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Pitt-WVU game thoughts

4upmc

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Nov 13, 2017
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Wasn’t always pretty, BUT we won and that’s all that matters.

As a coach this will be a good week for PN because: 1.) we won 2.) we made a bunch of mistakes and didn’t play up to our talent level so he should have the teams attention to teach and get better.

QB play- I don’t care who the QB was going to be no one was going to play like KP did. KP hide flaws in the OL as he was able to extend plays with his feet and make every throw imaginable.

Slovis- when he has time (this can be said for many QB’s) he can make all of the throws. BUT as we saw he isn’t going to buy time with he feet or make throws under pressure like KP did. At one point you could see him looking at the pass rush and seemed rattled. With that being said he threw for over 300 yards and didn’t turn the ball over. I would like to see him get rid of the ball a little quicker.

Our top 3 WR’s all made plays. Despite Means having a few mental mistakes you can see he has the tools to make big plays. I would like to see out OC get Gavin more involved in the passing game.

Hammond came up big as he moved the chains. The kid runs bigger than his size. Izzy didn’t run well but I wouldn’t write him off as he will have his moments. He came up big with the catch and TD run. Will be a nice 2 guy rotation at RB.

Our OL has nice depth. But it’s clear KP saved their azz last year buying time with his feet. They have to do a better job. I’m not trashing the kid but I would like to see someone else at C instead of Drexel.

Our DL played poor, WVU ran it down their throats. The good news is they have the talent to turn it around.

Even though Devonshire made a huge play… a weakness of our D (at this point in time) is whatever DB is opposite Williams. WVU targeted the 3 guys who played opposite Williams all game. The thing is these guys have the physical tools but their technique is poor. Just like last year they are slow to turn their head around.

Exciting game and very happy to beat WVU!
 
what was the name of that WVU WR that let the ball go through his hands for a pick 6 ?
that was my mvp .

The refs tried hard to screw us 2.
 
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what was the name of that WVU WR that let the ball go through his hands for a pick 6 ?
that was my mvp .

The refs tried hard to screw us 2.
Yes that was a nice break with the WVU WR letting it go through his hands.

I thought the refs were fine.
 
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tell me your thought on that penalty in the endzone for taunting ? we gave wv field position all night .

another great game by Wayne.
 
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I agree with you it shouldn’t have been taunting.

Wayne is Mr. Reliable. I hope our OC starts to use Gavin more as he caught everything thrown his way last year
 
A very exciting game and happy to get the win.

We need to work on our punt blocking scheme and the punter needs to get the ball off more quickly.
 
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Refs were in state of confusion too often. Basically, typical for Pitt home games.
 
I thought the team looked solid all around.

Slovis isn’t special QB, and many of the flaws he had at USC are still there. But he isn’t a bad QB either, and he can thread it into some tight windows in the intermediate game.

We’re probably looking at a ton of 50-50 games this year based on what I saw last night. 50-50 games are largely turnover luck driven. Last night we got the TO luck. We’ll see how lady fortune goes the rest of the year.
 
Wasn’t always pretty, BUT we won and that’s all that matters.

As a coach this will be a good week for PN because: 1.) we won 2.) we made a bunch of mistakes and didn’t play up to our talent level so he should have the teams attention to teach and get better.

QB play- I don’t care who the QB was going to be no one was going to play like KP did. KP hide flaws in the OL as he was able to extend plays with his feet and make every throw imaginable.

Slovis- when he has time (this can be said for many QB’s) he can make all of the throws. BUT as we saw he isn’t going to buy time with he feet or make throws under pressure like KP did. At one point you could see him looking at the pass rush and seemed rattled. With that being said he threw for over 300 yards and didn’t turn the ball over. I would like to see him get rid of the ball a little quicker.

Our top 3 WR’s all made plays. Despite Means having a few mental mistakes you can see he has the tools to make big plays. I would like to see out OC get Gavin more involved in the passing game.

Hammond came up big as he moved the chains. The kid runs bigger than his size. Izzy didn’t run well but I wouldn’t write him off as he will have his moments. He came up big with the catch and TD run. Will be a nice 2 guy rotation at RB.

Our OL has nice depth. But it’s clear KP saved their azz last year buying time with his feet. They have to do a better job. I’m not trashing the kid but I would like to see someone else at C instead of Drexel.

Our DL played poor, WVU ran it down their throats. The good news is they have the talent to turn it around.

