Last Tuesday, I briefly discussed the three games of this past week that most interested me as a Pitt fan. Then, I picked those games against the spread. I went 1-2, dropping my season record to 4-3. What went wrong, well…
Jeez, Penn State… You Really DO Suck
(Boston College 27, PSU 14) The sad thing is, I don’t enjoy watching Penn State getting beat — even by a 10 point underdog — nearly as much as I used to. For one thing, it’s getting old. Second, I’m afraid that if they lose too often, they’ll let Paterno go before he has a chance to pull a Woody Hayes incident and scar that program’s tradition forever. Plus, if they let Joe go now — before he runs Penn State football too far into the ground — it will be much less work for his successors to rebuild it.
…not that I didn’t enjoy Penn State’s loss a little…
After watching this game, the only thing that seems more laughable than my picking Penn State to cover the spread is my reason for doing so: I liked Penn State’s offensive line and secondary. Saturday afternoon, both of these alleged advantages were especially pathetic. The offensive line had quarterback Zack Mills running for his life all day — so much so that the kid who was once supposed to be the next Kerry Collins got benched in favor of his much more mobile backup, Michael Robinson. Meanwhile, the secondary got torched for 206 total yards in the first quarter alone.
Really, Penn State’s defense in general was pathetic. They had literally no pass rush, even when they were blitzing. They repeatedly couldn’t make simple tackles, and allowed Boston College to run the ball down their throat.
We all knew that this was going to be a rebuilding year for Penn State, and I went so far as to say in August that this might be their worst team in decades. But I never suspected that they could be this bad.
Of course, part of the problem was that I never suspected that Boston College (and the Wake Forest team that upset them the previous week) could be that good. But then again, I often don’t give Big East teams enough credit.
Who Are You and What Did You Do With My Panthers?
(Pitt 43, Kent State 3) I didn’t think that our Panthers would cover this week because (1) 30.5 points is a @#%*@! of a spread, (2) starting quarterback Rod Rutherford’s legal troubles would be a distraction, and most importantly, (3) Pitt NEVER, EVER, starts the season strong.
And on our first three possessions, my prediction seemed dead on as redshirt-freshman quarterback Luke Getsy proved largely ineffective. But then, Walt Harris, quarterback genius, gave up the moral high ground and put in the legally embattled Rutherford. And Kent State’s wheels just fell off. Of course, Kent State’s decision to use one-on-one coverage on Larry Fitzgerald all damn day didn’t help.
On one hand, I’m sure that Neil Rudel and his ilk will have a field day with Walt Harris’s (quarterback genius) decision to play Rutherford. On the other hand, Rod hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. Besides, didn’t Joe Paterno play accused rapist Anwar Phillips in the Captial One Bowl, only to have Phillips exonerated last month?
Perhaps this team will be the one that breaks the mold of Panther football that we longtime fans with our deeply entrenched pessimism hold dear.
Fire Ron Zook Now
(Miami of Florida 38, Florida of Florida 33) How the hell do you let your archrival out of a 23 point hole? It’s freakish games like this one, with no defense apparently on the field, that make me pray that I never have to relocate to the pancake-flat, insect-riddled, high-crime sauna of a state that is America’s Wang. You suck, Florida. And by that, I mean the whole damn state.
But you, Florida Gators, especially suck. If I were Brock Berlin, I would have given you the Gator chomp salute too. I hope you enjoyed every humiliating moment of it. I don’t root for you bastards very often, but when I do, I expect you to at least try past halftime.
By the way, I picked this game right.
Hail to Well Done Hebrew National Hot Dogs Dropped At Least Six Freakin’ Times on the Ridge Avenue Parking Lot
