Well that sucked! Ran into a buzzsaw yesterday but clearly I didn’t see such a dominance coming:
1. It’s tough being a finesse passing team in the pouring rain, that’s clearly obvious. But what really doesn’t help is when your receivers are treating the pigskin like an allergy. Yes, Pickett wasn’t great but 6 drops especially two third down drops really did nothing to establish any kind of continuity.
2. It’s not like the offense wasn’t given chances. An early fumble recovery at the 50 in a scoreless game, and repeated great field position in the second half gave the offense some opportunities, but a refusal to even to try to establish any kind of running game in the muck and continued reliance on a passing game that just wasn’t there doomed us.
3. It’s not like VT’s offense was great. If I told you before the game that VT would have 250 yards of offense would average 2.2 yards a carry on 48 runs would only throw the ball 13 times and would punt 7 times you would say it’s a Pitt win but your own inept offense got only 177 yards so there’s that.
4. VT did do a great job of using Pitt’s aggressive d against it by calling some timely reverses and throwback passes that did just enough to keep us off balance.
5. During the game when we were down 14-0 I turned to a friend and said we should kick the 3 and get points. We went for it, you can’t really argue too hard with the call. In fact 0-3 on 4th downs says it all including some head scratching calls like trying to hit a 1 yard crossing yard to Mathews in traffic.
6. For those of you who do the “I’m done with them” bit your entitled to your opinion. We are 7-4 with a chance to go 8-4 for a team that some predicted would win 5 games. I mean 8-4 is a pretty good year. Yes it’s a shame to waste this really good defense but it’s why we watch sports. We get torn with each loss and get uplifted with each win. It’s why we are attached to our teams.
7. If Jalen Twyman, Paris Ford and maybe Patrick Jones are given top 3 round grades I believe they will go pro. Ford really covers a lot of ground and has unique instincts but in the open field he missed some tackles and on the long pass play I believe he free lanced. He needs to be sounder but he has pro written all over him. Twyman too. Jones I’m not sure but pass rushers are at a premium. Speaking of Ford that was a targeting call by the definition of it.
8. The next time PSU doubles Chase Young will be the first. What a bad scheme to almost never double the best defensive player in college and never chip him. They left that tackle on an island against him and they paid for it.
9. I’m still trying to figure out in the pouring rain how Whipple doesn’t adjust his game plan a little bit and just look to control clock and run more. Even on those series where we would get 4 yards on 1st down he’d almost never follow it up with another run. Never let the run game get going on a day when the receivers were dropping passes and Pickett didn’t control his throws.
10. I’m still trying to figure out what the call was on the pass to Carter to the VT 10 yard line since in the booth they were having a Frank Beamer love fest. I get it but come on.
11. Yesterday might have been a game that we could have used the north south running of Sibley and the underneath ability of Ffrench. Sibley because he’s the only power back on the roster and Ffrench because he can find gaps in the zone.
12. Gotta give credit to the VT coach. His team was left for dead but they really have had a stunning turnaround. That team was focused defensively and clearly knows who they are offensively.
13. Florida Intl 30 Miami 24. WTF is that? Are you serious?
14. 3-15 on 3rd down and 0-3 on fourth down. That’s not bad that’s putrid. Defense held VT to 3-12 on 3rd down but it didn’t matter. I mean the offense squarely takes the blame here they did nothing.
15. All isn’t lost however beat BC next week, come back and win a bowl game and you have a pretty good team coming back next year with a softer non-con you might have something cooking.
That’s all I got. Bad day.
Pitt82
1. It’s tough being a finesse passing team in the pouring rain, that’s clearly obvious. But what really doesn’t help is when your receivers are treating the pigskin like an allergy. Yes, Pickett wasn’t great but 6 drops especially two third down drops really did nothing to establish any kind of continuity.
2. It’s not like the offense wasn’t given chances. An early fumble recovery at the 50 in a scoreless game, and repeated great field position in the second half gave the offense some opportunities, but a refusal to even to try to establish any kind of running game in the muck and continued reliance on a passing game that just wasn’t there doomed us.
3. It’s not like VT’s offense was great. If I told you before the game that VT would have 250 yards of offense would average 2.2 yards a carry on 48 runs would only throw the ball 13 times and would punt 7 times you would say it’s a Pitt win but your own inept offense got only 177 yards so there’s that.
4. VT did do a great job of using Pitt’s aggressive d against it by calling some timely reverses and throwback passes that did just enough to keep us off balance.
5. During the game when we were down 14-0 I turned to a friend and said we should kick the 3 and get points. We went for it, you can’t really argue too hard with the call. In fact 0-3 on 4th downs says it all including some head scratching calls like trying to hit a 1 yard crossing yard to Mathews in traffic.
6. For those of you who do the “I’m done with them” bit your entitled to your opinion. We are 7-4 with a chance to go 8-4 for a team that some predicted would win 5 games. I mean 8-4 is a pretty good year. Yes it’s a shame to waste this really good defense but it’s why we watch sports. We get torn with each loss and get uplifted with each win. It’s why we are attached to our teams.
7. If Jalen Twyman, Paris Ford and maybe Patrick Jones are given top 3 round grades I believe they will go pro. Ford really covers a lot of ground and has unique instincts but in the open field he missed some tackles and on the long pass play I believe he free lanced. He needs to be sounder but he has pro written all over him. Twyman too. Jones I’m not sure but pass rushers are at a premium. Speaking of Ford that was a targeting call by the definition of it.
8. The next time PSU doubles Chase Young will be the first. What a bad scheme to almost never double the best defensive player in college and never chip him. They left that tackle on an island against him and they paid for it.
9. I’m still trying to figure out in the pouring rain how Whipple doesn’t adjust his game plan a little bit and just look to control clock and run more. Even on those series where we would get 4 yards on 1st down he’d almost never follow it up with another run. Never let the run game get going on a day when the receivers were dropping passes and Pickett didn’t control his throws.
10. I’m still trying to figure out what the call was on the pass to Carter to the VT 10 yard line since in the booth they were having a Frank Beamer love fest. I get it but come on.
11. Yesterday might have been a game that we could have used the north south running of Sibley and the underneath ability of Ffrench. Sibley because he’s the only power back on the roster and Ffrench because he can find gaps in the zone.
12. Gotta give credit to the VT coach. His team was left for dead but they really have had a stunning turnaround. That team was focused defensively and clearly knows who they are offensively.
13. Florida Intl 30 Miami 24. WTF is that? Are you serious?
14. 3-15 on 3rd down and 0-3 on fourth down. That’s not bad that’s putrid. Defense held VT to 3-12 on 3rd down but it didn’t matter. I mean the offense squarely takes the blame here they did nothing.
15. All isn’t lost however beat BC next week, come back and win a bowl game and you have a pretty good team coming back next year with a softer non-con you might have something cooking.
That’s all I got. Bad day.
Pitt82