Even though Devonshire made a huge play… a weakness of our D (at this point in time) is whatever DB is opposite Williams. WVU targeted the 3 guys who played opposite Williams all game. The thing is these guys have the physical tools but their technique is poor. Just like last year they are slow to turn their head around.

Exciting game and very happy to beat WVU!
I thought the cornerbacks were good. Daniels ends the night with a pretty terrible passing rating, only 214 yards on 40 attempts. I know the fade routes which scored kind of make them look bad, but Devonshire and Battle made plays. Those numbers for Daniel’s tell you we are breaking passes up and making tackles. And Daniels probably has 45 yards on just total lucky heaves.

Kind of a tough matchup for Woods, but this looks to me, along with the safeties, like the best defensive backfield we’ve had here in a while.
 
The game could have gone the other way if the refs called the game a little tighter. I think some weeks we come have seen half a dozen pass interference calls on pitt that weren’t called last night.
 
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Hopefully the WVU OL and DL are really good because if they're not we're in a world of hurt.

We wasted a ton of plays on offense running for 2 yards. That isn't going to cut in college football in 2022. Hell, WVU treated the run game as an afterthought they they averaged 4 more YPC than us. I thought both our offensive scheme and execution were trash. OL couldn't open holes, WR couldn't separate in man, QB took a ton of sacks holding on to the ball too long. Huge downgrade from last year. Don't mean to be a negative nancy but this offense is going to lose us games this year.

Defense played really poorly at times. Way too many explosive runs for the way we sell out to stop the run. And WVU WR #0 did whatever he wanted. We still can't cover any WR with size (e.g., the UVA game) and Narduzzi leaves our CBs on an island against guys that are 2-3" and 20lbs heavier than them. It is what it is at this point. Hopefully Desi is ok because we need him.

Glad we won. It was a sloppy mess. Hopefully that's reflective of week 1 and not a broader problem with scheme on offense, but I expect that we are really going to miss KP chucking it all over the yard.
 
I came away thinking we beat a good team in a sloppy game. I think #0 for them was legit. Our DB's looked very solid to possibly very good. I would even give our safeties an A.

WVU's OL is better than I thought but no excuses for how bad our DL was. Danielson and Hayes looked solid and Morgan seemed to have played well. The rest were sub par to downright bad. The good news here is that all these kids have looked consistently good to very good in the past.

On the OL, I'm hoping Stills is an All-America player and he may well be. He was far and away the best talent in the game. We did OK against the rest. If you take away the sack yards our running game was actually pretty good. At least 2 of the 5 sacks were Slovis' fault.

Slovis looked nervous. He had trouble getting the team in and out of the huddle and his use of the pocket presence was bad. I think that if he shores those 2 areas up and I think its fair to be confident he will, our passing game (and O overall) should be great. He has every bit the arm Pickett had but with better receivers.

If we don't have a stupid taunting penalty, really bad blocked punt and an inexplicable fumble, we win that game by multiple TD's against a good team.

When you add the atmosphere, this game was a clear positive step forward for the program.
 
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I thought the team looked solid all around.

Slovis isn’t special QB, and many of the flaws he had at USC are still there. But he isn’t a bad QB either, and he can thread it into some tight windows in the intermediate game.

We’re probably looking at a ton of 50-50 games this year based on what I saw last night. 50-50 games are largely turnover luck driven. Last night we got the TO luck. We’ll see how lady fortune goes the rest of the year.
Agree slovis is fine when given enough time but he is pretty slow with his progressions and he didn't handle pressure well at all. I don't think we had a single positive play when he got pressure and a good QB sometimes has to stare down the barrel of the gun and make a throw. He is athletic enough it's just he doesn't move well in the pocket. Maybe it's rust maybe he just doesn't have IT who knows but he was about what I expected.
Also agree with the 50/50 games unless wvu is much better than expected I see them as a 7-5 or 8-4 team.
 
I thought the cornerbacks were good. Daniels ends the night with a pretty terrible passing rating, only 214 yards on 40 attempts. I know the fade routes which scored kind of make them look bad, but Devonshire and Battle made plays. Those numbers for Daniel’s tell you we are breaking passes up and making tackles. And Daniels probably has 45 yards on just total lucky heaves.

Kind of a tough matchup for Woods, but this looks to me, along with the safeties, like the best defensive backfield we’ve had here in a while.
I agree the dbs weren't as bad as it seemed at times biggest disappointment on the night was the run d.
 
Hopefully the WVU OL and DL are really good because if they're not we're in a world of hurt.

