Realities from PSU game

[Saboteur]

1. PSU was far better prepared and thus far better able to adjust.
2. Their coaches are better than ours.
3. We will not beat any team running jet sweeps
4. We are undisciplined.
5. Unless we play vertically much better we will struggle for points.
6. Our special teams are horrid
7. Narduzzi should tone down his glib comments... Forget PSU, the folks in Morgantown are far better than are we at similar stages. You get get away with being cheeky when you win, but not when you get humiliated on national TV.
8. Losses like this get people fired. I'm not advocating it, but these coaches never turn down an extension. It goes with the territory.
9. Pitt, as a program, will find out in the next 8 weeks whether it has character stout enough to overcome this debacle.
10. All the hullabaloo over the tailgating and parking was vintage Yinzerburgh. Much Ado about nothing....

 

[steel_curtain]

1. PSU was far better prepared and thus far better able to adjust.
2. Their coaches are better than ours.
3. We will not beat any team running jet sweeps
4. We are undisciplined.
5. Unless we play vertically much better we will struggle for points.
6. Our special teams are horrid
7. Narduzzi should tone down his glib comments... Forget PSU, the folks in Morgantown are far better than are we at similar stages. You get get away with being cheeky when you win, but not when you get humiliated on national TV.
8. Losses like this get people fired. I'm not advocating it, but these coaches never turn down an extension. It goes with the territory.
9. Pitt, as a program, will find out in the next 8 weeks whether it has character stout enough to overcome this debacle.
10. All the hullabaloo over the tailgating and parking was vintage Yinzerburgh. Much Ado about nothing....

I only have 2 takeaways

1) I hope this doesnt affect basketball recruiting. We had all those 4 and 5 star recruits in town and got destroyed

2) We got humiliated by Oklahoma State last year and Penn State this year. If we dont lighten up the schedule Im done with Pitt football and a lot of other people will be too. I said preseason our non conference schedule is suicidal and flat stupid. Pitt can lose worse to Central Florida this year so prepare for it. Schedule Savannah St, Miami was a 62 point favorite against them. They will stink in the future, guaranteed.

 

[Pittcrafton]

I only have 2 takeaways

1) I hope this doesnt affect basketball recruiting. We had all those 4 and 5 star recruits in town and got destroyed

2) We got humiliated by Oklahoma State last year and Penn State this year. If we dont lighten up the schedule Im done with Pitt football and a lot of other people will be too. I said preseason our non conference schedule is suicidal and flat stupid. Pitt can lose worse to Central Florida this year so prepare for it. Schedule Savannah St, Miami was a 62 point favorite against them. They will stink in the future, guaranteed.

Disagree, you just want us sucking masked by the schedule. We need a very hard game, middle of the road and 2 softies , the Coastal is easy enough dont you think ?

 

[steel_curtain]

Disagree, you just want us sucking masked by the schedule. We need a very hard game, middle of the road and 2 softies , the Coastal is easy enough dont you think ?

-No. I supported the 1-3 theory. 1 good game, 3 roll overs. Pitt can use the rentawins. Wisconsin built its program on beating garbage. Virginia Tech continues to beat garbage and is rebuilding. Pitt is the only idiot in America dumb enough to put 3 preseason Top 15 teams on the schedule non conference. Schedule Savannah State. Ill make a Pitt donation the day they do it.

 

[Pittcrafton]

-No. I supported the 1-3 theory. 1 good game, 3 roll overs. Pitt can use the rentawins. Wisconsin built its program on beating garbage. Virginia Tech continues to beat garbage and is rebuilding. Pitt is the only idiot in America dumb enough to put 3 preseason Top 15 teams on the schedule non conference. Schedule Savannah State. Ill make a Pitt donation the day they do it.

Our conference is crap as well. You all can have that, most those games won't interest any real fan.

 

[Aws94]

While last night was undoubtly the worst loss and night of the Narduzzi era, I think the final score is a bit misleading.

