Here are 20 things I'm thinking about this morning.
1. The word of the game: Survival. That may not always be a popular approach among fans, and it’s certainly not ideal to play scared, but when you’re in the situation Pitt was at Western Michigan on Saturday night, it’s not the worst strategy:
Do what you have to do to survive.
2. The key to survival in a game like Saturday’s is twofold: play shutdown defense and don’t make mistakes on offense. And not necessarily in that order. I think that Pat Narduzzi and his staff were confident that Pitt’s defense could control Western Michigan’s offense, so if the offense simply didn’t make mistakes, the Panthers would ultimately prevail.
3. And it worked. Like it or not - and it wasn’t pretty, and it felt dicey at times - it worked.
4. One of my favorite complaints since the game has been, “That offense is not going to work when you’re playing a real team.” To which I say, “Well, yeah.” Nobody intends to try for a 52/12 run/pass split once Pitt gets into ACC play. What we saw in Kalamazoo was almost exclusively a product of the situation - the personnel and the opponent.
5. Of course, that ties into the broader discussion of Frank Cignetti’s offense this season - an offense that currently leads the ACC in rushing attempts and is 12th in the conference in pass attempts. But that was after Saturday’s game: prior to WMU, in two games with Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti, the Panthers were fifth in the conference in pass attempts and third in passing yards. Slovis himself was fourth in passing yards despite playing just six quarters.
6. Because, again, this offense is about balance. Put another way, it’s about having more balance than they had in the past. But that doesn’t mean it’s run-all-the-time; through the first two games, Pitt had 77 runs and 68 passes, but 19 of those runs were from quarterbacks or kneel-downs, so it’s more like 87 passes and 58 runs. That doesn’t exactly line up with the popular criticism of Cignetti’s play-calling.
7. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just a culture shock to see an offense that actually attempts to establish the run after the last three seasons of Mark Whipple’s pass-heavy attack. When you watch an offense that throws like that, a shift to something more balanced might feel like running the Wing-T, even if the numbers don’t indicate quite as drastic a departure.
8. At WMU, they did take that run-heavy approach due to the circumstances, but that won’t be the case all season. With Slovis on the field, this offense will be more dynamic in how it attacks - and maybe some of the running success Pitt had Saturday night (and ideally will have this coming weekend) will carry over to the ACC schedule.
9. But Slovis wasn’t on the field; Nate Yarnell was. And I have to say, I had no idea what to expect. I’m not sure if anyone had any idea what to expect. I don’t even know if the coaches knew what to expect when they sent a quarterback who hasn’t played a game in three years onto the field in a road environment. Sure, Yarnell looked good in his six starts in high school: he was big and had a good arm. But how would that translate? I had no idea.
10. Turns out, it translated pretty well. When Yarnell was asked to throw, he did a solid job. Officially, he went 9-of-12 for 179 yards and one touchdown. Unofficially, he dropped back to pass 14 times; in addition to the 12 passes, he was sacked once and had one incomplete pass erased by a pass interference penalty. Out of the 12 attempts, though, only a few were scary in the way that a first-time starter is wont to be (he had a particularly rough stretch with a near-interception in the end zone and two dangerous short throws to Israel Abanikanda on three consecutive passes).
11. Yarnell wasn’t asked to throw a lot, but he showed some signs of promise when he did chuck it - even on a limited playbook. I have to say: it’s tough not to be really encouraged about the future after seeing an admittedly small sample size from Yarnell. And it’s tough not to envision continued development and improvement with increased opportunities.
12. Which brings me to this: Yarnell absolutely should start against Rhode Island this week. Without question and without regard for Slovis’ status. Even if Slovis feels ready to play, I would give him another week and have him even closer to 100% for the ACC opener against Georgia Tech in two weeks. You could maybe - maybe - convince me that Slovis could play one quarter and then turn to Yarnell, but I would go with the redshirt freshman right from the jump. I think it would be best for Yarnell and best for Slovis.
