Not so fast....

[Parkview57]

HCPN and his impish OC need one more chance to really turn things around. I have been critical of Bell who talks a good game and alas followed through with all the signs that plague failed offensive gurus.

1. "Bells, whistles, & trinkets" on offense, plenty of pre-snap movement, with no advantage gained, resulting in pre-snap offensive penalties galore. By the time of "the losing streak" defenses moved very little pre-snap and often stuffed the play....
2. Refusal to go behind center on 3rd/4th and short......c'mon...what are you trying to prove? Good enough for the NFL but of course "We(Pitt's Offensive staff) are smarter than that"
3. Shifting to up-tempo on 3rd down.....complete disaster by the 2nd half of the season, it has not been working why continue, it would be better to look the defense over at this point...
4. The one glaring problem that is non debatable IMO, horrible first down offense, the entire playbook should be in play giving the offense the advantage on 1st down, Pitt was -3 to No Gain on first down at an alarming rate.
5. One sign of intelligence is the ability to adapt......given what they had Pitt should have tried to find ways to move the pocket in crucial situations/ slide or half roll or something, not all the time....it would be worth a try...but of course you have to know enough football to change things up a bit......

Well, if the answer is "Get better players to run our system" now is the chance, I hope Bell is a great recruiter....Holstein can't read defenses at all, I will be surprised if that changes much....

 

[ratking17]

Yeah bell wasn't exactly the guru he was made out to be. I hate not getting under center for less than a yard plays. That said, if eli was healthy the entire time, which obviously is a big if, I dont think we lose out. But I have concerns about him and won't shed a tear if he leaves this off season

 

[pittdrum]

HCPN and his impish OC need one more chance to really turn things around. I have been critical of Bell who talks a good game and alas followed through with all the signs that plague failed offensive gurus.

1. "Bells, whistles, & trinkets" on offense, plenty of pre-snap movement, with no advantage gained, resulting in pre-snap offensive penalties galore. By the time of "the losing streak" defenses moved very little pre-snap and often stuffed the play....
2. Refusal to go behind center on 3rd/4th and short......c'mon...what are you trying to prove? Good enough for the NFL but of course "We(Pitt's Offensive staff) are smarter than that"
3. Shifting to up-tempo on 3rd down.....complete disaster by the 2nd half of the season, it has not been working why continue, it would be better to look the defense over at this point...
4. The one glaring problem that is non debatable IMO, horrible first down offense, the entire playbook should be in play giving the offense the advantage on 1st down, Pitt was -3 to No Gain on first down at an alarming rate.
5. One sign of intelligence is the ability to adapt......given what they had Pitt should have tried to find ways to move the pocket in crucial situations/ slide or half roll or something, not all the time....it would be worth a try...but of course you have to know enough football to change things up a bit......

Well, if the answer is "Get better players to run our system" now is the chance, I hope Bell is a great recruiter....Holstein can't read defenses at all, I will be surprised if that changes much....

I think you make great points through your entire post and I agree with them all. I would just add the following:

In the summer all we heard about was how quickly this team would snap the ball. At some point during the Cal game and for the rest of the season the play calling and “speed” of the offense slowed dramatically. What happened?

1. Bell was in over his head and didn’t know how to respond to the adjustments opposing DCs were making,
2. The o-line was just that bad after the injuries.
3. Nate didn’t understand the offense enough to run it at pace.
4. Narduzzi made Bell pump the breaks to protect his precious defense once the offense started stalling out.

If we look at the season as a whole it is probably a combination of all 4. Your post pretty much covers Bell being in over his head and other posters have talked about the other points throughout the year.

The Cal defense messed with Bell’s head and he never recovered. That is when your first point became incredibly obvious.

Teams didn’t shift at all during the pre-snap “show”. They still played man to man coverage (Zone coverage is what doomed opposing defensea the first half of the season) but didn’t move the man with the receiver. Instead, they just manned up with whomever they had across from the receivers. They could do that because the o-line was terrible and allowed tons of pressure from just the 4 d-lineman.

Maybe Bell can talk to his dad and figure something out. He claimed he could adjust his offense to the players he had available. To your second point, though, he couldn’t even adjust for simple short yardage situations.

It is going to be a long off season.

H2P

 

[Parkview57]

2. The o-line was just that bad after the injuries.

In all fairness, this one would make the most sense. .......I still say , change some blocking schemes once in a while so the aiming point of the rush is not the same, it may give the QB some relief.

 

[pierre93]

In all fairness, this one would make the most sense. .......I still say , change some blocking schemes once in a while so the aiming point of the rush is not the same, it may give the QB some relief.

The OL needs to be quick and fast for this style of offense. They were gassed and couldn't keep up with the tempo. These are Borbely's players not the new OL coach's. I also question the strength and conditioning coach, another Youngstown native, go figure. I have never seen so many injuries in a season and many players were out on the field playing hurt. I know several more that aren't even mentioned. The battle is won in the trenches and it's ashame our QB's and rb's took such a beating. H2P

 

[pierre93]

I think you make great points through your entire post and I agree with them all. I would just add the following:

In the summer all we heard about was how quickly this team would snap the ball. At some point during the Cal game and for the rest of the season the play calling and “speed” of the offense slowed dramatically. What happened?

1. Bell was in over his head and didn’t know how to respond to the adjustments opposing DCs were making,
2. The o-line was just that bad after the injuries.
3. Nate didn’t understand the offense enough to run it at pace.
4. Narduzzi made Bell pump the breaks to protect his precious defense once the offense started stalling out.

If we look at the season as a whole it is probably a combination of all 4. Your post pretty much covers Bell being in over his head and other posters have talked about the other points throughout the year.

The Cal defense messed with Bell’s head and he never recovered. That is when your first point became incredibly obvious.

Teams didn’t shift at all during the pre-snap “show”. They still played man to man coverage (Zone coverage is what doomed opposing defensea the first half of the season) but didn’t move the man with the receiver. Instead, they just manned up with whomever they had across from the receivers. They could do that because the o-line was terrible and allowed tons of pressure from just the 4 d-lineman.

Maybe Bell can talk to his dad and figure something out. He claimed he could adjust his offense to the players he had available. To your second point, though, he couldn’t even adjust for simple short yardage situations.

It is going to be a long off season.

H2P

A very interesting off season with this NIL and transfer portal BS. H2P