After a day to reflect (and enjoy) the victory over GT, I had a few thoughts on what I saw from PItt yesterday. Here you go:
The Good:
Coaching: Really need to start with coaching as the first great thing about this game. Offensive play calling was much, much improved and the results showed. More importantly, we made great halftime adjustments to our defense that held GT to 7 points after the half. Narduzzi didn't hestitate to go for it several times on 4th down. And finally, the decision to let Blewitt kick the longest FG in Pitt history showed real confidence. Great job by the staff.
Special Teams: You have to feel great for Chris Blewitt. The kid has had some shaky moments and outright disasters, but man did he come up big yesterday. Really nice to see. Congrats to Chris. In addition, we had a pretty good day punting when we needed it. Pinned GT inside the 20 on several occasions.
QB: Peterman was simply brilliant yesterday. Hit the right receivers and made throws in tight windows that were impressive. We need to keep in mind that he's only started 6 games. He's good and getting better which bodes well for the remainder of the season.
RB's: Solid as a group. Ollison ran hard again. James and Hall also contributed. This is a nice group of RB's, although we still miss the explosiveness of Conner.
WR's: Boyd was brilliant as usual. He did it all. Enjoy him while he's here.
O-line: I thought the O-line played one of it's best games of the year. Good protection for Peterman and we opened some holes and got good push all day.
Still Needs Work:
Defense: Our first half defense was really really bad. Not only did we look lost, but we didn't tackle, didn't shed blocks, and played really poorly in the first half. Second half was much better, but some of our weaknesses were still evident.
LB's: Not a great game for the LB corp. When you're playing an option team, it's critical that the LB's really can run side line to side line to seal up running lanes. We were constantly a step slow. Thankfully, we won't see a QB like the GT guy again.
Other WR's: Again, our other WR's weren't particularly inspiring. Ford was OK. Jester Weah is a track guy trying to learn how to play football. Looks more like Roberto Duran out there. I wonder why Zeise didn't see any action (unless I missed it). We still need someone else to step up.
Overall, that was a heck of a fun game to watch and even better to win.
Cruzer
The Good:
Coaching: Really need to start with coaching as the first great thing about this game. Offensive play calling was much, much improved and the results showed. More importantly, we made great halftime adjustments to our defense that held GT to 7 points after the half. Narduzzi didn't hestitate to go for it several times on 4th down. And finally, the decision to let Blewitt kick the longest FG in Pitt history showed real confidence. Great job by the staff.
Special Teams: You have to feel great for Chris Blewitt. The kid has had some shaky moments and outright disasters, but man did he come up big yesterday. Really nice to see. Congrats to Chris. In addition, we had a pretty good day punting when we needed it. Pinned GT inside the 20 on several occasions.
QB: Peterman was simply brilliant yesterday. Hit the right receivers and made throws in tight windows that were impressive. We need to keep in mind that he's only started 6 games. He's good and getting better which bodes well for the remainder of the season.
RB's: Solid as a group. Ollison ran hard again. James and Hall also contributed. This is a nice group of RB's, although we still miss the explosiveness of Conner.
WR's: Boyd was brilliant as usual. He did it all. Enjoy him while he's here.
O-line: I thought the O-line played one of it's best games of the year. Good protection for Peterman and we opened some holes and got good push all day.
Still Needs Work:
Defense: Our first half defense was really really bad. Not only did we look lost, but we didn't tackle, didn't shed blocks, and played really poorly in the first half. Second half was much better, but some of our weaknesses were still evident.
LB's: Not a great game for the LB corp. When you're playing an option team, it's critical that the LB's really can run side line to side line to seal up running lanes. We were constantly a step slow. Thankfully, we won't see a QB like the GT guy again.
Other WR's: Again, our other WR's weren't particularly inspiring. Ford was OK. Jester Weah is a track guy trying to learn how to play football. Looks more like Roberto Duran out there. I wonder why Zeise didn't see any action (unless I missed it). We still need someone else to step up.
Overall, that was a heck of a fun game to watch and even better to win.
Cruzer