We wasted a ton of plays on offense running for 2 yards. That isn't going to cut in college football in 2022. Hell, WVU treated the run game as an afterthought they they averaged 4 more YPC than us. I thought both our offensive scheme and execution were trash. OL couldn't open holes, WR couldn't separate in man, QB took a ton of sacks holding on to the ball too long. Huge downgrade from last year. Don't mean to be a negative nancy but this offense is going to lose us games this year.

Defense played really poorly at times. Way too many explosive runs for the way we sell out to stop the run. And WVU WR #0 did whatever he wanted. We still can't cover any WR with size (e.g., the UVA game) and Narduzzi leaves our CBs on an island against guys that are 2-3" and 20lbs heavier than them. It is what it is at this point. Hopefully Desi is ok because we need him.

Glad we won. It was a sloppy mess. Hopefully that's reflective of week 1 and not a broader problem with scheme on offense, but I expect that we are really going to miss KP chucking it all over the yard.
The olbs were not good in this game. I do think stills is a stud. I also think wvu pretty much sold out to stop the run. That's why we were able to take some short passes and turn them into long gains wvu. We will know more after next week.
 
I think we're set up to throw for a lot of yards this year. Slovis is experienced and accurate. I dont think he gets rattled though he does take too many sacks. He's chill. The receivers are good and can get YAC. The offensive line is better at pass blocking than run blocking (not a surprise, we saw that last year.) I liked what Cignetti got out of Bill Stull (less talented than Slovis) but he also had Dion Lewis and Ray Graham. If Narduzzi and Cignetti spend more games running for 2 yards a carry and getting into third and long, that would be stubborn and bad. Our best run play is outside zone and I'm not saying we should drop it though. Hopefully we have a solid two back rotation now.

On defense, our line didn't look like "maybe the best in the country." More of our pressure came from the blitz than we'd prefer. The secondary will get picked on based on height and scheme but they only gave up 5.5 yards per pass...could be a stronger group than I assumed.
 
Disagree. He wasn't involved in rhe play. He went out of his way to stand over him and bark. Dumb play.

He barked at him but kept moving. He didn't really stand there. I felt it was borderline but he's got to be smarter there.

Messy game but I also think WVU has a pretty good team that might make some noise in their conference. Not so sure about their coach though. Not going for it on 4th and 1 was a gift.

Slovis is certainly an accurate passer when he has the time. Has to be quicker to get rid of the ball though.

Also wondering why we couldn't figure out they were going to Ford Wheaton on every play. Seemed like there was nothing we could do to stop him. And yet he ends up costing them the game.
 
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Oh one more thought -- not sold on the full back experiment. Need to rewatch on TV but that's my initial take...this line isn't a bunch of man blocking maulers to run 46 power with Hynoski smashing the end man. I think throw it a bit more and when you want to commit to the run, stick to draws, outside zone, and an occasional change of pace RPO
 
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Agree slovis is fine when given enough time but he is pretty slow with his progressions and he didn't handle pressure well at all. I don't think we had a single positive play when he got pressure and a good QB sometimes has to stare down the barrel of the gun and make a throw. He is athletic enough it's just he doesn't move well in the pocket. Maybe it's rust maybe he just doesn't have IT who knows but he was about what I expected.
Also agree with the 50/50 games unless wvu is much better than expected I see them as a 7-5 or 8-4 team.
I also think that not playing at game speed in a long long time has to hurt.
He’s about to get an SEC level of speed this week so I sure hope he is back in the game speed saddle
 
I thought the team looked solid all around.

Slovis isn’t special QB, and many of the flaws he had at USC are still there. But he isn’t a bad QB either, and he can thread it into some tight windows in the intermediate game.

We’re probably looking at a ton of 50-50 games this year based on what I saw last night. 50-50 games are largely turnover luck driven. Last night we got the TO luck. We’ll see how lady fortune goes the rest of the year.
Huge to get the win in this game. The team played poorly nearly to a man, outside of maybe Hammond and John Morgan. Really sloppy game, lots of MAs, unforced errors and just stupid penalties and mistakes. No sugar coating that and it was all Narduzzi talked about post-game, other than EPN disrespecting Pitt fans. Bad as both teams played, it was a super entertaining game and probably the best looking game and stadium environment I’ve seen in a televised Pitt home game. The crowd showed up and that very much looked the part of a big time college football game environment.

