Before I go into anything about the actual game, remember something: it’s just a game.
No matter what happens this season, it is truly an honor to be a fan of James Conner. I had a chance to talk to him after practice and a few games during my wannabe journalist time and it’ll be one of those things I talk about for the rest of my life. I’ve been choked up following his battle numerous times and his first touchdown was a special moment and vintage James Conner. His stiff arm started at the 6 and continued several yards into the end zone. It was a beautiful symbolism to see him attack a defender with such intensity.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.
I’ll start with the easy part: defense and special teams. Some quick stats
Yards allowed: 172
Points Allowed: 0
Points scored: 7
Turnovers: 2
Nova Trips to the red zone: 0
Not only did Villanova fail to score, the Wildcats offense barely even threatened to score. Villanova moved the ball at times against the defense, but unless you were expecting zero first downs, five turnovers, and a complete destruction of the suburbs of northwest Philadelphia, the defense and special teams did a phenomenal job. There were some mistakes, but nothing practice and tape sessions can’t fix.
Tyrique Jarrett was a monster in the middle, clogging up running lanes like nobody’s business. Jordan Whitehead had another quiet game full of little plays that don’t show up on the highlight reel but make a huge impact. Ejuan Price and Avonte Maddox picked up where they left off last season. The injuries to Dewayne Hendrix and Eli Zeise are concerning (both were in boots on the sidelines) so news on that will come in the next few days.
Overall, an A game from the defense. The challenge wasn’t high, but they delivered. Special teams, minus Chris Blewitt, were fine. Blewitt had an off game, but he’ll recover.
Offensively, there are some huge question marks. The biggest issue was offensive line play. This is the least expected concern given the depth and experience there. There were botched snaps, missed blocks, and next to no push in the run game. A dominant performance from the OL was expected and they did not deliver. Every miscue and short drive on offense had poor OL play to blame. An optimistic approach is the best bet here though. A unit with that much skill and experience doesn’t degrade dramatically over an offseason. Players have bad games. Units have bad games. Wait a few games more to see if the problems persist. I bet they won’t.
Nate Peterman was up and down and struggled with the deep ball primarily. He seemed to struggle early without the given “throw the ball to Boyd” decision. As time went on, he fared much better. Scott Orndoff was the beneficiary of his calmer presence and that won’t be the last good game we see from him. Peterman also showed some trust early in Quadree Henderson and it’s easy to see why. His speed is impressive as hell and it translates onto offense. We already knew he could return the ball, but he threw in a great touchdown juuuust for good measure. Weah threw in a good game that could’ve been great if Peterman hadn’t overthrown him on a deep ball.
RB struggles were a little rust, primarily from Conner, and a lot of poor blocking. Conner danced a bit much early on but he settled down in the second quarter. There just weren’t the type of holes an experienced OL with NFL caliber players on it should open against a FCS school. To reiterate, I think they had a bad game and that they’ll recover quickly.
One other note on the offense: they were incredibly simple. We did not see much of Matt Canada’s offense. I think part of the OL struggles were a very predictable offense; the Wildcats knew what was coming and could go after it. Next week, the offense can’t be predictable against a very good Penn State defense. To me, this was an OK tune up game. Ignore the first quarter and it looks a lot better.
What say yinz? Concerned, happy, or just thankful it’s over?
Agree that Conner was not consistently planting and hitting the hole. He was skipping and hopping. He needs to run like he did on the touchdown.
Conner made some very nice catches after missing an early opportunity.
Henderson looks like a very capable replacement for the Tyler Boyd of two years ago.
I thought that Winslow also did not have a good kicking game. He average was helped by some fortunate bounces.
The offensive line surely didn’t live up to what is expected. All that talent, size and experience and they still didn’t open any serious holes or give Peterman “all day” to throw.
Peterman certainly spread the ball around. The absence of Boyd helped in that regard.
Individual pluses were Henderson, the difference maker Orndorf and Weah, made us feel better about the receivers.
Defensive backs played very well with Whitehead and Webb with 6 tackles each and Webb with a great breakup and interception. Maddox with two sacks, Briggs and Lewis looked strong.
Much more of a test next week with much stronger individual talent at all positions, although their D-End and QB were pretty good today.
Great to see Conner’s stiff arm and excellent TD catch.
I think they thought they could just have their way with Villanova and Nova put up a fight, probably a better warm up because of it.
I noticed that Villanova had pretty good size and decent speed, unlike Kent State who looked a head shorter than PSU.
Should be a great week of anticipation.
Great to see Boyd on the sideline for the return of Conner.
Don’t ask me to explain 🙂
The oline will be ok, the offense was vanilla next week I believe you will see them opening up a bit more.
I felt like we should have been able to exploit what VD was giving up in order to stop the run – hope that changes for this week!