Despite the scoreline, I think there were a few positives. I thought the defense was strong, especially in the first half. The offense consistently provided PSU with a short field. Sanders was slippery but I thought until the game got out of hand the final 10 minutes the defense was encouraging.

In terms of the offense, I think blaming Watson is a bit misguided. I’m not an offensive mastermind, but I’d think it’s fairly difficult to call a game when every drive begins inside your own 10-yardline. Coupled with the cold and damp conditions throwing the ball became extremely difficult.

The reality remains that Pitt has scored exactly one touchdown in its last six plus quarters of football, which is bad. I still believe in Pickett and the run game, but the offense also had three or four critical mistakes and missed opportunities.

With all that being said, the specialists on this team are worrysome. Outside of his holding failures, I thought Kirk failed to “flip the field” like PSU’s punter did on a number of occasions.

Bottom-line, the team played a horrific last 32 minutes of football and must be better going forward. I think the next four weeks will tell us more than one bad night did. If the team comes out strong and wins all four weeks they will be 5-1, 3-0 ACC and be in good position in the coastal. Anything worse than 3-1, and the season will be in peril. I still think they get to seven or eight wins, and with the proper progression from a few key younger guys the season can still be a success.

Yes getting embarrassed in prime-time by your rival stings, but there is still a lot of season left.

 

[steel_curtain]

Our conference is crap as well. You all can have that, most those games won't interest any real fan.

-Its really not. BC looks great. Duke is solid. Syracuse QB is lethal and unstoppable. People look at Florida State being dogshit and say the conference is down. Its not the case. North Carolina sucks and G Tech has freshmen for defense. Yea, those 2 arent good.

 

[steel_curtain]

While last night was undoubtly the worst loss and night of the Narduzzi era, I think the final score is a bit misleading.

Despite the scoreline, I think there were a few positives. I thought the defense was strong, especially in the first half. The offense consistently provided PSU with a short field. Sanders was slippery but I thought until the game got out of hand the final 10 minutes the defense was encouraging.

In terms of the offense, I think blaming Watson is a bit misguided. I’m not an offensive mastermind, but I’d think it’s fairly difficult to call a game when every drive begins inside your own 10-yardline. Coupled with the cold and damp conditions throwing the ball became extremely difficult.

The reality remains that Pitt has scored exactly one touchdown in its last six plus quarters of football, which is bad. I still believe in Pickett and the run game, but the offense also had three or four critical mistakes and missed opportunities.

With all that being said, the specialists on this team are worrysome. Outside of his holding failures, I thought Kirk failed to “flip the field” like PSU’s punter did on a number of occasions.

Bottom-line, the team played a horrific last 32 minutes of football and must be better going forward. I think the next four weeks will tell us more than one bad night did. If the team comes out strong and wins all four weeks they will be 5-1, 3-0 ACC and be in good position in the coastal. Anything worse than 3-1, and the season will be in peril. I still think they get to seven or eight wins, and with the proper progression from a few key younger guys the season can still be a success.

Yes getting embarrassed in prime-time by your rival stings, but there is still a lot of season left.

-We lost by 46 points at home. This logic is as bad as someone telling me the Pitt basketball team will be worse because we lost 2 starters that went 0-19 in ACC play and were blown out every game.

-The difference is we fired our dogshit basketball coach others wanted to keep another year for some God forsaken reason. And we got rid of our worst basketball players that transferred. And the players that played last year will play smaller roles this year because they stink.

-Pitt football stinks. Just accept it, you will feel better.

 

[BuffetParrothead]

For purposes of measurement if PITT had retained Wanny the program would be in a better place today.
Coach and player performance was one of the worst ever.
No one, noone was prepared to play a big game of football or maybe any game of football.
Terrible!
Not even close to acceptable!
Anyone who sugar coats this loss has serious mental health issues, doesnt understand football or what it takes to be ready to play a big game.
Narduzzi should shut his free -ken mouth, pay attention to details and coach his team if he can coach the team.
At this time I'm unsure he has the ability that many of us thought he had.

