(This is 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.)
PITT travelled down to hot and humid Miami to play the Florida International University (FIU) Golden Panthers on Saturday and, after some worry-making moments, came out with a win by the score of 42-25. PITT fans, the media and maybe even the players themselves for a bit, went into the day feeling as if this was going to be a cakewalk but it wasn’t. FIU played a pretty tough game given their lower stature in the FBS division.
POSITIVES
What first comes to mind is that our defense did a good job for the third straight game. Don’t let the 25 points FIU had fool you, one TD was a long and freaky tipped ball reception that took FIU down to our three yard line and another two points were on a safety. Other than that we kept FIU from scoring another TD for 40:40 minutes of game time when they scored with 5:49 left to play. That is some solid defense.
In what is becoming a real repetition for this Monday Morning QB series kudos have to go out to RB James Conner who again beat the hell out of a defense with his brutal running style and racked up another hundred yard game.
He finished with 177 yards on 31 carries for a 5.7 average. His 41 yard TD run in the 4th quarter gave us a comfortable points margin to make the score 35-19 then he put the icing on the cake with a later 11 yard TD run to close out the game.
Conner is currently 4th in the nation in rushing with a 181.3 ypg average. If he stays on this pace, and he might, he’ll get close to 2200 yards during the regular season – surpassing TDs seasonal record. Whatever happens week to week it will be fun to watch.
Perhaps the biggest positive of all has to be the continued dominance the Offensive Line has shown since the beginning of the season. Our run game is 4th in the national rankings with 344.3 ypg which means it isn’t only Conner who has been able to get yardage. Set his numbers aside and we still are getting 167 rushing yards from our other offensive players, especially Chad Voytik who had 114 yards on 12 carries (9.5 ypc).
Not only are they opening nice holes for the RBs to get through but their pass protection has been good also. Voytik had some pressure early on during the game from an amped up and fast FIU defense but that dissipated as the game went on. Our QBs were sacked twice, one each for Voytik and Anderson but for the most part Voytik has had time to try to set up and throw all season. However, our QBs got sacked twice against FIU but it has only happened three times in three games, a far cry from last season when we were 118th in the nation in Sacks Allowed giving up 3.31 per game.
Another positive for the OL was rsFR Alex Officer winning the starting job at Center due to a great week of practice. We all thought Gabe Roberts would remain there after Artie Rowell’s injury last week but Chryst did what good coaches do and played the guy who had the best practices in the week leading up to the match.
NEGATIVES
I think that allowing FIU to jump out to a quick 16-0 lead in the 1st quarter of the game has to be looked at here. While I don’t think we ‘came out flat’ or ‘overlooked FIU’ we did have an inferior team put a real scare into us. Granted that 16 points included nine on weird plays, with the tipped pass and a safety, but we had two excellent chances at TDs and botched both of them on fumbles by Conner. Those fumbles took place on the FIU nine yard line and the FIU six yard line and while it’s hard to criticize Conner given the way he’s played overall those fumbles hurt us.
Conner has had numerous fumbles, five I believe, already in this young season and cost us 14 early points which would have minimized that 16 point FIU lead they took. This has become a bit of a problem for Connor with the way he runs straight up and down which gives the defense an easier chance to strip the ball. The staff can ask him to change much in the way of his running style as it obviously works amazingly well but some extra ‘ball strip’ drills wouldn’t hurt.
Another negative of Saturday’s game was the continued mediocre passing from QB Chad Voytik. He was not very effective against FIU going 9/17 for 89 yards with one TD and one INT. That’s 5.2 yards per attempt and that is very poor. This has been discussed heavily in the last two weeks and will continue to be a topic of real concern as the season progresses, unless he turns things around of course.
We all know that Chryst likes to run good RBs behind massive OLs and we are doing that this season so far but right now our play calling percentages are 75% runs and 25% passes and that unbalanced offense won’t be effective against the higher quality teams we’ll be playing starting with Iowa this week and then from VA Tech onward with our ACC schedule. We’ll see stacked boxes on the opponent’s defenses and they will make Voytik try to win the game with his arm and, even though it is early in the season, his arm hasn’t been all that effective.
My final negative from Saturday, and I had to think about this to find another one, would be the shanked Free Kick by Ryan Winslow after FIU scored their Safety against us. For those unfamiliar with the free Kick it is done from your own 20 yard line and is similar to a punt as it isn’t kicked off a tee or a hold. Winslow is our punter and his free kick went only 21 yards and was out of bounds at our own 41 yard line. Not a good field position for us to have to defend and FIU scored a TD two plays later.
