I have a lot to do before game time.
With all that has happened, getting satellite was delayed. Unfortunately, the cable hook-up in the new/temp place won’t be until Tuesday. Instead I bribed a friend to let me hijack his TV for the day. In return, I bought Gameplan for the day for them (so I can see the Pitt-Syracuse game) and a 12 of Newcastle. I’ll be live blogging the Pitt game for AOL, then doing more liveblogging of the rest of the CFB action from about 3:30 to 6:30. I really need the cyberpunk era to get to reality so I can just jack the computer directly into the base of my skull and be done with it.
Since that hasn’t happened yet, maybe I should just do a weekly “host the homeless blogger” thing where I travel to people’s houses glomming off their broadband, commandeering their TV and becoming the houseguest from hell.
Either way, time is a little short so I’m just going to do the links quickly. By the way, you can look at all the Q&A between the ‘Cuse blogger and I through this link (it’s given me the excuse to seek and post photos of old Pitt unis from the Getty archives).
Lots out of Syracuse and upstate NY for this game. Not so much from the ‘Burgh.
Base, simple preview from the Trib. The P-G is about how Syracuse’s improvements from last year to this, to a large degree mirror Pitt.
Syracuse football players like to visit men in prison.
Some are thinking bowl for the ‘Cuse if they win.
More talk about how Syracuse gets a lot of sacks.
Finally, the ‘Cuse are still talking payback for the entire last season of winless ineptitude in the Big East. A bit of respect for Palko though from their lineman.
Syracuse linebacker K.J. Smith said Palko reminds him of Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. He said Palko was quieter last year at Heinz Field. But two years ago at the Carrier Dome, Smith said Palko talked plenty of smack with former SU safety Anthony Smith, who now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Smith called it, funny.
“He’s a tough dude,” said Smith, who is No. 2 in the Big East in tackles behind Pittsburgh’s H.B. Blades. “I respect his game. I like his game. I like to play against a quarterback like that. You can look at him and you know he’s ready to play. Not many other quarterbacks do that – look a linebacker in the face and know what it is.”
What kills me in the article is it talks about how Syracuse wants to take away Pitt’s run and make them pass. That’s what Pitt already does.
Excuse the explitives but that kind of play calling is just bewildering. Time to start break out the bottle…
Bummed about losing Kinder for the game, and I’d like to see more vertical passes in the second half. The only long pass I can remember is the onr try to Strong at the end of the half.
????s:
Is Del Sardo dressed and how did Dickerson get his 10 yards on one rush – trick play?
Like I said – surreal.
Why did LaRod have to get all the carries? Not to complain – was it a case of “it’s working”?
Good game though – and I though our defense did well, but gave up a lot of yards, w/little scoring.
Would like to have seen DW go for the TD at the end of the game – wonder if that was professional courtesy on his part? Would have been good to get some short yardage snaps in – we need work on the short yardage situations.
CONC: good day for LaRod and I’m happy for him, but he cannot ever be productive as an every-down back, and when he is, it gets embarrassing to me watch a talent laden recruiting class burn redshirts for one (1) carry per gm. —
Bur it’s a win and nice 5-1.
Agree it’s frustrating about the other RBs not getting touches. It probably was a no-win situation for DW to take the ball out of LaRod’s hands. We didn’t have a big enough lead to spread the carries around to the others, and if he had and it didn’t work out, he would have been criticized for not giving it to the RB that was breaking big ones. Freshman are getting playing time though, Thomas did well, Matthews did well, etc… Burning the redshirts don’t bother me, we’re still in the position to use playing as a freshman as a major recruiting tool, and to do that we have to play those that we used that incentive with.
As a fan, I want to see Dickerson get some actual (no gimmick) carries, and I still think we need to get the ball in Collin’s hands – especially in short yardage situations.
It seems like we are missing tackles on D also. Luckily we have been able to get leads and hold them to make up for this. Doing well on turnovers and not allowing sacks still.
We are in a good position for the second half of the season though – and bottom line – 5-1 looks pretty darn good right now – including wins in both road games.
DW is 10-7 so far at PITT, not too bad and will get better. Over and over the players have talked about everyone buying into DW’s coaching and approach to teamwork, and that has shown good results this year, so I hesitate to critize the coaching decisions too much.
Over the years I have watched Palko play and I am always left wondering–Can this kid be a success on Sundays? I know he can suit up and be on a team, but I can’t determine whether what he does is Montana-esque (you know not a super strong arm ut a great field general)or if he is just a great college QB (ala Pitt’s OC Cavanaugh).
Just wanted to get some of your guys opinions since being out here on the left coast I can’t see as many games as I would like to 🙁
we have now stopped the run in all but 1 game–and that is very encouraging.Looks like we are on the way back–should be bowl bound, and if our OL plays like that (1 sack, almost no pressure all day) things will be very interesting for the rest of the year.
Oh, and Penn State sucks by the way.
Am very happy we won today, and my earlier posts may not reeflect that, but should have. We played very well and did just what we needed to do, not only to win, but I think to strengthen the team for the harder part of the schedule. I am most impressed with the way DW has these kids taking every game seriously, and playing until the end of the game. Maybe it helps that the majority of our players are underclassmen and can get behind DW’s approach. Whatever it is – I’m very glad the way the games have gone and impressed at this point.
You also could’ve called a hold on the Cuse O-Line virtually on every play. We totally dominated these guys.
Frankly, we pick up that early 4th and 1…man, I do not know what happened on that one…and its a blowout. But really, not once did I ever think Syracuse was going to put it together and win the game.
Not that I’ve a bitter streak. ;)…
Also, the radio announcers put the one sack on Palko for not getting rid of the ball out of bounds instead of taking the sack. I believe their point was that the O line could have gone all game without giving up a sack to the team leading the nation in sacks.
Still want to see what Dickerson can do on carries out of the backfield though. UCF game is on TV here in Maryland so I’ll get a chance to actually watch the Panthers again. I’m thinking 6-1 going into Rutgers and if we can pull out a win there we pretty much have to be voted into the top 25. Not too many lower echelon top 25 teams lost this weekend for us to move up.
Think about last year and how at this point. Miserable.
Enjoy. This is fun. The team has to start somewhere and winning 5 of 6 games isn’t a bad place to start.
Call a PSU fan and rub it in.
A few things noticabley different from last year:
It seems like we are getting a lot more sacks and putting more presure on opposing qb’s
Palko is not running for his life
Receivers are making the tough catches and breaking big plays
The secondary has been lights out this year.
Pitt has put themselves in a great position at the midpoint of the season. Its not unthinkable that we could be 9-1 heading into the last 2 games, which are both at home. I would love to see this young team really start rolling into those last two weeks of the season.
F penn st
I actually got a headache watching that ridiculous call.
Also, in the video voice-over, Lou Holtz’s comments to Mark May about this PITT O Line being “much better than the ones in the ’70s” is priceless.
1) Stanford is 0-6 for the first time in 20 years. Thanks Walt!
2) We are beating inferior teams.
3) We are doing OK in a rebuilding year.
4} Palko most likely will play on Sundays.
5) Holtz owns May!
6) Enjoy this team whether they win or lose because whatever happens the rest of the season Walt Harris coaches Stanford.
