…And exhale.

There is a part of me that wants to say, “It’s a win. We’ll take it and move on from there.” Mainly because there is a hell of a lot unpack from that game. Much of it contradictory and not nearly as simple as anyone would like it to be.

What I do hit on today won’t be all of it. To some, I’m sure they will say that I’ve missed an issue or action that was a much bigger deal. Both positive and negative. So I will repeat, this is not exhaustive and definitive. This is just some of it.

Bullet points and then I’ll revisit some of the things.

Good stuff:

• Chawntez Moss on the ground
• Passing game opening up
• Nate Peterman throwing darts
• Jester Weah’s hands
• Quadree Henderson
• Young receivers getting their shot and making it count
• Defense in the first half
• Pitt not going ultra conservative on offense in the final four minutes
• Winning the game despite the best player in the secondary on the sideline for unknown reasons the entire game

Bad stuff:

• Second half defense
• Pass defense that isn’t
• Not serving youth on the defensive side
• Special teams

I’ll start with the positive stuff.

I’m sure there have been others who have been harder on Jester Weah than I have. But Weah took big steps this season where I was getting close to the point of not expressing shock when he held onto the ball. Last night, though, he seemed to emerge as nearly fully formed receiver. Not just the long gains and the 54-yard TD reception that iced the game. To me, the play that showed just how far he has come was on a 5-yard reception over the middle. Defender literally draped over him and Weah caught the sharply thrown pass cleanly. That’s a tough catch for most receivers. You can see he finally has confidence in himself. He had 7 receptions for 176 yards. The most receiving yards for a Pitt WR since 2004.

On the receivers, Aaron Matthews,  Maurice Ffrench and Tre Tipton are all seeing action and making plays at WR. It’s taken a 1/3 of the season, but I’m actually feeling optimistic about the WRs in the future.

The play of the WRs in that game also reflects well on QB Nate Peterman, who may have played his best game. Peterman was extremely accurate all game. 17-23 for 280 yards and 2 TDs. He was making just about every throw you could want. The only criticism might be that he still cannot take something off his throws short and over the middle.

Hand-in-hand with Peterman’s performance was the offense in the final minutes. Marshall had made its thunderous comeback and was only down 3 points when Pitt got the ball back with 4:01 remaining. The four-minute offense. Something that had harmed Pitt badly the last two games. The thing, even Coach Pat Narduzzi acknowledged had to be better. Would the offense stick to base formation and runs up the middle and short passes to the sides?

The answer was no. A run with Quadree Henderson that went outside. Admittedly done done to keep Henderson a good 5-8 yards from the sideline to avoid being forced out  of bounds. Still there was motion on the line and not a run straight up the gut. Still after a bad screen, Pitt had 3d and 5. Obvious passing situation. For the first time in such a situation, though, Pitt threw it over the middle.  9-yard catch by the almost forgotten TE Scott Orndoff. That all but iced the game.

A couple runs and Marshall had to burn their last timeout with 1:15 left. And even if Pitt ran for 0 yards on third down, after the punt Marshall would only have 30-40 seconds at best. Not perfect, but much better than what Pitt had done. Instead, Pitt went for the jugular with the throw to Weah. The offense and the coaches clearly sick of being called out for the conservative play to end games. To say nothing of finally realizing that they can’t just lean on the defense at the end.

Now for the bad stuff which again is a focus on the defense.

Marshall was going to get points. Even against Louisville with a back-up QB, they still put up 28 points. Yes, it was in garbage time of the 4th quarter when they scored 21 of the points (with a defensive TD). Still, we all knew they could score and would against Pitt.

Just the abrupt collapse in the second half by the defense was as unnerving as anything else they’ve done. Yes, Whitehead was out for the game which hurt the run defense more than expected, but the regression of Terrish Webb at the other safety spot has been painful.

Pitt’s defense seemed to show a lot of pride in the first half. Getting after Marshall up front. Shutting down the runs. Even limiting the big passing plays to some extent to pitch a first half shut out.

And then it all went back to what we saw the last 2 1/2 games. The secondary getting torched. The D-line struggling to get pressure. But there was a new element — giving up runs.

“I thought the defense played lights out in the first half,” coach Pat Narduzzi said. “I don’t know what happened in the second half. I don’t think our alignments were perfect. They made some plays, and we didn’t.”
…
In the end, Narduzzi was most upset by his defense allowing a season-high 104 yards on the ground.

“Go ahead and throw it up there,” he said, “but don’t let them get two-dimensional.

“We have to learn how to finish that third quarter. That will drive me nuts.”

Join the club. Join the club.

While we don’t know if or when Damar Hamlin will be healthy enough to see action — despite hints and rumblings that this might have been the week — there is a stark contrast to the usage of freshmen on the defensive side of the ball as opposed to the offense which is seeing youth being served.

We aren’t privy to practices and there has to be some level of trust that the coaches are putting the best players out there — even if they don’t always seem to be putting them in the best position. Yet with the struggles that are so blatant in the secondary, holding onto the redshirts of Therran Coleman, George Hill and Bricen Garner raises questions more than not giving Philipie Motley and Dane Jackson some more opportunities at cornerback.

[EDITOR NOTE: My bad on George Hill. Forgot he was one of the kids who further medical screening revealed a pre-existing cardiac condition that will prevent him from playing college football.]