13. And I’ll go a step further: if it was up to me, anybody who is even a little dinged up should get the day off. I know we can’t overlook FCS opponents and Rhode Island is a top-15 FCS team and all of that, but the reality is, Pitt just beat an FBS team on the road with a limited roster; there’s no reason the Panthers can’t do it at home against an FCS team.
14. This is a list of the players who either didn’t travel, traveled and didn’t play or left the WMU game due to injury.
Kedon Slovis
Nick Patti
Owen Drexel
Gabe Houy
Jared Wayne
Rodney Hammond
Devin Danielson
Dayon Hayes
Habakkuk Baldonado
Deslin Alexandre
Nate Temple
Marquis Williams
That’s quite a list of guys who are starters or two-deep players. And that’s why I’m resting as many guys as need it this Saturday.
15. You know who else I would rest? Israel Abanikanda. The junior back had 133 yards and a score on 31 carries at WMU, setting a career high in rushing attempts and posting back-to-back 100-yard games for the first time in his career. He has been really good the last two weeks, but he has also seen a bigger workload over those two games than at any point his career: 56 carries, 287 yards, two rushing touchdowns, two receptions, 16 yards. That’s a lot of work, and if it’s up to me, he’s getting the week off. Let him heal up ahead of the eight-game ACC schedule.
16. That decision is easier to make, I think, given the performances of Vincent Davis and C’Bo Flemister on Saturday. Davis helped close out the game with 83 yards on 11 carries, while Flemister made his first real impact at Pitt with 28 yards on four attempts (including a huge 17-yard run on third-and-5 on the first drive of the game). Those guys plus Daniel Carter should be more than capable of carrying the load against Rhode Island.
17. One more thing on Abanikanda and Davis: in the fourth quarter, Abanikanda had nine carries for 61 yards and Davis had six attempts for 53 yards. That’s a big way to finish a game, and it’s a credit to those two backs plus the offensive line, which has deservedly taken some criticism this season but rose to the occasion and wore down Western Michigan’s defensive line.
18. 17 points made so far, and not any real talk about the defense - which seems wrong, because those guys came up big. In fact, I would contend that the MVP of the game was either Erick Hallett for his two interceptions or Marquis Williams for his pick-six. Hallett’s interceptions flew in the face of the cliche that if defensive backs could catch, they would be receivers, since both picks were high degree-of-difficulty plays. And Williams’ touchdown created a much-needed cushion in the first half that allowed Pitt to stick to its game plan on offense.
19. Two other big plays that I think bear mentioning even though they might have slid under the radar: SirVocea Dennis and Solomon DeShields both came up with huge sacks in the second half. Dennis sacked WMU quarterback Jack Salopek on the Broncos’ second drive of the third quarter; WMU had forced Pitt into a three-and-out and was driving, getting inside the 10 and facing second-and-goal from the 7 when Dennis got to Salopek for an eight-yard sack (Hallett made his second interception on the next play).
DeShields came up big two drives later. After three touchdowns, the Panthers were leading 27-13 in the fourth quarter and WMU was on its last leg; Pitt brought out the Delta defensive sub-package - which wasn’t used as much as normal on third down - for third-and-10 at the WMU 25 and DeShields got to Salopek for a sack that effectively ended any hope the Broncos had.
20. Those were the kinds of plays the defense needed to make in order for the whole plan to work, and save for a few hairy moments, it more or less went according to plan. Now I think the coaches will look to do it again this week, and I endorse the thinking: protect your starters and let them get healthy before the real games, the challenging games, begin in two weeks. There’s a whole lot for this team to accomplish, and for quite a few reasons, I think they have a chance to accomplish a whole lot of of those goals. But they have a significantly lower chance of doing so if guys like Slovis or Baldonado or Wayne are out for extended periods.
Be smart, be safe and get ready for the ACC.
