chaney is scared of his own shadow.
1. If you have big slow players, you play conservative ground-pounding grind it out
2. If you have small, fast players you play wide open, west-coast type of offense
3. If you have big, fast players you don’t need a strategy – you will win anyways
4. If you have small, slow players you don’t need a strategy – you will lose anyways
Our coaches stick with the strategy they are comfortable with, that they have had success with. They don’t adapt to the current players strengths. You can sort of understand.
So in a couple of years they will recruit the type of player that fits their strategy, assuming the coaches stick around for a while. If they don’t, new coaches come in and rinse and repeat.
What was most hopeful is that this team did not fold when teams in the past would have. WE are past SOP. The program is indeed headed in the right direction, top to bottom. Right on Dr. Tom. I was skeptical about the chances against ND, whom I HATE, until UPitt picked ND but then Emel added those horrrifying stats. I am so confused.
Now all I am sure of is 1) I turned 61 on Halloween – yeah I’ve heard them all but go ahead try 2)Reed was the youngest Lt. Commander in the history of the Coast Guard – hb you millenium baby 3) 29? “Blather was 30 years old today and they took away all of his toys”. HAIL TO PITT!!!!!!!
It is the new 41
I disagree with the premise that UNC is not that much better than us. Their lines outplayed ours. Their QB had more time, but still made plays under pressure. He runs better than ours, he has more experience. Their running backs are better than ours. We had the best receiver, but overall they have better receivers than us. Their linebackers played the run better than ours. Their D-backs were far better than ours.
Our special teams played better than theirs. Not enough to win a game.
How do you complete deep passes when you are running for your life?
This defense only works when they can pressure the QB. Against Good O-lines and 3 step QB’s that is very difficult.
This offense only works when we can run the ball effectively to set up the pass. When they don’t have to worry about the run, our passing game is not good enough to carry the day.
If Chaney really is scared of his own shadow, then we’s got us some problem, since obviously he casts a “huge” shadow!
Not as blatant, but the same thing we have seen all year, especially vs. UNC, whose O-line was allowed to hold on multiple occasions.
Not saying it should be like hockey where the even up calls, but we have certainly seen make-up calls in football. Refs are human and make mistakes, but they should never be the deciding factor in games. The could call holding on almost every play, too much discretion, leading to questionable outcomes.
The under use of the tight ends is also mystifying. They are big strong and have good hands. When the running game is not working why not throw to them for 5-8 yards, virtually unstoppable. We also see what Parrish does for the running game, why is he used to seldom?
It is as dumbfounding as taking Todd Thomas off the field on third downs. Why not play to your strengths?
For this defense to work Pitt has to get to the QB. The corners are left in man to man with no over the top help so if the QB has any time at all the corners are F’d. If Pitt gets their mojo back on the DL it will be a very competitive game.
Chaney has struggled but he wasn’t left with much on offense. I don’t care what any of you say. The o-line is very overrated and depth is thin. They aren’t going deep b/c the o-line can’t protect long enough. I’ve said before I hate the pro-style west coast offense because it’s so complicated and takes a long time to install. Each pro-style offense is so different you can’t just plug and play because it’s an entire new playbook and philosophy.
They generally take 3 years to really start clicking. One year implementing, year 2 finding your identity and then, finally, third year full steam ahead. Once you get to year three they are great but how often do we have OC’s longer than 3 years?
We went simple on defense. I wish we went simple on offense. Read option isn’t a trendy offense, it’s the evolution of the game.
Pitt fans wanted pro-style though so you have to live through the growing pains. Every time we switch coordinators and implement a new west coast scheme the entire process starts all over. Firing Chaney would be very bad for the program if this is the style of offense they truly want.
PN and Chaney didn’t know each other beforehand. They still have to find some chemistry too … it all takes time.
Chryst recruited very conservatively. PN and Chaney want to play aggressively but they are hamstrung by recruiting for slower paced styles on both side of the ball.
You can say this staff should adapt to what they have but this staff’s eye is on the future. They have to get their systems implemented now to do what they want down the road. Playing to this team’s strengths hurts PN’s future team’s development.
Make no mistake, they’re trying to win now but they will not sacrifice the future for a team that is not ready to take the next step and not truly PN’s team yet.
Having said all that, every game on this schedule is winnable. Let’s close this thing out.
10-2.
Simply put: We need to SCORE MORE!!!
Put it this way, this coachibg staff is better than anything PITT has had in a bunch of years. This includes Wannstedt (who I liked) and the so called offensive genius Chryst (who I don’t think much of).
Good palyers make coaches look good. The good players will come.
Dr. Tom: if JC comes back this season, does he get used like JC of 2014, or like QO of 2015? With JC back, we’ll see just how committed we are to putting the new system in this year!
Like everybody else on here, I sure would like to see the TEs used way more in the passing game – especially since we continue to NOT throw long! Also, would love to see screens and draws used.
Pitt could have gone simple on offense – this was a new staff coming in and OC Chaney could have done whatever he wanted. HCPN delegated the O to him.
I know you expect 10-2. Me too and I also expect a better offensive display. We had a productive unit last year – I don’t want to hear the excuses.
ND is the next game I expect Pitt to win.
HTP!
My grandson with 1,990 SAT’s over 3.2 GPA (very competitive high school) Two varsity sports. Good looking as heck. Hasn’t heard yet! How dare they make him wait!
PITT is harder to get into than Penn State.
Penn State is about $10M MORE per year for out of State people.
I recently read Boston College has increased their admissions to 37% of applicants. They were about 12%. At about $70M per year, parents are looking at the value of spending that kind of money.
By the way, some schools encourage a large number of applicants (knowing a huge percentage won’t get in) to appear to be even more selective. Things I’m learning about modern higher education.
H2P