The good news it was the first game, and it was against a similarly matched P5 opponent as opposed to a cupcake. The mistakes a team makes in its first game against 40 point win over Albany aren’t as apparent to the naked eye as what we saw last night. We didn’t get a tune up this year so hopefully some of the glitches that were exposed will be corrected by next week.

But make no mistake about it, unless those O and D lines, LBs other than Dennis and DBs get their $hit together real quick, Tennessee is gonna roll us, and this season will not go as we all hoped it would.
 
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Oh one more thought -- not sold on the full back experiment. Need to rewatch on TV but that's my initial take...this line isn't a bunch of man blocking maulers to run 46 power with Hynoski smashing the end man. I think throw it a bit more and when you want to commit to the run, stick to draws, outside zone, and an occasional change of pace RPO
Honestly Cig lost me when I saw the fullback take the field on the first Pitt play. And if this is what our upgrade to the run game was supposed to look like, we’re in trouble. When you bunch it up with a fullback and still struggle to get 3 yards, that’s not good.

How is Bartholomew not targeted one single time until the 4th quarter? Never once did we try to stretch the field with him.

Very disappointed in what I saw from both the O and D lines, and the OC last night.
 
Honestly Cig lost me when I saw the fullback take the field on the first Pitt play. And if this is what our upgrade to the run game was supposed to look like, we’re in trouble. When you bunch it up with a fullback and still struggle to get 3 yards, that’s not good.

How is Bartholomew not targeted one single time until the 4th quarter? Never once did we try to stretch the field with him.

Very disappointed in what I saw from both the O and D lines, and the OC last night.


It was a very weird game to get a good feel on the offense going forward. It wasn't pretty and they never really seemed to find a rhythm. Yet at the end of the day, they put up over 300 passing yds & 31 points against what might be one of the better defenses on the schedule. Go figure.
 
But make no mistake about it, unless those O and D lines, LBs other than Dennis and DBs get their $hit together real quick, Tennessee is gonna roll us, and this season will not go as we all hoped it would.

DL I was surprised about. I didn’t think WVU would have so much success running. Good thing Brown couldn’t figure out which one was the stud RB.

OL I didn’t see what was sloppy or what we’re expecting them to get together? They couldn’t line up in I-Formation and run block. But is anybody shocked by that? They were a bad run blocking team last year too.
The running game issues last night weren’t mental mistakes that one can expect to be fixed. Just a group that isn’t good at something, being asked to be reallyyyyy good at it.
 
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Would love to know the TV ratings for the game last night. Alot of talk from general college football fans coming away impressed with the Brawl.
 
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WVU was a bit better than I thought they'd be and Pitt was a bit worse.

Slovis had some good throws and proved he can move the ball through the air. Other times his pocket presence was poor. The line played better than it looked in protection as Slovis did not handle pressure particularly well. The run blocking was underwhelming as was the insistence to run on first down. Putting yourself consistently in long yardage situations is just poor coaching. Pitt will have to do a better job throwing on early downs next week.

The defense had up and down moments. I was disappointed they did not generate more pressure, but they made the big play of the game. Special teams made the biggest gaffe with the punt block and that didn't need to happen.

I think I may be most excited about the offensive weapons. The wide receivers flashed some very good potential and Pitt has a good tight end they ignored all night. Add in Hammond and this offense can be something. I still think they need to be pass first with elements of running to supplement the passing game.
 
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Would love to know the TV ratings for the game last night. Alot of talk from general college football fans coming away impressed with the Brawl.
It looked great on TV, it was hugely entertaining despite the sloppy play from both teams, and a number of my buddies here in Michigan all commented on how good the atmosphere and vibe looked, and how good Pitt’s unis looked. It’s a strong reminder of why true rivalries are so important and so much more enjoyable for the fans and teams.

Heinz, and for that matter a Pitt game, has never looked better on TV. The colors were great and the Pitt unis were stellar. Q
 
DL I was surprised about. I didn’t think WVU would have so much success running. Good thing Brown couldn’t figure out which one was the stud RB.

OL I didn’t see what was sloppy or what we’re expecting them to get together? They couldn’t line up in I-Formation and run block. But is anybody shocked by that? They were a bad run blocking team last year too.
The running game issues last night weren’t mental mistakes that one can expect to be fixed. Just a group that isn’t good at something, being asked to be reallyyyyy good at it.
Agree the ol is being asked to be really good with something they are just ok at. I do think wvu was selling out to stop the run which explains why they were able to get so many yac. Also we were open most of the night but I am not sure wvu has a decent secondary, it's probably their weakest link
 
Agree the ol is being asked to be really good with something they are just ok at. I do think wvu was selling out to stop the run which explains why they were able to get so many yac. Also we were open most of the night but I am not sure wvu has a decent secondary, it's probably their weakest link

I don’t think WVU was “selling out” per se.

