SU’s coach kept his QB in a lost game and the guy took a physical and mental beating for most of his 93 plays. Why? Did he promise him he’d stay in to pad his stats with another 300 yard game?

Curious if McCord’s play drops off now based on what the sharks and the rest of the guys did to him over and over again last night. Was he hit 20 times? 25? Stupid IMO.

On the Pitt side, Eli needed plays to regain his confidence and “rhythm” (cliche but accurate) and Pitt just never had the ball.

I think it made sense to keep him in there running the offense to fight through the Cal hangover. He really didn’t play much.

I guess the details will soon come out but PN hinted that Eli got something in his eye on that last play and that he was “jumping around” later (which indicates no concussion or neck issue).

Thought on QB usage?

Pick 6!!!!

Nahki Johnson, Elliot Donald, and Derick Davis….3 of the WPIALs finest from 2020. Just shows me if we want to be in Top 25 must recruit Florida, Georgia, Jersey, and VA hard for high school kids plus the Portal.

Pitt won a 5 set thriller against #4 Louisville tonight at the Fieldhouse! I watch/follow Fisher’s team a lot and they are incredibly impressive. But admittedly, I know very little about volleyball. Any idea why in the 5th and deciding set so many of Pitt’s stars were out of the game? For much of the set Fairbanks, Vazquez-Gomez, and even Babcock were out. I didn’t even recognize a few of the players in at crunch time. Just curious. H2P! Crowd looked amazing on tv!

That line was the last before the game last night. I'm guessing it'll move, but I was surprised to see it that high. This week is no time to get cocky

Kyle McCord just threw another pick 6. That’s all.

Let’s F IN GO

8-0

NO Retreat NO Surrender!!!!!!!!!!

If you had told me Cuse would have the ball for 41 minutes hold us to 217 total yards of offense run 50 more plays than us before the game I would have thought we got our asses handed to us, the last thing I would have anticipated that it would be a stress free night of watching the Panthers:

1. Credit the defensive coaches and their game plan. It was obvious going into the game that Bates was not going to let McCord get comfortable in the pocket, that the receivers were not going to get free releases and the LB's were going jump the shorter and medium routes. Going into the game, McCord was getting a ton of hype, and rightfully so, as being an elite pocket passer with uncanny accuracy especially on third downs. By the end of the night, McCord was shell shocked in dire need of therapy.

2. Look you can have the best game planning but you need players to execute and what Bates has is some elite athletic linebackers. I'm not sure we've seen a more athletic group of LB's in 20 years. Biles and Louis are unique in that they can cover Tight ends and protect the middle of the field, they are dynamic blitzers and are great at reading runs. Special players. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Lovelace and Bass as well. Strength of this d.

3. The defense won all three levels and that bodes really well going forward. With the DL healthy, Syracuse could not move the ball on the ground at all and the also pushed the pocket and re-established the line of the scrimmage all game long, the linebackers were stupidly good, and the CB's continued their sticky coverage. Ryland Gandy continues to be Pitt's shut down corner and has the potential to play on Sundays. Every yard was contested, every play Cuse made required major effort. I just loved the way this defense played. Absolutely did not concede anything to the Orange offense.

4. It's funny I haven't been to a live game yet this year and we are 7-0. Just saying. And don't jump on me my tickets always go to my old Pitt roommates who live in Pittsburgh. Will be there for the last two home games although my being there might be a bad omen.

5. Midway through the first half I texted a buddy "Holstein isn't seeing the field well". 11 for 15 with 2 TD's isn't awful but Holstein looks a little tentative in the pocket. I'm not sure how concerned we should be with the offense. Part of it yesterday was that Syracuse had the ball so much after all the pick sixes but I don't see the OL opening running lanes and the entire offense seems to have regressed. Don't want to read too much into that after smoking Cuse 41-13 but something to watch.

6. I don't know, maybe it's me but if I'm a head coach and my QB has thrown 4 Int's in the first half and he's getting pounded in the pocket I might make a change just for the kid's psyche. Not really sure why Brown kept McCord in the game.

7. The interception by George was insane. How he saw the ball laying on the turf and have it not hit the ground is beyond me. I haven't seen SC yet but has to be top 5 plays last night.

8. There isn't a FG in the country I would trade for Ben Sauls. With all the horrific FG kicking in the country boy it's nice to have that safety blanket.

9. There is no question that Pitt is not getting respected nationally. Everywhere you look pundits are talking about SMU, Miami, Clemson. I mean Pitt controls it's destiny and yet their is a palpable lack of respect for what we are doing. I say good. Please continue. The D is getting better and better. They have elite special teams and can score. You think these players don't realize they are getting disrespected? You think Narduzzi isn't noticing? We will be underdogs against SMU and our team is taking it personally.

10. The refs were non factors in this game aside from a really bad roughing the passer call on us which negated a Cuse interception.

That's all I got today, have to get ready for my day job. 7-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! stress free Saturday of CFB viewing. Yes siree.

Pitt82

2 of us going to the game. Where to stay where the nightlife and action is?

BC is bombing L'Ville or at least they are up by a couple of TDs in the 3rd Quarter. It is confusing? At half time, the announcer talked a bit about Pitt beating Cuse.