 

[kma0043]

1. PSU was far better prepared and thus far better able to adjust.
2. Their coaches are better than ours.
3. We will not beat any team running jet sweeps
4. We are undisciplined.
5. Unless we play vertically much better we will struggle for points.
6. Our special teams are horrid
7. Narduzzi should tone down his glib comments... Forget PSU, the folks in Morgantown are far better than are we at similar stages. You get get away with being cheeky when you win, but not when you get humiliated on national TV.
8. Losses like this get people fired. I'm not advocating it, but these coaches never turn down an extension. It goes with the territory.
9. Pitt, as a program, will find out in the next 8 weeks whether it has character stout enough to overcome this debacle.
10. All the hullabaloo over the tailgating and parking was vintage Yinzerburgh. Much Ado about nothing....

Accurate analysis. To me this game again answers why this program gets little support among casual sports fans in the region. Pitt gets on nation tv, then gets humiliated. Casual fans don’t want any part of that and just shrug their shoulders and say “same old Pitt”. I hope people think of that during the hundreds of attendance posts this year.

 

[Panthertag]

Still not convinced he was a even a good defensive coordinator. Mark Dantonio is just a great head coach. Narduzzi reminds me of Foge Fazio.

 

[BuffetParrothead]

Accurate analysis. To me this game again answers why this program gets little support among casual sports fans in the region. Pitt gets on nation tv, then gets humiliated. Casual fans don’t want any part of that and just shrug their shoulders and say “same old Pitt”. I hope people think of that during the hundreds of attendance posts this year.

Saboteur was right on and so was your post.

When the same thing happens over and over again season to season or within games something is wrong.
Something is wrong! Really wrong! This is worse than Wanny Ball because very little goes right!

Everyone looks for incremental improvements and in this case we took a step back.


Can't get the coin flip right, can't hang on to extra point snaps, can't hang on to a punt snap, can't control D gaps when we have the Nitters on their one yard line, Hamlin doesn't know how to take the proper angle to prevent a 1st qtr Nitter TD, run D showed no improvement, the OL couldn't move a rock downhill, LB's are to small and slow, the only bright spot were the RB's except on a key drive in the 1st half, in Nitter territory, Ollison carries the ball three times and takes himself out??? He looks out of shape, most RB's want to carry the ball every play. Muff a punt at the end of the first half and give up an easy Nititer TD, NItters get the ball in the second half and score an easy TD, which was the indication the team quit and the second half was going to be a blow-out. Game Over at that time!
No points in the second half. The Albany game should have been a signal that all is not well in Panther football land!

 

[Saboteur]

For purposes of measurement if PITT had retained Wanny the program would be in a better place today.
Coach and player performance was one of the worst ever.
No one, noone was prepared to play a big game of football or maybe any game of football.
Terrible!
Not even close to acceptable!
Anyone who sugar coats this loss has serious mental health issues, doesnt understand football or what it takes to be ready to play a big game.
Narduzzi should shut his free -ken mouth, pay attention to details and coach his team if he can coach the team.
At this time I'm unsure he has the ability that many of us thought he had.

I'm a big fan of your last sentence.

 

[pbrad]

Georgia fires a 10 win coach and hires a better coach, PITT fires a 10 win coach and hires Haywood.

 

[Pantherrevival]

If we dont lighten up the schedule Im done with Pitt football and a lot of other people will be too.

Dont let the door hit your on the way out!

Given how bad the ACC coastal is, and with PState soon off the OOC schedule, if we lighten up the schedule any more, we'd have to go FCS.

 

[Mikefln]

For purposes of measurement if PITT had retained Wanny the program would be in a better place today.
Coach and player performance was one of the worst ever.
No one, noone was prepared to play a big game of football or maybe any game of football.
Terrible!
Not even close to acceptable!
Anyone who sugar coats this loss has serious mental health issues, doesnt understand football or what it takes to be ready to play a big game.
Narduzzi should shut his free -ken mouth, pay attention to details and coach his team if he can coach the team.
At this time I'm unsure he has the ability that many of us thought he had.

