That felt like a big thud.
A frustrating, upsetting, watching it happen in slow motion in the second half — thud.
Pitt started the game strong. James Conner was breaking the vaunted Iowa run defense down. Bouncing right off and through the defenders as they tried to hit and arm tackle him in the first half. A run defense that had averaged allowing under 66 a game had given up 100 yards to Conner alone in just the first half.
Chad Voytik looked as sharp as he’s been. Going 12-14 for 132 yards and fulfilling his word from earlier in the week about looking for Tyler Boyd more frequently.
The offense was chewing up the clock. A nearly 2-1 time of possession (19:14-10:46). Which was good because Iowa had burned Pitt once on the deep ball for a big gain that led to a TD, and but for this kind of freakery could’ve/should’ve had another.
The worrisome aspect that the secondary was looking that bad. But, this was Iowa. A team that runs the ball primarily and has its own fans decrying their QB’s ability and the WRs to boot. Surely Kirk Ferentz would stick to the running game, even if Pitt was keeping that in check.
Yes, and no. The Iowa starting QB was injured before halftime and was replaced. I guess I’m used to seeing teams get more conservative when the back-up comes in. Maybe the players were too. Not this time. The Iowa coaches saw how the Pitt secondary could be exploited and did just that in their first possession of the second half.
After some nice running gains and a short pass gave Iowa some breathing room, C.J. Breathard threw a perfect deep pass to Diamond Powell — who had mishandled that first half deep shot — for 62 yards. Iowa kept it on the ground for the next 18 yards and the TD.
That’s the thing. In the second half, Iowa only had 98 passing yards. With the bulk of them coming on the 62-yard pass and a 10 yard pass (I’ll come back to that one). The other six pass completions accounted for 26 yards. But he was dead accurate with the throws and because Pitt was so burned on the deep ball in both halvles — and had given up three other receptions of 10 or more yards — Pitt had to respect the pass much more. It would have been worse if Reggie Mitchell hadn’t been smart enough to yank the receiver down as he fell trying to cover another deep pass in the second half where the receiver got behind the secondary.
Suddenly the running game for Iowa was working better as the safeties couldn’t creep forward and the linebackers weren’t sure where to go. Iowa’s rushing total in the first half was 48 yards. They added 87 more in the second half. They were the ones running the clock and marching down the field.
Conversely, Pitt’s offense stagnated as James Conner could not go anywhere. 100 yards in the first half and another 32 yards on the first two carries of the second half. Then only 23 more yards on 10 more carries. Iowa’s defense had gotten a lot tighter. No more arm tackles. At least one guy would take the blow from Conner but wrap up on him while the other defensive players were knocking him to the ground. The Pitt offensive line was not opening any space for the running game in the second half. Pitt had 130 rushing yards at halftime and finished with 185.
The offense could only muster 3 more points as drives stalled out. With no ground game to make second and third down more manageable, Iowa could bring even more pressure on Voytik. It was disappointing, but Iowa is a defense first team, so the offense being limited was at least partially expected. Even if exceptionally disappointing.
As much as the offense stagnated, it was the way the defense played — especially in the second half — that was frustrating for me to watch. No pressure up front. Heck, the D-line couldn’t get any penetration even on running plays. Iowa’s offensive line looked like they were getting stronger as the game continued.
There were no sacks and only one tackle for a loss by the defense. The defense as a whole looked exceptionally sluggish in the second half. Like they were the ones out on the field for most of the first half.
The secondary was as weak as feared going into the season. I know that the lack of pass rush made it that much worse for the secondary. But the mix of youth and simply being burned was glaring in the secondary.
Here was the youth. On the 10 yard pass play in the second half, it was a short pass to the receiver in space. Freshman Avonte Maddox was playing a good 7 yards off the line. At that point, the receiver made a step inside and Maddox bit — hard. The Iowa receiver ran outside and was merely pushed out of bounds after a 10 yard gain. That was pure youth.
Lafayette Pitts repeatedly just didn’t seem to have an idea of where the ball was. His lack of progress from a freshman to junior has been frustrating. When there is no depth, there aren’t a lot of options other than to hope that light goes on soon. Really soon.
This was an Iowa offense that struggled to muster 17 points versus both Ball State and Iowa State — at home. Pitt fell short of MAC and Big 12 defenses. That is never a good thing.
This hardly means the season is over. This is what happens when the team is this young. This is where a coaching staff that puts the emphasis on teaching and developing players has their chance. This is where the mantra, “growth is never a straight line progression,” bears repeating. There are going to be dips. Just as there will be moments that go noticeably higher.