That has been the only blip on Winslow’s punting so far this year. He’s has, out of 12 punts, one touchback, five fair catches, four punts downed inside the 20 and a 39.8 ypp average. Which means in three games he’s has only three punt return attempts by our opponents. That is exactly the production what you want from your punting team.
That’s it – three thumbs up and three thumbs down. How did you see it?
voytik has made some really good throws – 1 to Garner against BC which was shockingly good. He has the potential. I wouldn’t count him out yet.
From what I read, the sky was falling. If seeing 16-0 did not make me anxious, readers comments sealed the deal.
Went back and looked at stats and while most comments trashed defense, statistically, we seemed to play well with < 100 yards allowed on the ground and no serious damage through the air.
After 16-0, it seemed like another dominant performance for the Panthers from that point on. You can always find something to complain about but I don't think we are any worse this Monday than we were last.
Bring on the B1G.
– If Conner is going to fight for that extra yard or two after he is being ganged, he has to learn to put both hands on the FB
I believe that this game may have taught the staff and team more lessons than the 1st 2 games.
As we got near the end of the game, I saw many FIU players having problems with cramps. And, these are the guys who are accustomed to playing in those conditions. On our side, I only saw Maddox cramping—or did I also see Voytik? I forgot now.
In any case, that has to be a result (at least in part) of the good work Ross and the trainers have done getting and keeping our guys in shape.
H2P
Anytime a team gives up an average of one sack a game the OL’s doing OK. I didn’t say they were great, well maybe I did by using ‘dominance, but I think they are playing very well.
H2P
Overall, I am very pleased
He’s leaving the pocket too early a lot of times, really most of the time. There were plays when he was leaving before the pocket even collapsed, like for no reason?
I don’t know how that improves, if it’s just more experience, more confidence, or what.. I’m fine with him scrambling, but don’t give up on the play for no reason.
I think he can become a very effective QB for us and we are seeing a part of that now with his legs. He’s only thrown one INT in three games so that is good also and he seems to have a real command presence both on the field and in the locker room so all in all I think he’s a real plus for us in some ways.
You can’t beat his running once he takes off and gets serious about getting yardage. As opposed to our last two QBs when Voytik starts moving I feel excited not filled with dread that something bad is about to happen.
When the staff totally understands Voytik’s true skill level with the pass and then game plans specifically for that – meaning short high percentage attempts – and when the game ‘slows down’ for him Voytik will settle in to be a fine QB, just different than most fans thought he’d be before he became a starter.
Connor’s first fumble was just a mental error. Either Voytik didn’t put it in a great spot or Connor took his eyes off it looking for his first cut to make. Either way, it wasn’t caused by the defense. Connor’s second fumble happened right in front of me and he was dragging defenders for extra yards and fumbled juuuuuust before his knee was down. In fact, he was pretty adamant after the play that his knee was down but the call stood.
Isn’t it nice to know that we finally have decent OL depth? It seems like our OL has been a problem for years and now it seems like it should be very good for years to come. Maybe PITT can get back to being know for their great OL like in the ’80s.
I think every good football team has a “quarter or game” from hell. This Pitt team got theirs over with Saturday….and still won.
Never forget the 76 champs Syracuse game where nothing went right but Pitt won.
It’s part of growing up as a team.
FWIW though, as of now, Saturday 78 deg, partly sunny.
How about them Eagles!?
All of a sudden Pitt’s win over BC looks more impressive, plus Pitt got mentioned a half dozen times on the BC USC game broadcast. Pitt handled Murphy, obviously USC could not.
A win for BC, a win for Pitt and a win for the ACC.
Now on to dealing with our next opponent, the Stiller’s, oops, similar uniforms, I mean the Hawkeye’s!;-)
BC did an excellent job running the ball for 452 yards. Against us they had only had 142 so maybe our D is as good as we hoped it would be. BC also held USC to 20 yards rushing while we racked up 303.
“But what was reinforced this weekend is the importance of following through. One big win is great. But that big win needs to beget another big win and another, until the ACC has got a solid group of teams that become more predictable week in and week out.”
We have Pittified the ACC!
Pitt is famous for up-and-down play. Maybe we can get completely out of character and play good, solid games after game. Championships can follow good play like that.
Then, bam, 21-0 ECU.
That’s why it’s very tough to win with the book.
link to theacc.com
Winner of the James Conner/ACC back of the week award, BC QB Tyler Murphy
It’s a funny game.
I don’t know if I would have taken USC giving the points, coming all the way across the country, but, I know I certainly wouldn’t have taken BC with the points.
AND Ivan Maisel, ESPN Reporter ranked Pitt at *16*!!!!
