First, if you're looking for a post that will pass out trophies and kudos to everyone for good effort, stop reading right now.
First, on the game. What a pathetic effort. Unprepared and absolutely no fire. We got beat up on both lines of scrimmage. Our Oline played terrible. No holes to run through the entire game. Dline was only marginally better....at least they had a few sacks. Like many games, the outcome was decided on the LOS and we got flat out beat by the basement of the Big Ten. Terrible.
Moving on, our LB"s simply stunk to high heaven. We made the NW running back look like the second coming of Barry Sanders. Bowl high rushing performance and career high. How many times has our defense allowed opponents career highs this year? Sorry, but I am glad that Galambos, Bradley and Caprara are graduating. I'm sure they are great people. I'm sure they work hard. They are not playmakers. Idowu should never see the field again next year. My only consolation with the LB corp is that they simply have to be better next year because this group was terrible.
Our DB's actually were not as bad as normal (talk about damned by feint praise). Maddox made a few plays today. Lewis was not good but I've seen him play worse. Webb had to leave early so he didn't have many opportunities to take the wrong angle and whiff of tackles. Dennis Briggs is still somewhere on the field searching for his jock strap that he got faked out of on the TD run. Also, how many times did NW run that lame bubble screen and our DB's got crushed and could not get off blocks to make a play?
Moving to offense, there wasn't much to love with the exception of a few big plays by Henderson and Weah. Henderson really is fun to watch. That said, he has a serious ball security issue. Those fumbles kill us. Peterman played an OK game with the exception of the brain fart int. My god, what was he seeing? He threw a lollypop right over the middle at the goal line. Stupid. Our RB's did absolutely nothing the entire game. And of course, Blewitt pushed one to the right. Maybe Narduzzi should have kissed him before he missed.
One last comment on the game itself. No sour grapes here.... we were soundly beaten by NW, but those refs were freakin horrible. The 4th down ball spot for NW was comical. The guy never made the 34 yard line and the spot was over the 34. Then they reviewed it and it was CLEAR he didn't make the line... ruling confirmed. Then you had the BS holding call on Mitchell that gave NW a first and the non-call on the clear helmet to helmet hit on Peterman. What the hell were these refs watching?
Enough about that game. On to the season overall. I really have mixed emotions on this season. On one hand, it was OK. 8 regular season wins, competitive in almost every game, beat the #2 team on the road.... a lot of good stuff happened. But in typical Pitt fashion just when we have an opportunity to build a little momentum, finish with 9 wins, finish the season ranked, we shit the bed again. Very disappointing.
I still think Narduzzi is the right guy for the job, but he honestly needs to start showing some progress in a few key areas. First, for a defensive "genius" this was the worst defense I've seen since the 90's. You simply can't win games giving up so many points and so many yards. I thought the defense would improve at least slightly this year. We did not. We got way worse. Yes we are in need of more talent....who isn't besides Alabama, but good coaches find a way to get more out of their players then their talent level dictates. Offensively, we did just that. Defensively, we underperformed. Secondly, Narduzzi needs to pick up his recruiting game. Yes, I know that signing period is not over, but we're simply not going to win consistently with classes ranked 35-40.
Overall, an OK season with some highs and some needless lows. I just hate the thought of another off-season with the crappy taste of a bowl loss to a very average team.
Cruzer
First, on the game. What a pathetic effort. Unprepared and absolutely no fire. We got beat up on both lines of scrimmage. Our Oline played terrible. No holes to run through the entire game. Dline was only marginally better....at least they had a few sacks. Like many games, the outcome was decided on the LOS and we got flat out beat by the basement of the Big Ten. Terrible.
Moving on, our LB"s simply stunk to high heaven. We made the NW running back look like the second coming of Barry Sanders. Bowl high rushing performance and career high. How many times has our defense allowed opponents career highs this year? Sorry, but I am glad that Galambos, Bradley and Caprara are graduating. I'm sure they are great people. I'm sure they work hard. They are not playmakers. Idowu should never see the field again next year. My only consolation with the LB corp is that they simply have to be better next year because this group was terrible.
Our DB's actually were not as bad as normal (talk about damned by feint praise). Maddox made a few plays today. Lewis was not good but I've seen him play worse. Webb had to leave early so he didn't have many opportunities to take the wrong angle and whiff of tackles. Dennis Briggs is still somewhere on the field searching for his jock strap that he got faked out of on the TD run. Also, how many times did NW run that lame bubble screen and our DB's got crushed and could not get off blocks to make a play?
Moving to offense, there wasn't much to love with the exception of a few big plays by Henderson and Weah. Henderson really is fun to watch. That said, he has a serious ball security issue. Those fumbles kill us. Peterman played an OK game with the exception of the brain fart int. My god, what was he seeing? He threw a lollypop right over the middle at the goal line. Stupid. Our RB's did absolutely nothing the entire game. And of course, Blewitt pushed one to the right. Maybe Narduzzi should have kissed him before he missed.
One last comment on the game itself. No sour grapes here.... we were soundly beaten by NW, but those refs were freakin horrible. The 4th down ball spot for NW was comical. The guy never made the 34 yard line and the spot was over the 34. Then they reviewed it and it was CLEAR he didn't make the line... ruling confirmed. Then you had the BS holding call on Mitchell that gave NW a first and the non-call on the clear helmet to helmet hit on Peterman. What the hell were these refs watching?
Enough about that game. On to the season overall. I really have mixed emotions on this season. On one hand, it was OK. 8 regular season wins, competitive in almost every game, beat the #2 team on the road.... a lot of good stuff happened. But in typical Pitt fashion just when we have an opportunity to build a little momentum, finish with 9 wins, finish the season ranked, we shit the bed again. Very disappointing.
I still think Narduzzi is the right guy for the job, but he honestly needs to start showing some progress in a few key areas. First, for a defensive "genius" this was the worst defense I've seen since the 90's. You simply can't win games giving up so many points and so many yards. I thought the defense would improve at least slightly this year. We did not. We got way worse. Yes we are in need of more talent....who isn't besides Alabama, but good coaches find a way to get more out of their players then their talent level dictates. Offensively, we did just that. Defensively, we underperformed. Secondly, Narduzzi needs to pick up his recruiting game. Yes, I know that signing period is not over, but we're simply not going to win consistently with classes ranked 35-40.
Overall, an OK season with some highs and some needless lows. I just hate the thought of another off-season with the crappy taste of a bowl loss to a very average team.
Cruzer