Need to correct you on one point.

Wiggins and Olison came to play. Other than that spot on.

 

[DiehardPanther]

Georgia fires a 10 win coach and hires a better coach, PITT fires a 10 win coach and hires Haywood.

Pitt fired Jamie Dixon, and hired Stallings. We were a laughingstock for doing this within the basketball community.

 

[mbe 34]

Dont let the door hit your on the way out!

Given how bad the ACC coastal is, and with PState soon off the OOC schedule, if we lighten up the schedule any more, we'd have to go FCS.

Several have suggested a lighter schedule.
You drop the Ped State Series - some consider that heresy but it’s happening
Notre Dame is almost a conference game - plus playing Notre Dame is great exposure and they are one of our traditional opponents.
UCF is on an uncommon streak. Pitt has handled them in the past
Attendance was abysmal for our. ‘Patsy game”. You drop Ped State and Notre Dame for two no names? Get use to 30k ( actually we’re already there.)

The answer to growing the program is winning and winning meaningful games.
Let’s not blame the schedule as some have - that loss last night was a program loss. The problems are deeper than the schedule.

 

[Pittcrafton]

Several have suggested a lighter schedule.
So you want to drop the Ped State Series - some consider that heresy but it’s happening
Notre Dame is almost a conference game - plus playing Notre Dame is great exposure and they are one of our traditional opponents.
UCF is on an uncommon streak. Pitt has handled them in the past
Attendance was abysmal for our. ‘Patsy game”. You want to drop Ped State and Notre Dame for two no names? Get use to 30k ( actually we’re already there.)

The answer to growing the program is winning and winning meaningful games.
Let’s not blame the schedule - that loss last night was a program loss.

BINGO

 

[DruidTM]

-Its really not. BC looks great. Duke is solid. Syracuse QB is lethal and unstoppable. People look at Florida State being dogshit and say the conference is down. Its not the case. North Carolina sucks and G Tech has freshmen for defense. Yea, those 2 arent good.

Only Yinzers who only know OSU ND and WVU Post negative on the ACC schedule

We’ve been there what 5-6 seasons now? Just how long does it take the average Pittsburgher to adjust to a conference and realize finally those are the games that count?

Seriously... as for OC schedule yes 1-3 meaning 1 good 3 soupcans... I honestly think that’s the right approach because some wins with a bowl game no matter how bad is some progress over getting crushed then not being able to recruit and completely demoralizing the program and it’s fans

This schedule this season is obviously a disaster

And this loss will look much worse when PSU gets killed by Ohio State or someone else... which points the the fact Pitt quit last night... adding to the fact this program isn’t ready for this type of schedule... and Narduzzi in year four doesn’t mean anything... clearly they aren’t ready

 

[Pittcrafton]

Only Yinzers who only know OSU ND and WVU Post negative on the ACC schedule

We’ve been there what 5-6 seasons now? Just how long does it take the average Pittsburgher to adjust to a conference and realize finally those are the games that count?

Seriously... as for OC schedule yes 1-3 meaning 1 good 3 soupcans... I honestly think that’s the right approach because some wins with a bowl game no matter how bad is some progress over getting crushed then not being able to recruit and completely demoralizing the program and it’s fans

This schedule this season is obviously a disaster

And this loss will look much worse when PSU gets killed by Ohio State or someone else... which points the the fact Pitt quit last night... adding to the fact this program isn’t ready for this type of schedule... and Narduzzi in year four doesn’t mean anything... clearly they aren’t ready

When we lose to G Yech and Cuse this year, will it be schedules fault. Hell Appy state would beat us and most cupcakes we would play , it's not the schedule, it's the two stars that temple doesn't even want that's the issue

 

[HailToPitt1985]

We don't have the players to compete at this level and with this schedule. And we don't have the coaches that we need to compete. I don't care what the record is at the end of the year. It's obvious from the last 2 weeks that we don't have the players or coaches necessary to win in the ACC regularly. And when we play a top 25 team, we'll get destroyed.

