Well that sucked! Sucked in so many ways. Just a terrible terrible loss:
1. I was at Heinz yesterday and typing this in my hotel room before catching a morning flight back to NY. A lof of things will be said about this game but let me just say this off the bat, we deserved to lose. Western Michigan was the better team. They dissected us over and over again and it’s not on the players it’s on the coaching staff.
2. Most good defensive coaches will take something away from an offense and force them out of their comfort zone. Pitt did neither. Narduzzi insists on countering the RPO with a base set on first and second down and force LB’s to be in passing lanes against quick slants. Yeah guess what? It didn’t work.
3. I thought I’d see adjustements in the second half. Maybe three men rushing dropping more numbers and forcing tighter windows. Nope. I thought I’d see maybe doubling one of the of the receivers? Nope. One the final 3 and 6 at the end of the game I knew exactly that it was going to be a fake handoff and slant route. Same play they ran all day. Maybe the cb can jump the route? Nope.
4. It’s a pretty heavy indictment of the coach’s systerm when Tim Lister the WM head coach said they viewed tape of the Syracuse game over 300 times and Pitt was basically running the same scheme. I mean WTF? That’s why we are going to hear this week that the player’s didn’t execute or they were flat that’s all nonsense. His scheme against this style of offense just does not work. Period.
5. Look I get the offense still can’t buy a running game but they put up 41 pts which should be enough against a MAC team. Pickett aside from the fumble and the bonehead play on the high snap where he tried to handoff instead of falling on it was spectacular. 6 TD passes is nothing to sneeze at. This offense is dynamic. Imagine if they could run a little.
6. Speaking of running, don’t tell me it’s about Vincent Davis. There are no holes. The offensive line needs to either to be carefully examined or the plays need to be reworked. I know the run sets from my seats. If I know them then the defense knows them. In fact a few times the handoff was straight into a run slanting blitz.
7. Should Narduzzi be on the hot seat. YES. It’s been 7 years and the mind numbing losses continue. I like him, I think he cares about the players, I think the team culture is good but let’s face it it’s also about production. Every year we have great victories and just head scratching defeats and he doesn’t seem to adjust. Last year it was NCS. How much longer can you give him before you cut bait?
8. Good coaches will expose your weaknesses. Right now I see two on defense. First is our secondary is just not very good. WM picked on Hallett a lot. Secondly forcing these corners to be in press coverage is a recipe for disaster. If you aren’t getting to the qb we are toast.
Yesterday our quick smallish dl was not getting there and the defense got exposed. As the game wore on they also got tired and got gashed.
9. To be fair they were given 3 short fields by the offense. The Pickett fumble on the scramble, the bad int and the botched handoff off the high snap. They stopped them on only one of the three change in possessions.
10. I get the 4th and 6 decision with plenty of time but you gifted them 3 points. the way the d wasn’t stopping them I kinda understand the rationale but huge gamble that didn’t pay off. Also if your going to do that why not onside kick after you scored the td to cut it to 3?
11. It’s difficult for the team to get any juice from the crowd. Bad crowd coming off a great win. I’m not going to argue about why. I have heard all the reasons. It’s a choice. However, it’s not like this team isn’t fun to watch especially on offense. They throw the ball all over the field. Pickett will probably break all of Pitt’s record. They have a dynamic player in Addison. But whatever.
12. Probably the worst loss in the Narduzzi era. Interesting to see where this goes from here. Not much more to say. Onto next week.
Pitt82
1. I was at Heinz yesterday and typing this in my hotel room before catching a morning flight back to NY. A lof of things will be said about this game but let me just say this off the bat, we deserved to lose. Western Michigan was the better team. They dissected us over and over again and it’s not on the players it’s on the coaching staff.
2. Most good defensive coaches will take something away from an offense and force them out of their comfort zone. Pitt did neither. Narduzzi insists on countering the RPO with a base set on first and second down and force LB’s to be in passing lanes against quick slants. Yeah guess what? It didn’t work.
3. I thought I’d see adjustements in the second half. Maybe three men rushing dropping more numbers and forcing tighter windows. Nope. I thought I’d see maybe doubling one of the of the receivers? Nope. One the final 3 and 6 at the end of the game I knew exactly that it was going to be a fake handoff and slant route. Same play they ran all day. Maybe the cb can jump the route? Nope.
4. It’s a pretty heavy indictment of the coach’s systerm when Tim Lister the WM head coach said they viewed tape of the Syracuse game over 300 times and Pitt was basically running the same scheme. I mean WTF? That’s why we are going to hear this week that the player’s didn’t execute or they were flat that’s all nonsense. His scheme against this style of offense just does not work. Period.
5. Look I get the offense still can’t buy a running game but they put up 41 pts which should be enough against a MAC team. Pickett aside from the fumble and the bonehead play on the high snap where he tried to handoff instead of falling on it was spectacular. 6 TD passes is nothing to sneeze at. This offense is dynamic. Imagine if they could run a little.
6. Speaking of running, don’t tell me it’s about Vincent Davis. There are no holes. The offensive line needs to either to be carefully examined or the plays need to be reworked. I know the run sets from my seats. If I know them then the defense knows them. In fact a few times the handoff was straight into a run slanting blitz.
7. Should Narduzzi be on the hot seat. YES. It’s been 7 years and the mind numbing losses continue. I like him, I think he cares about the players, I think the team culture is good but let’s face it it’s also about production. Every year we have great victories and just head scratching defeats and he doesn’t seem to adjust. Last year it was NCS. How much longer can you give him before you cut bait?
8. Good coaches will expose your weaknesses. Right now I see two on defense. First is our secondary is just not very good. WM picked on Hallett a lot. Secondly forcing these corners to be in press coverage is a recipe for disaster. If you aren’t getting to the qb we are toast.
Yesterday our quick smallish dl was not getting there and the defense got exposed. As the game wore on they also got tired and got gashed.
9. To be fair they were given 3 short fields by the offense. The Pickett fumble on the scramble, the bad int and the botched handoff off the high snap. They stopped them on only one of the three change in possessions.
10. I get the 4th and 6 decision with plenty of time but you gifted them 3 points. the way the d wasn’t stopping them I kinda understand the rationale but huge gamble that didn’t pay off. Also if your going to do that why not onside kick after you scored the td to cut it to 3?
11. It’s difficult for the team to get any juice from the crowd. Bad crowd coming off a great win. I’m not going to argue about why. I have heard all the reasons. It’s a choice. However, it’s not like this team isn’t fun to watch especially on offense. They throw the ball all over the field. Pickett will probably break all of Pitt’s record. They have a dynamic player in Addison. But whatever.
12. Probably the worst loss in the Narduzzi era. Interesting to see where this goes from here. Not much more to say. Onto next week.
Pitt82