The sting is mainly over a missed opportunity for something a little more.
The completely changes the dynamics at the end of the game if our last drive is in a 21-20 game rather than needing a TD with 25 seconds remaining.
Too bad, how sad, just glad to be playing Akron this week before we start into the meat of our ACC schedule.
The PG stated that we gained 21 yards on our last 14 runs. How can you totally dominate and then completely collapse? This is supposed to be the strength of our team. As much as we critique Voytik, The D-Backfield, the D-Line, this is the reason for the loss. You might say they adjusted, I say that man for man they said enough is enough and kicked our individual and collective asses.
I am still not OK with the way we lost.
We can’t accept the fact this aspect of coaching is on the players simply because they’re a young team. Boyd and Conner along with some others I’m sure arrived with right mindset. Perhaps the team needs to see more examples like the following: link to thefanbuzz.com
I do agree we are facing a weak schedule and all of our ACC opponents are winnable/lose-able. A good team finds a way to win winnable games.
I like PC, especially how he recruits, disciplines, and develops players.
My concerns are in the areas of game management – the “chess player” aspect, and motivation – keeping them fired up when they get tired. War plans do not survive the first contact with the enemy. There has to be flexibility. Maybe he doesn’t think the young players can adjust on the fly. This was Wanny’s weakness too. Lose 3 or 4 winnable games a year.
The reason it is upsetting, at least to me, is the way it happened.
Had it gone back and forth during the game, score for score, yardage for yardage, then I think you walk away saying, “eh, good game”.
Being up at halftime, and pretty much looking like it would be a small blowout, much more than a tight game if you had to bet, is where the salt comes into the wound.
I’m over it finally.
Not an exact science as open dates, and div 2 teams on schedules, but for an example……..
126 div 1 teams. That’s 63 games.
63 winners, 63 losers.
We’re not the only fans upset their team lost.
Get the team ready for Akron, you don’t want some sort of bullsh*t to go down, and really give us something to be upset about next Monday a.m..
We need a dominating performance to rebound and get some confidence back going into Virginia.
I still maintain the primary reason for the loss was coaching. I did not see players cutting their motor or giving up. I saw some horrible play calling. I am willing to give them a mulligan in the event we don’t see this stuff again.
In the Marshall game last week, Marshall had 20 penalties and Akron 10, but Marshall still won handily. At the end of the third quarter, Marshall led 41-3, at which point both teams took out their starters.
Per George Thomas at the Akron Beacon Journal, 1. Akron could not stop the run. Marshall had two backs run for over 100 yards.
2. There was no pressure on the quarterback by Akron.
3. The offense did not help the defense.
(One point to keep in consideration is that Marshall having been in the MAC, may be more familiar with Akron.)
Other points regarding the Marshall game:
Four of Akron’s first seven drives wound up in turnovers.
Akron was 2 for 15 on third and fourth downs.
The quarterback, Pohl, was 17 for 37 for 151 yards, with no passing touchdowns and two interceptions.
Quarterback Pohl said that their play execution was poor.
In a guarded sense, this bodes well, since running the ball well is Pitt’s current forte and Akron may have defensive coordination issues if they try to set up pass pressure schemes on just a week. This game may also give us some idea where our defense level is at, to compare to Marshall’s.
H2P on Saturday!
Offensively, Pitt became predictable in a sport where predictability gets crushed. It is about balance….and a skoach of trickeration. Did anyone watch the Manziel play? So playground, but so unpredictable. The Andy Dalton play? That was one where the dback should have not gone for the int, but rather, he should have laid out Dalton.
I despise predictability. There is no place for it on the field unless you know the opponent can’t stop you. Pitt should have known they would not maintain running success because the statistics on Iowa say they will stop you. Stats work both ways. Paul Chryst needs a little woody hayes in him. When asked why he went for a two point conversion after a touchdown during a game where his team was leading by 40 points against michigan, his response was “because I couldn’t go for three”. That is the correct mentality. ECU was still throwing the ball against NC with 2 minutes left in the game, when they already scored 70. Jugular…it’s all about the jugulars!
I remember a game growing up, Miami vs. Florida.
Howard Schnellenberger coaching Miami. Pretty much a rout of say, 45-10 or something like that by Miami.
It stopped Florida from going to the Orange Bowl. The Florida fans had brought oranges to the game to throw on the field after they won and received an Orange Bowl bid.
Obviously didn’t go their way, so some fans started throwing oranges at the Miami players with several minutes to go in the game. I mean lots of oranges.
