Ugh, I'm still shook from this game but here are some thoughts:
- The people that come on here and say fire Narduzzi after every loss when the team is 7-2 really need to spend their time doing something else.
- I guess that will end everyone calling for Yarnell. For someone that is in his 3rd year of college football with 11 games of experience, the two interceptions were amateur hour and thrown late. Holstein missed some open guys last night. I still think if he doesn't get hurt, we pull that one out.
- I still think Bell is good. The o line (more on that shortly) really handcuffed what he could do. He can only scheme guys open, he can't complete the pass. What he can do, is STOP RUNNING THE BALL ON 3RD AND SHORT WITH AN UNDERSIZED RB AND A LINE THAT CAN'T RUN BLOCK.
- Reid did all he could on the ground last night. There just aren't any holes and all of his yards talent alone.
- The o line...holy crap how is this even possible. 6 first quarter penalties. False start on the first play of the game. Jail breaks. Holding somehow on quick throws. They seemed to have found a little better group in the second half but man what a drop off losing our 2 starters.
- The WRs were awful, including Poppy who had at least 3 drops. Seems like no one was focused.
- Defense was great again. First off all, they only gave up 21 in my mind given UVA was gifted the last FG (more on the refs too) they were great. McMillon, Lynum, Lovelace, Louis, Biles, Scott, Brookins (although he has to make that pick) were all fantastic.
- The refs are dog poop. They let the play happen on 4th and then let it happen again. I mean, GTFOH. The blocked FG was a killer. The way points slowly bled away was awful. 3 at the end as a gift for UVA after we stopped them. Have a 2 pt conversion called off with a phantom holding call. Unrelated but when you factor in the blocked FG, that is SEVEN points in a game we lost by 5. And if you don't gift them that extra 3 at the end, we are down 2 and I have all the faith in the world Sauls makes one to win it at the end and maybe Yarnell doesn't try the YOLO ball at the end. Totally stolen from us. No, we didn't play great but this was absolutely robbed from us.
- I know this sounds crazy, but I think Pitt can win next week. Clemson kind of sucks on offense against good defenses and it feels like we might have a shot if we can get the line playing closer to the second half of the game. Will largely depend on if Eli plays and fixes his accuracy issues and if we can protect because this will be the best d line we face all year.