When you offensively stack the box, you naturally bring the defense into the box as well.

That’s why teams spread you out now and force you to make a decision as to whether you want to put the numbers in the box or on the outside.
 
How is Bartholomew not targeted one single time until the 4th quarter? Never once did we try to stretch the field with him.


And the worst part of that is that sitting higher up like we do you get a really good look (if you want) at what is going on downfield. And there were several times when Bartholomew was wide open in the deep middle of the field, and we didn't even look his way.

Hopefully that is something that they can look at on tape this week and look for more often (of course even once would be more often) on the field next week.
 
Wasn’t always pretty, BUT we won and that’s all that matters.

As a coach this will be a good week for PN because: 1.) we won 2.) we made a bunch of mistakes and didn’t play up to our talent level so he should have the teams attention to teach and get better.

QB play- I don’t care who the QB was going to be no one was going to play like KP did. KP hide flaws in the OL as he was able to extend plays with his feet and make every throw imaginable.

Slovis- when he has time (this can be said for many QB’s) he can make all of the throws. BUT as we saw he isn’t going to buy time with he feet or make throws under pressure like KP did. At one point you could see him looking at the pass rush and seemed rattled. With that being said he threw for over 300 yards and didn’t turn the ball over. I would like to see him get rid of the ball a little quicker.

Our top 3 WR’s all made plays. Despite Means having a few mental mistakes you can see he has the tools to make big plays. I would like to see out OC get Gavin more involved in the passing game.

Hammond came up big as he moved the chains. The kid runs bigger than his size. Izzy didn’t run well but I wouldn’t write him off as he will have his moments. He came up big with the catch and TD run. Will be a nice 2 guy rotation at RB.

Our OL has nice depth. But it’s clear KP saved their azz last year buying time with his feet. They have to do a better job. I’m not trashing the kid but I would like to see someone else at C instead of Drexel.

Our DL played poor, WVU ran it down their throats. The good news is they have the talent to turn it around.

Even though Devonshire made a huge play… a weakness of our D (at this point in time) is whatever DB is opposite Williams. WVU targeted the 3 guys who played opposite Williams all game. The thing is these guys have the physical tools but their technique is poor. Just like last year they are slow to turn their head around.

Exciting game and very happy to beat WVU!
Agree with your comments. Particularly on the O line and wrt Drexel. He got pushed around quite a bit on the plays I watched him specifically. Also, our DB's aren't slow to turn their heads, they just don't turn their heads at all on many plays. Very frustrating because on several TD throws they had reasonably good coverage but never looked for the ball. You're going to get abused if you're not looking for the ball, particularly on fade routes. Also leaves you vulnerable to many PI calls (which we've seen). Found an interesting article on why DB's fail to find the ball.


Enjoy.

Cruzer
 
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Agree with your comments. Particularly on the O line and wrt Drexel. He got pushed around quite a bit on the plays I watched him specifically. Also, our DB's aren't slow to turn their heads, they just don't turn their heads at all on many plays. Very frustrating because on several TD throws they had reasonably good coverage but never looked for the ball. You're going to get abused if you're not looking for the ball, particularly on fade routes. Also leaves you vulnerable to many PI calls (which we've seen). Found an interesting article on why DB's fail to find the ball.


Enjoy.

Cruzer


Pitt does not teach their defensive backs to look back for the ball. They want the DBs running "in phase" with the receivers, and they think that they can't do that if they are looking back for the ball. They think that college quarterbacks don't throw the ball well enough to complete passes to guys when a db is running with the receiver stride for stride.
 
Our offense telegraphs what they are going to do. We had some chances to hit big play action shots but Slovis didn't seem comfortable there. He might not have much experience playing under center. Overall, I think our schedule is soft enough for us to win 8 games even if we aren't that good, but I'm concerned about next week.
 
Pitt does not teach their defensive backs to look back for the ball. They want the DBs running "in phase" with the receivers, and they think that they can't do that if they are looking back for the ball. They think that college quarterbacks don't throw the ball well enough to complete passes to guys when a db is running with the receiver stride for stride.
Well, that may work when you're playing against an average college QB. Didn't work so well against Miami, or WMU, or even Virginia. Everything I've ever read about playing DB is that if you don't locate the ball you're going to have problems.
 
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