I hate how we look now and I hate that we really have no hope of getting better this year or any year. We're not getting the recruiting we need and the coaches don't have a clue.

 

[rmf05]

When we aren't forced to play ND, our obligatory Power 5 home and home should be Rutgers, Indiana, Purdue, Md, Vandy or Kentucky. No others should even be considered. Our 1aa should be a rotation of YSU, Duquesne, Robert Morris and Albany. Our other 2 games should be a rotation of Ohio U, Kent, Akron, Buffalo, Temple, Toledo, Old Diminion and Ball St. always at home, never on the road. We'll lose 2-3k in attendance tops until we string together 8-10 8-win seasons and start to build like VaTech did.

JoePa built PSU by going undefeated every year against Pitt, BC, Cuse, WVU teams that only won 2-3 games a year in the 60's (and didn't beat anyone but each other and William and Mary).

 

[DruidTM]

Only a moron thinks this schedule is good to develop anything other than a demoralized fan base

Pitt isn’t there ... I’m sorry but they didn’t even go bowling last year ... there’s no logical reason to believe they could handle what ESPN has called the toughest schedule... this isn’t the 1970s and Narduzzi hasn’t had some recruiting boom like Majors did in 72....73...

That’s why this schedule sucks. The ACC coastal has plenty of competition for where Pitt actually is not where you want them to already be (but aren’t)....

I’m dealing in reality not fantasy and stating “ Ah it’s year four we should be able to handle it”.... that’s just false boasting BS... there hasn’t been a coach since Sherrill with the team as well to handle that schedule in year four and No not Wanny either... not Harris... I can’t think of one

We aren’t even where we were in my school days ... where we beat PSU in 87-88 ND and whipped Ohio State.... let alone Jackie Sherrill era football

That’s reality not smokescreen not excuses

That’s reality

 

[revampedpanthers]

Still not convinced he was a even a good defensive coordinator. Mark Dantonio is just a great head coach. Narduzzi reminds me of Foge Fazio.

I have said this so many times on here, he was a bad hire. I said it after we were 8-4 his first season. My thinking was he was a low hanging fruit whether or not he ended up being a good HC . He was still a cheap option, they should have hired a experienced HC , this program needs to swing for the fence not hit a bunt and hope that it some how turns into a home run. I am not saying he is a bad head coach, though my guess is he is looking more and more like a mediocre one. Just that he should have never been hired in the first place. Look at VT. They went out and hired a proven coach, I am not saying Pitt should be hiring a HC from a P5 conference, but they should be hiring a HC from Division 1.

 

[daminals76]

Disagree, you just want us sucking masked by the schedule. We need a very hard game, middle of the road and 2 softies , the Coastal is easy enough dont you think ?

No.... you use bad teams to try to develop your offense and defense and still get Ws!!!

 

[McKee Place]

It is looking clear that the worsening talent combined with just average coaching (which is getting more indifferent by the year, it appears) is the future.

You can dumb down the schedule to all FCS or Div 3 if you want. We probably could lose most of those games too.

As many have said, the problem isn't only that our recruits are regressing, it's that our conference foes are improving.

 

[revampedpanthers]

This schedule this season is obviously a disaster

And this loss will look much worse when PSU gets killed by Ohio State or someone else... which points the the fact Pitt quit last night... adding to the fact this program isn’t ready for this type of schedule... and Narduzzi in year four doesn’t mean anything... clearly they aren’t ready[/QUOTE]
The bolded point might be the biggest knock on PN and the biggest concern. The team obviously quit after the punt return TD. They showed no desire to be there anymore.

 

[SoufOaklin4Life]

Pitt fired Jamie Dixon, and hired Stallings. We were a laughingstock for doing this within the basketball community.

