The old saying goes, Would you rather lose pretty or win ugly? We have had some of both. We have also had plenty that was good, bad and ugly.
The Good
The Good
- The defense. This defense has an amazing combination of aggressiveness and discipline. Three games into the season and I don't think we have had any offside penalties. And very few penalties overall on the defensive side, despite bringing pressure and putting some serious licks on opposing players. This is also the most sure-tackling Pitt defense in a long time.
- Defensive coaching. Iowa came out trying to exploit the flat on short routes - we took that away almost immediately. Iowa then went to quick slants. We adjusted and took that away. They tried play action and had some success with their TEs matched against our LBs, but not for long. Overall, our defensive coaches did a great job against an Iowa staff that knows this defense very, very well.
- The offense continued to open up the playbook this game (continuing the trend of the first two). Play action to the TEs, involvement of the other receivers. More passing plays longer than 10 yards. The players (especially Peterman) getting more and more comfortable.
- I'm starting to think Maddox is going to be playing on Sundays. He is very good in coverage and run support.
- Webb has been the biggest surprise thus far in the season. Wow, he is really playing at a high level the past two games.
- Punt cover team came up very big in a crucial part of the game. Its about time Pitt changed the momentum of a game through special teams, as opposed to the other way around.
- Defensive line depth. Not sure why Mosley-Smith didn't play, but between him and losing Price part way through, our line started to tire and give up yardage on the ground in the second half.
- Kicking game continues to be an enormous worry. Blewitt lacks any confidence and barely made the game tying extra point. And Winslow really contributed to the massive momentum change when we didn't go for it on 4th down by shanking the punt. Not sure what can be done at this point, but we should be exploring anything.
- Tunnel vision on Tyler Boyd. I get that Peterman (and Chad) want to throw Boyd's way. He is special. But they must throw it in a place where either he can make a play or no one does. Both early interceptions were extremely damaging, and in both cases Peterman never looked anywhere else (and under threw Boyd).
- Since we are mentioning Boyd, we NEED to have someone else back returning punts. I don't want to see Boyd get injured and I know he doesn't want to get injured, but... When he didn't field that punt early and it rolled all the way inside our 10, that drastically changed the field position early in the game. Remember last week he fielded one punt and gave 6 yards of ground before running out of bounds. We need someone else back there who will field the ball (and maybe even try to return it upfield). Maybe Q. Henderson?
- No surprises here. Not running a QB sneak or even a goal-line type Wam play was inexcusable and indefensible. Hopefully, HCPN will learn from that, but it was a very expensive education.
