Eli Holstein in his second college start on the road showed a lot. The first half he played about as poorly as he could have. Cincinnati came out in the 3 high safety look that makes a 3-3-5 defense tough to prepare for. The extra safety either fills in the box to create a traditional 7 man front to stop the run or he becomes a floater in the secondary to take away the over the top pass. They baited Eli and he threw the pick in the redzone. He took several drives to figure out where the 3rd safety would be.
However you could tell that it changed for Eli. The last drive of the first half he leads Pitt to a huge field goal. He ends the first half 7-17 for around 100 yards but had a pretty poor half overall he missed several big plays floated a few balls in to tight windows. Wasn’t trusting his eyes and was processing slow he was flustered. Coming off the field though watch his body language it never changed. He never doubted that he was going to make plays.
At halftime Eli admitted it was on him he tells everyone it’s on him and he responds the second half he phenomenal. You can tell by watching him that the game slowed down for him. But why?

Eli has the leadership factors you look for in a QB. He is over there interacting with his teammates admitting it was on him. He is tough he stands in the pocket and takes a hit or he leaves the pocket to gain yards and is not afraid to take a hit, That matters to his teammates a QB that is a leader gets guys to follow him and buy in to him being that guy. Pitt hasn’t had that since Pickett and for Eli to do that in his second start is huge. Also Eli made the adjustments at half time with Kade Bell took the coaching and didn’t lose his belief in himself and his abilities as Mike Tomlin would say he didn’t blink he stood in there and responded that is elite QB moxie that everyone looks for.

Also Eli telling Duzz it won’t happen again is interesting Duzz wouldn’t normally share that kind of comment with the media unless he really believes it and buys in to that most times kids say won’t happen again and admit they are playing wrong however Duzz believes in Eli and shows it by not even looking to make the move when everyone basically thought it would have been time. Eli responds by leading the largest second half comeback since October 9 1971 that’s a huge statement

Hope So. Dude cant be trusted. How in the hell cant you consistently punt the ball 38/40 yards for Christ sakes….

The last drive could have started inside the 10 if the Cinci player downs the punt. We had another bad decision to not catch a punt earlier in the game. Pitt needs to seriously clean up the special teams.

I'm not a film guru in the least. But the angle on the ACC network, Cincy had every single receiver covered well. That TD is all on Mump. Great work by him just running around and losing his man and also Eli having patience to look at all his options and seeing this. Line did well on the play as well.

We have partnered with Chris for the Backshore Apparel shot of the game on his postgame podcasts. Although, I think yesterday was more a Backshore Apparel bottle of the game after watching 3 quarters. I can't believe they pulled that one out. Hail to Pitt.

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Tough as nails. You can see he is injured but just guts it out. Reminds me of Noel Devine. Love watching him compete.

We have partnered with Chris for the Backshore Apparel shot of the game on his postgame podcasts. Although, I think yesterday was more a Backshore Apparel bottle of the game after watching 3 quarters. I can't believe they pulled that one out. Hail to Pitt.

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first off, i don't know what SFU is. i just remember as a kid that they were a d3 little school. then something changed in the last couple of years. i believe they're FCS. i'm reading that they have around 2k total students. how are they FCS level? i don't get it.

anyway - they beat kent today. 23-17. 402 yards to 280. take from that what you will.

Yes; I do know:

(1) These were the first games of the season.
(2) Hard to evaluate whether comparisons of what teams did vs should have done vs opponents has any meaning.

Nevertheless, per Sagarin's computer--

(A) Pitt should have beaten Kent by 27.69 and won by 31.00
(B) Cincinnati should have beaten Towson by 31.71 and won by 18.00.
(C) Towson had a lower rating than Kent by about 1.5 points

Per Box Scores--

(C) Cincinnati gave up ~440 yds of offense to Towson vs Pitt giving up only ~220 yds to Kent
(D) Cincinnati generated ~650 yds of offense vs Towson vs Pitt's generating ~550 yds vs Kent.

All of this MIGHT "suggest" Pitt is better than Cincinnati and should win next week's game?

75 passes completed 50 for 635 yards, 6 TD's and 2 pics. That's 12.7 yards per completion. His QB rating is around 160. That's pretty darn impressive.

Doing the Utah St/ USC game on the Big Pretend network.

Reid says hi

Perhaps they’re consuming some of that dung the students were chanting about.

Me? Celebrating and winding down with my 1st (of maybe many?) Weller Special Reserve bourbon’s 🥃 here in Annapolis, thanks to our son-in-law.

And will watch a bunch of CFB games on TV until I crash late tonight.

But games like today are why I still (in spite of all the 🐴💩 going on) still love CFB. Especially Pitt games!!!!!

Thursday
7:00: ESPN2 - BYU @ SMU
9:00: FS1 - Duke @ Northwestern

Saturday
noon: ESPN2 - Pitt @ Cincinnati
noon: ACCN - Georgia Tech @ Syracuse
3:30: ESPN2 - Cal @ Auburn
3:30: ACCN - Charlotte @ North Carolina
4:30: CW - Marshall @ Virginia Tech
7:00: ESPN2 - Virginia @ Wake Forest
7:30: ABC - NC State vs Tennessee in Charlotte
8:00: ACCN - Appalachian State @ Clemson

Not televised but stream-only on ACCNX through the ESPN App

3:30 - Duquesne @ Boston College
3:30 - Jacksonville State @ Louisville
6:00 - Florida A&M @ Miami
7:00 - Cal Poly @ Stanford

- Not sure why ESPN isnt using a 4th window for ACC After Dark like the B10 ia doing with 11PM starts on BTN. ACCN should be doing 4 windows every Saturday. Noon, 3:30, 7:30, 11 (8 Pacific). Or if SMU is the late game, you do 11AM, 2:30, 6:00, 9:30 (8:30 in Dallas). Only thing I can think of is since Cal, Stanford, and SMU wont have ACCN on cable until the next contract, ESPN is doing them a solid and putting their home cupcake games on ACCNX since ANYONE can watch those with an ESPN+ subscription.

- Interesting Thursday. BYU @ SMU is an unlikely ACC/B12 battle but could be a good early season matchup. Preseason #10 in the B12 came from behind to beat preseason #17 in the ACC Stanford on Friday. We also have preseason #13 in ACC Pitt going to preseason #14 in B12 Cincinnati. Duke/NW is fascinating to me since it will be played at NW's tiny soccer stadium a few yards from Lake Michigan.

- Pretty good 1st Week for the ACC despite VT doing VT type things.

Login to view embedded media surprised no Backyard Brawl for next week.. slate must be pretty rough if they’re going to LSU and South Carolina lmao.

I suspect Bama will pull this out, but the post-Saban era has begun.

That voice...his enthusiasm...he may screw up at times, but that is my comfort zone in my Pitt mode (been a fan since 1976), A Saturday listening to Bill (takes me back...) Thank you Chilly ! Leave on your terms !!