I was lucky enough to see that total butt kicking in person yesterday. Not sure the last time I made it into town for a game. Here are some thoughts with the caveat that it's easier to observe at home than from the 200 level
- Congrats to Narduzzi and the entire team for surpassing our win total in September. Yes, it certainly took two unreal comebacks. But credit where it is due. I did not love how ANYF of our starters were playing in the 4th yesterday. Pitt jumping to 28th in the coaches poll shows you really how little the opponent means in other's eyes. It doesn't make any sense that OSU/Ole Miss/Oregon/PSU/Mizzou are in the top 11 when they haven't beaten anyone. Tennessee should be third right now.
- 4-0 for the first time since 2000...or the year before I became a Pitt fan. It's a big deal whether it should be or not.
- QB play - I came out of yesterday's game thinking two things. 1 - Holstein is just unreal. Almost 1,200 yards and 6-1 TD/INT ratio. His pass to Lee was right on the money in stride. Man does he throw an incredible deep ball. 2 - you can see that the scheme gets players open but we would not be nearly as good with Yarnell as the starter. In fact, I'm not sure we don't lose one of Cincy or WVU with him back there. Regardless, glad to see him get some run and even happier he got an ovation when he came in.
- RBs - I have a hard time believing that Carter shouldn't be the number 2 behind Davis. He looked more explosive, hit the right holes and took the correct angles when he got into the secondary. He also is a guy that seems much harder to bring down. Che looked surprisingly good in pass pro for how slight he is. I'd love to get him more involved given his speed.
- I thought the receiving corps was great yesterday. Poppy, Lee, Mump, Overman had a great catch and run. Also Haselrig - who is that?
- I didn't love giving up 238 in the air but the truth is that YSU had the ball 13 times.
- I thought the defense was mostly good yesterday although there were a few times that we seemed to only get pressure and not get the sack. Kind of shocking we didn't have a single sack against a 1-AA team on 31 pass plays. George, Biles, Louis, Lynum, Brookins, McMillon, Edwards, Scott, and Crumpley all made big plays and made their presence felt.
- Can we please get Kenny Johnson off kick returns?
- Enjoy the bye week! There are some good games next week. Ok state/ksu; Lville/ND; Geogia/Bama; Illinois/PSU.
- I'm feeling even stronger now about starting 5-0. Road games are tough but we really should take care of business in 2 weeks at UNC. If we come out of that 5-0, I can't imagine we aren't ranked. We could even sneak in during the bye week.