– VT this week, and possibly USC this week after their emotional win over Stanford last week
– two years ago after the emotional OT loss to ND, we went to UConn (on a short week as normal) and were shut out 24-0 the first half with neither the offense or defense doing anything (or the coach come to think of it when he played the clock out befor half even thoughwe were on thhe lus side of the field) We ended up losing by a TD
– last year after the Duke game which we held them off 58-55, the team was very flat vs a poor UVa team. Our only 2 scores were set up by unforced turnovers by them. We scored 14 against them, yet Ball St went to their place a week later and rang up 46 points against them
These are only a few examples of many
However, because they are hit and miss also, I have lost a few chocolate chip cookies on playing that theory too.
The ones I use that theory for, fail, and the ones I don’t use it for, cover.
Same with the West Coast travelling to the East Coast, and vice-versa theory.
Hits and misses, which leads me to say, the best way to beat the bookies, is to not play with the bookies!!
LOL
“You can beat a race, but you can’t beat the races”.
Last year we had a QB with a canon who loved the long ball and intermediate passes and thus Tyler Boyd’s stardom shined as it well should. This year CV can run and throw underneath and the run game is flourishing. He will continue to improve his game but most importantly he is a leader and a winner. He will never have a canon like TS but he has other talents that will help us win.
Through 3 games James Conner:
Carries-81
Yards-544
Average-6.7
TDs-8
Through 3 games at WooVoo Rushel Shell:
Carries-51
Yards-207
Average-4.1
TDs-2
H2P! Beat the Hawkeyes!!
They do not create a large pocket and what they do create collapses very quickly. If there has been any improvement in pass protection since last year it’s nominal at best. It only looks better because our run blocking has been so good. We still have a long, long way to go in pass protection.
Voytik struggles to make the throws but enough if he could, he’d barely have time.
Mark Schlabach, Pitt vs Auburn in the Orange Bowl
While I agree with you overall (i.e. all games) regarding CV, there were two drops in the FIU game. One by JP Holtz and one by Isaac Bennett. The one by Holtz looked like it might go awhile. Bennett’s looked like an easy ten yarder.
He did overthrow an open Boyd for what looked like a nearly certain TD.
I have noticed him at least looking to go downfield more than he did against Delaware. I think there has been some improvement.
I would also throw Blewitt in on the positives. The guy is consistently hitting well into the end zone on kick offs. That kind of work hides any KO team deficiencies.
This will be a big test for Pitt. Hope that there is a good turn out for the game. This team deserves great fan turn out on Saturday at Heinz Field.
No comment.
H2P
H2P
You’ve obviously seen a lot more of CV than I have and I will certainly defer to you. Having said that, I would offer that when I see some of the throws he’s made – the TD pass to Boyd at BC, the pass to Gardner at BC that was called back on an iffy hold call….I’m encouraged. Not for where he is, but where He might get to. Sure, the WRs made great catches, but CV got the ball there. Lets hope he builds on that.
I don’t know if you remember a couple of nice throws that Ronald Jones made during the Fraud regime. I’m waiting for an option pass with him on the throwing end. Perhaps a response to Bud Foster’s load ’em up in the box schemes.
As for pass-blocking, well (sigh) lets just hope the fruits of the run-blocking are such that we don’t find ourselves in too many 3rd and longs.
Gents,
I’m already fired up for the drive up to Pgh this weekend. Forecast looks great, Pirates game does not conflict and our guys are developing a winning mindset, led by a solid guy. Although a noon game, the 3-0 start and the opponent will hopefully get the stadium filled up.
In addition, we will have a sumptuous breakfast tailgate, replete with cosmological fluids and good friends. And I expect to be cheering a lot to the point where I am unable to sing Sweet Caroline and the of the 3rd.
Does it get any better? Perhaps….but to Reed’s point, the glass is DEFINITELY half-full.
This is the most optimistic I’ve been about the program’s potential since the week leading up to the de facto BE Championship game in 2009.
We are on the rise, guys.
@wbb, ya, always seems to be a bad feeling, that late afternoon West Coast sun, as it’s dark here, and it never turns out good for the Steelers.
@KeyBoardKev, hey good stuff. Ya, it’s early, but that’s what a blog should be for.
To have some fun with stuff like that.
I beg to differ you on the Pinstripe Bowl though.
Pitt vs. Penn St., New York City around Christmastime??
I can honestly say, I’d be there!!
I’d be there too – no question.
Any secrets of the playbook were practiced in private on the indoor field.
Another positive is the character of this team, which responded well to adversity 2 games in a row, on the road.