Dixon wasn’t fired

 

[DruidTM]

This schedule this season is obviously a disaster

And this loss will look much worse when PSU gets killed by Ohio State or someone else... which points the the fact Pitt quit last night... adding to the fact this program isn’t ready for this type of schedule... and Narduzzi in year four doesn’t mean anything... clearly they aren’t ready

The bolded point might be the biggest knock on PN and the biggest concern. The team obviously quit after the punt return TD. They showed no desire to be there anymore.[/QUOTE]
Yeah right but it’s still a multifaceted problem to begin with

 

[scarface412]

1. PSU was far better prepared and thus far better able to adjust.
2. Their coaches are better than ours.
3. We will not beat any team running jet sweeps
4. We are undisciplined.
5. Unless we play vertically much better we will struggle for points.
6. Our special teams are horrid
7. Narduzzi should tone down his glib comments... Forget PSU, the folks in Morgantown are far better than are we at similar stages. You get get away with being cheeky when you win, but not when you get humiliated on national TV.
8. Losses like this get people fired. I'm not advocating it, but these coaches never turn down an extension. It goes with the territory.
9. Pitt, as a program, will find out in the next 8 weeks whether it has character stout enough to overcome this debacle.
10. All the hullabaloo over the tailgating and parking was vintage Yinzerburgh. Much Ado about nothing....

1. recruiting matters
2. coaching matters

as long as narduzzi has been here there is no excuse to get blown out like that ESPECIALLY to a rival!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BFo8]

-Its really not. BC looks great. Duke is solid. Syracuse QB is lethal and unstoppable. People look at Florida State being dogshit and say the conference is down. Its not the case. North Carolina sucks and G Tech has freshmen for defense. Yea, those 2 arent good.

The ACC stinks this year Steel.

Had Clemson not managed to hang on yesterday it would be a national talking point today how bad it is.

Other than (maybe) the PAC they are the weakest conference this year, everyone but you sees this.

 

[Black_Man_Panther]

Need to correct you on one point.

Wiggins and Olison came to play. Other than that spot on.

You need to watch the replay. Wiggins got trucked his fair share. Olison is still Olison. Tough to bring down when he is up to speed. But before that point... he goes down quite easily via arm tackle.

I think the big RED FLAGS... Briggs is still Briggs and Hamlin takes bad angles. Year 4 of Narduzzi's inability to recruit and coach a decent safety minus Whitehead continues to ACC OC's delight. And Herndon... good God. This guy is going to get abused this year. That 3-star nobody from PSU put him on his back numerous times. Oh... and i would be remiss to mention that PSU DB's have better hands than any Pitt receiver. Worst bunch of receivers since... '96?

 

[rmf05]

Ummmm, its Wirginis and sure he missed a couple of tackles but he played the best game as a Pitt MLB since McKillop. He played an outstanding game overall. Ollison ran strong all night. He's a legit talent.

 

[BuffetParrothead]

You need to watch the replay. Wiggins got trucked his fair share. Olison is still Olison. Tough to bring down when he is up to speed. But before that point... he goes down quite easily via arm tackle.

I think the big RED FLAGS... Briggs is still Briggs and Hamlin takes bad angles. Year 4 of Narduzzi's inability to recruit and coach a decent safety minus Whitehead continues to ACC OC's delight. And Herndon... good God. This guy is going to get abused this year. That 3-star nobody from PSU put him on his back numerous times. Oh... and i would be remiss to mention that PSU DB's have better hands than any Pitt receiver. Worst bunch of receivers since... '96?

And the PITT OL couldn't roll a rock downhill!

 

[joeydavid]

Many think MSU's struggles are directly related to their defense not being dominant since PN left.

Still not convinced he was a even a good defensive coordinator. Mark Dantonio is just a great head coach. Narduzzi reminds me of Foge Fazio.

 

[BFo8]

Many think MSU's struggles are directly related to their defense not being dominant since PN left.

I would say it’s more a factor that they stopped producing NFL QB’s.