Makes it much easier to play Quarterback. Just ask Chad Voytik who learned the hard way the other night what it’s like to not have a wide-open Tyler Boyd nearly every passing play.
Obvious, no ONE Receiver on the roster is capable of replacing Boyd.
His absence will continue to be felt throughout the Season.
Especially Weah who has worked hard to overcome his struggles.
Didn’t hear anything about Chad Voytik playing. Do you have a link or can you elaborate?
I saw no screen passes, draw plays, misdirection or gadget plays on offense … I am expecting a better offensive effort next Saturday
I guess we will find out.
The other big problem is that the d-backs are making all the tackles. I don’t think that will work on Barkley.
Really had hoped that Hendrix would be a big plus. Now we have to hope Blair is up to the task. Pleased with Soto’s play though.
Looked under duress most of the night… and about 15 lbs heavier.
Hoping OC Canada has more of a variety to show the pedos. No injuries of note to the offensive side – the D lost two, but HCPN says they’ll be ok. That’s coach speak for “you’ll see them mid-season.
QO needs more touches…
HTP!
That should not be a tough problem to fix unless they are using old technology – in other words, the Rooney’s are building a parking garage to make more money instead of spending money to fix a problem.
The Rooneys treat Pitt like SP is still the AD! I’ve been to 5 other NFL stadiums and Heinz is by far the worst engineered.
We come off as a D 3 school when these things happen. Of course looking at the logo in the middle and the end zone diagonal lines, maybe we are a D 3 school… We sure played like one most of yesterday!
DID YOU KNOW?
Pitt used one freshman in the game, defensive tackle Amir Watts, according to the team’s participation chart. … Pitt’s ground game averaged only 2.5 yards per attempt. … Chris Blewitt has missed five of his past six field goal attempts, dating to the Miami game last year. … Quarterback Nathan Peterman didn’t complete a pass longer than 19 yards.
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib
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Does Pitt have a back-up kicker worth trying? None of Blewitt’s KO’s reached the end zone vs nova on Saturday and we all know about the two missed FG’s.
I know the answer regarding the QB back-up…wait until next year?
That should not be a tough problem to fix unless they are using old technology – in other words, the Rooney’s are building a parking garage to make more money instead of spending money to fix a problem.
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Erie …. Heinz field is a mess technically year in and year out.
The Rooneys treat Pitt like SP is still the AD! I’ve been to 5 other NFL stadiums and Heinz is by far the worst engineered.
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HCPN mentioned this during his press conference and he specifically blamed CoachComm headsets.. He never mentioned anything about some larger technology problems at Heinz Field..
Comment by Digdug 09.04.16
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They only time he has ever addressed any type of communication issues the team has had.. was last year on road in New England.. I’ve never heard him mention any type of communication issues at home…
I was in the bathroom at the game and Osborn said he was carted off with ice on his foot, so Richie is probably right here.
Just terrible news. Other than QB, the D Line just cannot afford injuries.
Sigh.
There are a number of places south of the stadium: Eskimo Joes, The Garage, and others.
hopefully, Pitt doesn’t get blown out.
Why does Pitt Offense resemble a train wreck every year since Wlat?
time to move to plan B, the red shirt walk on.
BTW, I love the media blackout and shutting down the pro-PSU PGH media. No access to Pitt players all week.
Jarrett looked good. I’m hoping he can bring that same sort of presence this Saturday. That will go a long toward containing Barkley. If he can manage to occupy two blockers, it limits how PSU can block the blitz.
Liked seeing pressure coming from everywhere. Briggs off that nickel blitz was nice.
Said this before, but bears repeating…Terrish Webb turned out to be a pretty good player for someone whose recruitment was rumored to be mostly a favor to Tyler Boyd.
Offense will get there. It was vanilla at best. I was a bit surprised to see Conner get as much consistent work as he did. I thought we’d see more of a rotation even in the first half.
Liked what I saw of Peterman working the football around to receivers. Orndoff, Henderson and Weah each with 4+ receptions is a good sign.
Tomlin only mentioned problem with headsets vis a vis at New England. Maybe the Rooneys will send out to Dollar Store. This is a joke of a pro stadium. The pro stadium in Charlotte is great compared to this joke. Does anyone know if the NCAA has NFL rules that if one teams headsets don’t work the other team must shut down? If not look for the little leprechauns (Rooneys) to help their favorite team – Ped State. Barnes, the Steelers ie Roooneys sued City of Pittsburgh to get them to pay for 5,000 new seats – perhaps your legal department at Pitt would like to do some work? Yeah right that would take brains and balls. HAIL TO PITT
I go back to the Spicko days too. He was so bad it was comical. Of course the whole team was comical during the Hart years.
No other site is as good.
