What a crappy way to end 2018. A game that had no business being close turns into a loss, so frustrating but a really emblematic of the season:
1. First of all kudos to the Defense. Probably the best defensive performance of the season. I mean 1 third down conversion, 9 punts by Standford, 3 fumbles (though no recoveries). Crazy to think how exactly you lose a game like that. Not going to cover the Defense more than this. I mean what else is there to say? Defense played winning football.
2. Shawn Watson is going to be discussed all off season. What bugged me more than anything in this game is that his play calling especially in the type of game we were in veered from the team's identity.
3. The success Pitt was having in the game were inside runs. All game. Not wide runs, but inside between the tackles both Hall, Davis and Pickett. Your down by 1 and get to the 35 doing that and then of all of sudden you start throwing the ball? Especially with a quarterback who just wasn't sharp yesterday? As an OC you have to assess what's working and until they stop you keep doing it.
4. Not all of it is on Watson, AJ Davis drops a wheel route, Pickett takes some bad sacks, misses a wide open RaRa on a nice go stop route by a country mile. If there isn't open competition for the QB job next season something is wrong. Love Kenny's fire but let's face it he hasn't gotten better and just cannot throw the ball under duress.
5. If you remember the Syracuse game, Pitt ran the ball 14 consecutive times at the end of the game to get the game tying FG. Yesterday with still plenty of time and 4 yards to go Pitt chose to pass twice at the end of the game. Why not pick up the first down with Hall? That last drive was very very disheartening.
6. Ollison getting hurt did not help for a multiple of reasons. Number 1 he's terrific at picking up the blitz, number two he has a knack of picking up tough yards so we could have really used him late in the game.
7. Dana Holgerson to Houston? Wow.
8. I don't know how to qualify this year. Some really nice highs but man to finish the season with 3 straight losses was brutal. there's no question the loss of Morrissey impacted this team for the Miami and Clemson game but yesterday I thought the OL recovered better. Looked much tighter.
9. I don't like the opening post game statements of Coach Duzz. Stats don't win games. He should have been pissed about the offensive performance. That Stanford team was ready to be blown out. And frankly punting on the opening series of Pitt's inside the 40 was ridiculous. Go for it or kick the FG with the wind at your back. I mean come on.
10. Unless Kenny P. has a totally clean pocket his accuracy is really off. He continues to have a tendency to break from the pocket too early. His evolution over the course of the year has not improved, how much of that is on Watson, how much of it is lack of receivers and how much of it on frankly Pickett? Does he have a higher ceiling or this is what we are going to get?
11. For all of the criticism of Watson his run game was very good. The passing game not so much and the play calling was maddening. In this day and age you limite a team to 14 points you should win going away. All and all his performance was mediocre at best.
12. Next year's DL with Jones, Weaver, Camp Watts, Twyman should be pretty darn good.
13. To me the schedule prevented them from winning more games but the UNC game, the Stamford game and also the ND game were all winnable games. You look back and wonder how the UNC game was lost and any semblance of offense you win the ND game.
14. You have to wonder where the program is at this point. Yes the brutal OCC didn't help and you won the Coastal but can you sit here and say this team is ready to take off? You love two 1000 yard rushers, the majority of your OL is gone, you have no TE, you lose all your starting LB crew. I mean are we confident that next year will be better?
15. I agreed with Danielson yesterday and was screaming to let Stanford score when they took the hand off. Only way to get ball back realistically.
16. It'll be an interesting off season especially with this AD who has shown her sports acumen with astute hires and knowledge. Really curious to see how deeply she's gets involved with the Watson thing. She's no idiot. Offense sells.
Happy and Healthy New Year to all. This will probably be my last musings till next year.
Pitt82
1. First of all kudos to the Defense. Probably the best defensive performance of the season. I mean 1 third down conversion, 9 punts by Standford, 3 fumbles (though no recoveries). Crazy to think how exactly you lose a game like that. Not going to cover the Defense more than this. I mean what else is there to say? Defense played winning football.
2. Shawn Watson is going to be discussed all off season. What bugged me more than anything in this game is that his play calling especially in the type of game we were in veered from the team's identity.
3. The success Pitt was having in the game were inside runs. All game. Not wide runs, but inside between the tackles both Hall, Davis and Pickett. Your down by 1 and get to the 35 doing that and then of all of sudden you start throwing the ball? Especially with a quarterback who just wasn't sharp yesterday? As an OC you have to assess what's working and until they stop you keep doing it.
4. Not all of it is on Watson, AJ Davis drops a wheel route, Pickett takes some bad sacks, misses a wide open RaRa on a nice go stop route by a country mile. If there isn't open competition for the QB job next season something is wrong. Love Kenny's fire but let's face it he hasn't gotten better and just cannot throw the ball under duress.
5. If you remember the Syracuse game, Pitt ran the ball 14 consecutive times at the end of the game to get the game tying FG. Yesterday with still plenty of time and 4 yards to go Pitt chose to pass twice at the end of the game. Why not pick up the first down with Hall? That last drive was very very disheartening.
6. Ollison getting hurt did not help for a multiple of reasons. Number 1 he's terrific at picking up the blitz, number two he has a knack of picking up tough yards so we could have really used him late in the game.
7. Dana Holgerson to Houston? Wow.
8. I don't know how to qualify this year. Some really nice highs but man to finish the season with 3 straight losses was brutal. there's no question the loss of Morrissey impacted this team for the Miami and Clemson game but yesterday I thought the OL recovered better. Looked much tighter.
9. I don't like the opening post game statements of Coach Duzz. Stats don't win games. He should have been pissed about the offensive performance. That Stanford team was ready to be blown out. And frankly punting on the opening series of Pitt's inside the 40 was ridiculous. Go for it or kick the FG with the wind at your back. I mean come on.
10. Unless Kenny P. has a totally clean pocket his accuracy is really off. He continues to have a tendency to break from the pocket too early. His evolution over the course of the year has not improved, how much of that is on Watson, how much of it is lack of receivers and how much of it on frankly Pickett? Does he have a higher ceiling or this is what we are going to get?
11. For all of the criticism of Watson his run game was very good. The passing game not so much and the play calling was maddening. In this day and age you limite a team to 14 points you should win going away. All and all his performance was mediocre at best.
12. Next year's DL with Jones, Weaver, Camp Watts, Twyman should be pretty darn good.
13. To me the schedule prevented them from winning more games but the UNC game, the Stamford game and also the ND game were all winnable games. You look back and wonder how the UNC game was lost and any semblance of offense you win the ND game.
14. You have to wonder where the program is at this point. Yes the brutal OCC didn't help and you won the Coastal but can you sit here and say this team is ready to take off? You love two 1000 yard rushers, the majority of your OL is gone, you have no TE, you lose all your starting LB crew. I mean are we confident that next year will be better?
15. I agreed with Danielson yesterday and was screaming to let Stanford score when they took the hand off. Only way to get ball back realistically.
16. It'll be an interesting off season especially with this AD who has shown her sports acumen with astute hires and knowledge. Really curious to see how deeply she's gets involved with the Watson thing. She's no idiot. Offense sells.
Happy and Healthy New Year to all. This will probably be my last musings till next year.
Pitt82