Miami ends up with the ball at the Florida 10 yard line or so, up 45-10….
he calls a timeout with a couple seconds left, calls a timeout, and sends the field goal team onto the field and kicks it, 48-10!!!!
The oranges really rained down.
Class is the way to go in life certainly, but there are times, when you just have to say
“eff u”!!!
The message remains valid in any case and should be viewed by all of us who follow the Blather because as he mentioned, even when you get knocked down in defeat, it is important to simply get back up and move forward. Failure is in enevitable, how you react to it is the key to future successes.
I like this young team, I see no quit in them. Last week they were taught a lesson to never take their opponent for granted, lesson learned, hopefully, and a win obtained was obtained in the process, none the less.
This week’s lesson is that a football game lasts for 60 minutes over four quarters. Winning takes a complete 60 minute effort, finish what you started. I laughed at a previous comment that since Pitt was up by 10 at the half that we should have won the game handedly. That’s the mindset that gets you beat more times than not. Lesson learned, I hope so because this game came down to just a few key plays that the guys who made them did not take those plays off. Our young guys can learn from watching their opponent rising to the occasion and imposing their will on our guys.
Get up, learn and move on. Best of all, remember. Remember how it felt to lose this close one, because when you are on the victorious side of a close game like this, it will feel so much more rewarding.
This team will lose more games this year, I’m not concerned about that. What I’m concerned about is how they will respond to those defeats. If this team is composed of the type of kids that I think we have now, next week,results in a dominating Pitt win. If not, then we are going to have a really difficult row to hoe going forward the remainder of the season.
Therefore, unlike some here who are looking past the Akron Zips already, I’m looking forward to our next game. Respect your opponent, prepare appropriately, play hard for 60 minutes and see what results. If these lessons have been learned, then we should destroy the Zips with a dominate running game and a blitz heavy defensive effort that focuses on pressuring their QB since Akron’ s O is one demensional due to a very weak ground attack.
That’s why they play the games, NOTHING is automatic, you have to earn it, every week. Have the Panthers been paying attention? Lessons learned? We’ll know soon enough.
As always, H2P!
Going into the Game last week, saw Iowa’s Front Seven doing a GOOD job of slowing down Conner and Company. Not exactly the case in the First Half… but in the Second Half the Hawkeyes were able to keep Conner Out of the End Zone and from ripping off the kind of BIG RUNS we’ve grown accustomed to seeing.
Chad Voytik did show IMPROVEMENT as far as numbers go. However, if it wasn’t for Tyler Boyd and his ability to be counted on to be OPEN almost every play in his short to intermediate routes, those passing numbers would obviously be a lot less encouraging.
On the other hand, the REAL DIFFERENCE in the Game was Quarterback… but the one for the Other Team.
Pitt simply ran into a Young Backup who came off the bench with a HOT HAND and Pitt’s Defense proved incapable of mounting enough pressure to either dent his confidence or take him out of his rhythm.
The GOOD NEWS is that it will GET BETTER from here. Most Defenses are NOT going to have the same ability as Iowa to keep “Panther Beast Mode” out of the End Zone.
However, for Pitt to have a REALLY Successful Season… it’s going to also require having a Quarterback with the ability to operate the Chryst Offense on “all cylinders.” This means Voytik showing he can spread the ball around to more receivers, especially the Tight Ends… instead of simply dropping back and throwing it in the direction of #23.
If not… expect to see Trey Anderson get his chance to show what he can do.
So the two most highly rated QB recruits that have played for Pitt in the past ten years have had basically high school arms (Bostick and Voytik). Not D1 arms. Proof, once again, that the star system is a joke.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the kid is incredibly athletic, smart, hard working and tough but his arm is a limitation.
Iowa had the better QB. He could make the throws and made them when they needed it.
Here is hoping PC can work his magic and adjust.
Dr. Tom…the reason we could not run in the second half was that Iowa jumped into a new defense with 8/9 men in the box
And LB’s in the gaps including 2 over the Pitt center. They had more men up than we could block. Normally screens ( we did not run one) or quick passes out to the ends, loosen this up…Pitt ran 0! In addition, I believe that CV had to be tipping our pass plays because every time we passed, Iowa magically jumped into a cover 2 pass D with a blitz. It was like they were in our huddle!
In painfully re watching the 4th quarter on tape, CV’s last drive 3rd and 4th down passes both should have had interference flags thrown. It was blatant and indisputable. Now I come to find that they were a Big 10 crew! SP…who do I see about that???