1. The word of the game: Survival. That may not always be a popular approach among fans, and it’s certainly not ideal to play scared, but when you’re in the situation Pitt was at Western Michigan on Saturday night, it’s not the worst strategy:
Do what you have to do to survive.
2. The key to survival in a game like Saturday’s is twofold: play shutdown defense and don’t make mistakes on offense. And not necessarily in that order. I think that Pat Narduzzi and his staff were confident that Pitt’s defense could control Western Michigan’s offense, so if the offense simply didn’t make mistakes, the Panthers would ultimately prevail.
3. And it worked. Like it or not - and it wasn’t pretty, and it felt dicey at times - it worked.
4. One of my favorite complaints since the game has been, “That offense is not going to work when you’re playing a real team.” To which I say, “Well, yeah.” Nobody intends to try for a 52/12 run/pass split once Pitt gets into ACC play. What we saw in Kalamazoo was almost exclusively a product of the situation - the personnel and the opponent.
5. Of course, that ties into the broader discussion of Frank Cignetti’s offense this season - an offense that currently leads the ACC in rushing attempts and is 12th in the conference in pass attempts. But that was after Saturday’s game: prior to WMU, in two games with Kedon Slovis and Nick Patti, the Panthers were fifth in the conference in pass attempts and third in passing yards. Slovis himself was fourth in passing yards despite playing just six quarters.
6. Because, again, this offense is about balance. Put another way, it’s about having more balance than they had in the past. But that doesn’t mean it’s run-all-the-time; through the first two games, Pitt had 77 runs and 68 passes, but 19 of those runs were from quarterbacks or kneel-downs, so it’s more like 87 passes and 58 runs. That doesn’t exactly line up with the popular criticism of Cignetti’s play-calling.
7. Sometimes I wonder if it’s just a culture shock to see an offense that actually attempts to establish the run after the last three seasons of Mark Whipple’s pass-heavy attack. When you watch an offense that throws like that, a shift to something more balanced might feel like running the Wing-T, even if the numbers don’t indicate quite as drastic a departure.
8. At WMU, they did take that run-heavy approach due to the circumstances, but that won’t be the case all season. With Slovis on the field, this offense will be more dynamic in how it attacks - and maybe some of the running success Pitt had Saturday night (and ideally will have this coming weekend) will carry over to the ACC schedule.
9. But Slovis wasn’t on the field; Nate Yarnell was. And I have to say, I had no idea what to expect. I’m not sure if anyone had any idea what to expect. I don’t even know if the coaches knew what to expect when they sent a quarterback who hasn’t played a game in three years onto the field in a road environment. Sure, Yarnell looked good in his six starts in high school: he was big and had a good arm. But how would that translate? I had no idea.
10. Turns out, it translated pretty well. When Yarnell was asked to throw, he did a solid job. Officially, he went 9-of-12 for 179 yards and one touchdown. Unofficially, he dropped back to pass 14 times; in addition to the 12 passes, he was sacked once and had one incomplete pass erased by a pass interference penalty. Out of the 12 attempts, though, only a few were scary in the way that a first-time starter is wont to be (he had a particularly rough stretch with a near-interception in the end zone and two dangerous short throws to Israel Abanikanda on three consecutive passes).
11. Yarnell wasn’t asked to throw a lot, but he showed some signs of promise when he did chuck it - even on a limited playbook. I have to say: it’s tough not to be really encouraged about the future after seeing an admittedly small sample size from Yarnell. And it’s tough not to envision continued development and improvement with increased opportunities.
12. Which brings me to this: Yarnell absolutely should start against Rhode Island this week. Without question and without regard for Slovis’ status. Even if Slovis feels ready to play, I would give him another week and have him even closer to 100% for the ACC opener against Georgia Tech in two weeks. You could maybe - maybe - convince me that Slovis could play one quarter and then turn to Yarnell, but I would go with the redshirt freshman right from the jump. I think it would be best for Yarnell and best for Slovis.