Between plays? It sounds like music from a cheap casino. BC is annoying.

Looks like he must have gotten his bell rung pretty good to walk off like that.

1) What exactly are the TV options for this game? If they beat Duke tomorrow - and, while probable, I don't think that's a guarantee despite the pretty generous 11.5 spread - you'd be looking at 7-0 vs 7-1 with two teams ranked in the teens.

2) Will it be a packed house? My understanding is their stadium seats about 32k and they have a difficult time coming close to filling that up (Wake Forest, basically). But you would think they would show up for one between two ranked teams in their first season in the ACC.

3) What will the Pitt turnout be? Despite the fact that no one goes to home games, we turn up pretty respectably on the road. I think there could be 1,000 or so. Anybody going down?

I’ll post what I see in here.

time to do a little scouting for many of the Lair posters.

I know that many posters - as well as a few of the local beat writers - were still disappointed by our offense last night. And perhaps, for good reason, as Pitt's offense has been anything like they were the first five games of the season. But before we completely dismiss how bad the offense "appeared", look at three statistics:

TOP for each team last night, number of offensive plays ran by each team, and offensive points per TOP

Pitt: 18:48 TOP = 217 net yards, or 11.6 yards/minute of possession
Syr: 41:12 TOP = 327 new yards, or 7.9 yards/min of possession

Pitt: 44 total offensive plays = 217 net yards, or 4.9 yds/play
Syr: 93 total offensive plays = 327 net yards, or 3.5 yds/play

Pitt: 20 offensive points on 18:48 of offensive TOP = 1 pt/min
Syr: 13 offensive points on 41:12 of offensive TOP = 0.3 pt/min

My "Captain Obvious" notes:

2023 Pitt v Syr game Pitt surrendered over 300 net yds of rushing to the Orange and lost
2024 Pitt v Syr game Pitt surrendered only 6 net yards of rushing to the Orange and won

A complete team effort wins games. All three phases clicked last night

Pitt's Defense is improving each game. The LB's are super athletic, fast, strong, smart, big. Lewis, Biles, Lovelace, Bass are all great.
Brandon George has solidified the Mike. Great young man! I'm glad he stuck around.

I thought Pitt would suffer when DeShields left, boy was i wrong.

The Offense did OK but it's tough when you only have 44 snaps in a game.

Ben Sauls is great. Caleb Junko has really improved .

Finally, great crowd on a Thursday night. Pitt students are special.

He seems like a good leader.

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Defensive TDS - 2nd, 4
TFLs - 6th, 57
Sacks - 11th, 22
Interceptions - 9th, 10
Rushing defense - 10th, 93.9 ypg
Third Down defense - 28th, 32%
Scoring defense - 50th, 22 ppg
Total defense - 57th, 349.4 ypg

- Army and Navy are probably going to play each other 2 weeks in a row. December 7 in the American Athletic Conference Championship and then December 14 in the Army/Navy game. I wonder if they'd just cancel the AAC Championship and make the Army/Navy game on December 14 the championship game. Playing 2 weeks in a row seems stupid. Both teams play ND and while everyone is penciling in Boise for the G5 slot, if Army or Navy goes unbeaten.....or finish with 1 loss and Boise loses another, I think Army or Navy go to the CFP and that would be awesome.

- Oklahoma: they are finished as a program. They are the new Nebraska. Both Oklahoma and Nebraska needed the Big 12 so they can recruit Texas. Neither school has a local recruiting base. With Texas becoming an SEC state, all of a sudden, OU has more competition to recruit there and I dont see them doing any better than Texas A&M, Arkansas, Mississippi, etc. I think OU is done.

- Somebody check on Stanford. They don't seem too interested in football. Need a new coach to reinvigorate that program. There werent 5000 people at their game vs SMU.

- Speaking of SMU, maybe its just me but I've always thought the SMU uniforms remind me of some fake team from a movie or TV show. Not sure what it is but the Mustang helmet kinda looks generic and maybe its because I've probably watched almost no SMU football in my life. They've always been in a league that I had no interest in and they never played those Tue/Wed night games which are great for TV. Watched a lot of UTEP this year because they are a Wednesday special.

- So much stadium constuction going on where almost entire sides of stadiums are being ripped out and replaced: Army, Vandy, SJSU, FSU, Oregon St, Memphis, etc. Some interesting visuals.

- With the shift to putting better games on ACCN and SECN, the ESPN2 and ESPNU games now are bad. Its like an AAC, Sun Belt, and FCS fiesta. I remember back in the day if we could get ESPN2, it was a big deal. Now North Dakota State is playing South Dakota State on ESPN2 primetime.

- What would possess Arch Manning to volunteer to ride the bench for 2 years? If his life's goal was to be QB1 @ Texas, why not go play for Arkansas or someone like that for 2 years and then transfer? It never ceases to amaze me how willing guys are to sit the bench.

Pitt has won six straight Thursday night games, including five at Acrisure Stadium.

2024: Pitt 41, Syracuse 13
2023: Pitt 24, BC 16
2022: Pitt 38, WVU 31
2021: Pitt 30, UNC 23 (OT)
2020: Pitt 34, @ GT 20
2019: Pitt 34, UNC 27