I do agree with Dan72 about the quick out or slant passing calls- it was very obvious what Iowa was doing in the second half, and we just were stubborn. One thing any good offensive coach does is take what the defense gives you, if there’s one thing our young staff learns from last week, that would be my wish. Especially since Voytik played really well.
Lastly, and I’ve mentioned this before, but Bis got beat consistently. I’m not qualified to judge whether he’s improving or not, but if he’s not, it may be time to pull him or move him to another position.
I’m big on PC,I like him as our head coach but if Pitt is going to improve during the year it needs to start with our coaching staff. Our team believes in these guys – hence,it’s time for them to step up and do what they’re getting paid for during game situations – adjust and attack! LET’S GO PITT!!!!
Figured (and Posted) prior to the Game that Iowa would come out with 8 in the Box in an all out effort to STOP CONNER.
Obviously seeing Conner carry for 100 in the First Half caused Iowa to make adjustments at Halftime.
The results speak for themselves.
Notrocketscience
As you know, it never was “rocket science” to me that Voytik was NOT the Greatest Passer in the world. Now, the secret’s out and pretty much everyone is coming to that realization.
Yes, Voytik’s lack of arm strength and problems with accuracy are a problem. But his BIGGEST WEAKNESS seems to be his total inability to SEE DOWNFIELD… let alone get the Ball there.
This was something that even plagued him at times in High School… and for sure in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl where he looked to be totally overwhelmed on Passing Downs.
Don’t know if this is something even a “Quarterback Guru” like Paul Chryst can change.
He has focused a little too much on Boyd, but who wouldn’t?
Hopefully we learned that you can’t hammer Conner up the middle every time against a good team, and then expect Voytik to pick up a third and long too many times.
Fourteen carries for 21 yards was why we lost as much as Voytik not making the big play in the second half.
At the game it looked like Boyd was hit early on several occasions. UPitt says good defense, others saw it differently. I would like to see those plays in slomo, like the one above.
I am getting over my bitterness, but won’t stop critiquing the pass rush.
Bring on the Zips.
However, regarding his vision, Voytik is noticeable better from shotgun, he should be running and passing from it so its not obviously a pass play when he goes in to it. I think some of this vision problem comes from the fact that he’s looking over a line 6′ taller than him. He’s literally looking through the gaps. When you have a short QB and a massive Chyrst-style line, you have to utilize the shotgun more.
And just for the record, Voytik isn’t getting a fair shake (frequently from me). If he can go 19-29 for 250 with regularity, we are gonna win a lot more games this year.
Chas & Justine – will be away from a computer from Thursday until Sat nite – can’t do a Akron preview.
Comment by gc 09.23.14 @ 8:26 am
Don’t think it was a collapse, as we moved the ball into scoring position on the last drive. And perhaps we should have kicked the FG. Kicked and forced a punt and then try to get back into FG position.
As it’s easier to score a FG than a TD.
As far as the 21 yds on 14 carries, that might have been more of PC/JR dialing up the same play calls over and over. Eventually a well coached team is going to get wise to your plays.
Others have noted we only used like 7 plays except for the last drive of the game, when the playbook had to be opened up a tad. Hey we got a jet sweep, albeit to the wrong side of the field.
Oh well, the coaching staff is still learning I guess. meh
Comment by JohnRamella 09.23.14 @ 8:37 am
That’s a good question, if only for some much needed depth. Cause if any of these kids get hurt, you have true freshmen starting.
Let’s say we kicked it making it 24-23 and we kickoff to them.
There would have been say 1:45 on the clock. Let’s say Iowa fumbled the center exchange, the handoff, whatever. You are now NOT in the position of HAVING TO SCORE A TD TO WIN, but ONLY a FG.
And if Iowa doesn’t make a mistake and go 3 and out, they have to punt it to Boyd and who knows what happens there with him receiving it. Maybe he goes all the way or maybe 30 to 40 yards. Or if he only returns it 5-10 yards we have at about the PITT 35 or 40 and we only have to get to the Iowa 30 to 35 to have a chance of our strong legged FG kicker winning it.
Maybe the Iowa punter, under the pressure shanks the punt and we get it at the Iowa 35 or 40 or even better. And you’re already in position to kick the FG. Maybe PITT can block the punt.
What it all gets down to is, you are giving yourself a lot more opportunities to win, by kicking the FG to make it 24-23.
In the beginning of the FIU game Pitt passed and failed on multiple first downs, making 2nd and 3rd and long, which also failed. I don’t know how or why throwing on 1st down was so awful, but I was yelling at the TV to stop throwing on 1st down. Throwing on 1st down was awful at FIU.