13. And I’ll go a step further: if it was up to me, anybody who is even a little dinged up should get the day off. I know we can’t overlook FCS opponents and Rhode Island is a top-15 FCS team and all of that, but the reality is, Pitt just beat an FBS team on the road with a limited roster; there’s no reason the Panthers can’t do it at home against an FCS team.
14. This is a list of the players who either didn’t travel, traveled and didn’t play or left the WMU game due to injury.
Kedon Slovis
Nick Patti
Owen Drexel
Gabe Houy
Jared Wayne
Rodney Hammond
Devin Danielson
Dayon Hayes
Habakkuk Baldonado
Deslin Alexandre
Nate Temple
Marquis Williams
That’s quite a list of guys who are starters or two-deep players. And that’s why I’m resting as many guys as need it this Saturday.
15. You know who else I would rest? Israel Abanikanda. The junior back had 133 yards and a score on 31 carries at WMU, setting a career high in rushing attempts and posting back-to-back 100-yard games for the first time in his career. He has been really good the last two weeks, but he has also seen a bigger workload over those two games than at any point his career: 56 carries, 287 yards, two rushing touchdowns, two receptions, 16 yards. That’s a lot of work, and if it’s up to me, he’s getting the week off. Let him heal up ahead of the eight-game ACC schedule.
16. That decision is easier to make, I think, given the performances of Vincent Davis and C’Bo Flemister on Saturday. Davis helped close out the game with 83 yards on 11 carries, while Flemister made his first real impact at Pitt with 28 yards on four attempts (including a huge 17-yard run on third-and-5 on the first drive of the game). Those guys plus Daniel Carter should be more than capable of carrying the load against Rhode Island.
17. One more thing on Abanikanda and Davis: in the fourth quarter, Abanikanda had nine carries for 61 yards and Davis had six attempts for 53 yards. That’s a big way to finish a game, and it’s a credit to those two backs plus the offensive line, which has deservedly taken some criticism this season but rose to the occasion and wore down Western Michigan’s defensive line.
18. 17 points made so far, and not any real talk about the defense - which seems wrong, because those guys came up big. In fact, I would contend that the MVP of the game was either Erick Hallett for his two interceptions or Marquis Williams for his pick-six. Hallett’s interceptions flew in the face of the cliche that if defensive backs could catch, they would be receivers, since both picks were high degree-of-difficulty plays. And Williams’ touchdown created a much-needed cushion in the first half that allowed Pitt to stick to its game plan on offense.
19. Two other big plays that I think bear mentioning even though they might have slid under the radar: SirVocea Dennis and Solomon DeShields both came up with huge sacks in the second half. Dennis sacked WMU quarterback Jack Salopek on the Broncos’ second drive of the third quarter; WMU had forced Pitt into a three-and-out and was driving, getting inside the 10 and facing second-and-goal from the 7 when Dennis got to Salopek for an eight-yard sack (Hallett made his second interception on the next play).
DeShields came up big two drives later. After three touchdowns, the Panthers were leading 27-13 in the fourth quarter and WMU was on its last leg; Pitt brought out the Delta defensive sub-package - which wasn’t used as much as normal on third down - for third-and-10 at the WMU 25 and DeShields got to Salopek for a sack that effectively ended any hope the Broncos had.
20. Those were the kinds of plays the defense needed to make in order for the whole plan to work, and save for a few hairy moments, it more or less went according to plan. Now I think the coaches will look to do it again this week, and I endorse the thinking: protect your starters and let them get healthy before the real games, the challenging games, begin in two weeks. There’s a whole lot for this team to accomplish, and for quite a few reasons, I think they have a chance to accomplish a whole lot of of those goals. But they have a significantly lower chance of doing so if guys like Slovis or Baldonado or Wayne are out for extended periods.
Be smart, be safe and get ready for the ACC.
