From the first few plays of the game, I though we were going to lose this game by a million points. A Pitt drive that couldn’t really get anything going followed by a 56 yard run by Cinci QB Ben Mauk – not the start any team hopes for. Five minutes into the game and we’re already down 7. A three-and-out followed by three more points for the Bearcats.
But then something amazing happened. LeSean McCoy and LaRod Stephens-Howling turned it on big time. On our first TD drive, Shady ran for 21 and 5, followed by a Cinci penalty, then Stephens-Howling picked up 11. Before you know it, Pat Bostick hits Darrell Strong and we have the game tied up.
After 137 yards from McCoy and 100 from LSH, the first time Pitt had two 100 yard rushers in a game since 1998, Pitt picked up the biggest win in the Wannstedt era. Ironically enough, he wasn’t even on the field. It’s the first win in well over a month, and the first win over a BCS conference opponent since beating Syracuse on October 7 last year. The big question, as Jimbo Covert’s my Dad asked in the game thread comments, is, “A turning point in the Wannstedt era, or just a weeklong break from the usual pain and agony?â€
I feel that the players won this game in spite of the coaches, not because of them. The way our running backs played didn’t seem to result from any magical change by the coaches. McCoy was simply the same Shady we’ve seen thus far, and LaRod just did a hell of a job today. Stephens-Howling is due for congrats today; he’s always been the little running back who was rarely able to pick up yards after the first contact. Saturday he was able to take some hits but pick up an additional 3-4 yards on those carries – a huge difference when you think about it. Did LSH get mad that McCoy was getting so many carries and so much of the load so he decided he needed to have a huge game? And anyone who says McCoy is a bad teammate is horribly wrong – there was nobody cheering for LaRod after his runs more than Shady.
After those rough losses to UConn, Virginia, and Navy, a lot of people were saying how those games set Pitt’s program back. I guess if Pitt is going to have that happen, we might as well try our best to do it to other teams too. From a comment on Josh Katzowitz’s UC Bearcats blog:
After this loss, no Nippert expansion, no indoor practice facility, no BSC Bowl, no ranking, no respect, no bandwagon. Terrible loss. As a 15 year season ticket holder this is very disappointing.
And the feeling is great.
One thing that I’m a bit worried about was the amount of times that drives looked like they were heating up then stalled. We settled for three Conor Lee field goals where we drove down to the 24, 7, and 14 yard lines respectively. I don’t want to ask for too much from the Panthers because we’re so used to seeing numerous three-and-outs each game, but it was definitely a point I noticed. If this team had any type of hope for a bowl game and the season wasn’t lost, I might be more concerned.
Those blue-on-blue jerseys didn’t look good at all, but I’m not objecting to wearing them again if we keep winning in them. Too bad we won’t be able to do it next week. Instead, we’ll see the white-on-blue on the road.
Seems like the Big East refs are having some trouble lately. On Friday, a UConn player clearly called for a fair-catch on a punt but was allowed to return it for a touchdown [video]. From what I could see from the stands yesterday, the refs made some questionable calls. Walking out of Heinz Field after the game, I heard someone talking about the unsportsmanlike conduct (celebrating) call on Oderick Turner after converting the two-point conversion. I think it was actually a make up call – the ref may or may not have missed Turner pushing off the Cincinnati defender. To be fair, I haven’t seen the play more than three times, but I’d like to take another look at that.
Good to see Pitt play a good game, but we should still try to maintain the happy and realistic medium when talking about this team. It’s still possible that we won’t win another game all year. Conversely, this win shows we can pull off a win on any given day. Get ready for Louisville next Saturday; suggested reading can be found at Card Chronicle.
I also don’t think Cavanaugh had a bad game plan. Still too conservative and of course, he didn’t have a chance to get all conservative and stupid because we never had the lead. But he put the offense is a decent position to win. He also put TJ in over Pestano. Granted, I think Turner isn’t really much of a player and would like to see a bit more Mo Williams, and he probably lucked out with Thomas getting hurt because it showed that someone could come in and play better, but hey, he did SOME things better.
Now have they suddenly woken up and realized that you need to scheme as well as have talent to win? Not sure. Have they decided to just play the best players instead of the more senior guys? not sure. But it was improvement.
If you don\’t think those last three losses didn\’t set the program back a little then obviously you expect Pitt to turn into Duke — a complete basketball school.
I don\’t give the players enough credit? Did you read the entire paragraph where I said how great of a job McCoy and LSH did? And it\’s not like the coaches deserve to be put up on a pedestal after one solid game…one good game does not wipe out three or four bad ones.
Diggs played much better than McGhee again, just like all summer. Had 10+ points IIRC. Wannamaker looked good too, should get plenty of playing time – i think he’ll be fine as a PG when necessary – i’d rather see him than Ramon there most of the time.
Oh, and most suprisingly, Fields and Blair really did lose a shit ton of weight in the last 3 months. I was shocked, compared to what they looked like in July.
Cheerleaders still ugly.
Also, the breakdown of the trophy (hah!):
link to cincinnati.scout.com
I think we have the talent to win games – i just don’t think we’re going to be consistent at all because our talented players are young. I think we’re going to have to put up with this for a while – win some we shouldn’t, and then lose to SU and Navy. I think we won’t know what team comes out each week. I don’t think this means Rhoads should stay – unless he wins every game for us the rest of the year and proves the last several years we’re all a learning curve.
Let see if we can take the momentum from this weekend’s win into Papa John stadium and get a win on the road.
Hail to Pitt… NICE WIN over a ranked team and despite being down at half
Man, how many underclassman played? Dom, Dan, Mo to name a few
that said, im more impressed with cavanaugh over the past few weeks. he seems to be doing a decent job with a terrible Oline and freshman qb. look at jimmy clausen at ND, he was supposed to be the greatest qb in 15 years and he was benched within a few weeks.
I agree that it was a quality win, but it was cincy… VERY OVERRATED… and they seem to be on the decline. Easy on giving the coaches so much credit. Celebrate it and move on. we are 3-4, and this year is still pretty damn poor. I hope that Wanny and the guys have things figured out.
Cavanaugh had a decent game plan and i felt really did well. The O-line did a great job. Cincy seemed to really tire. The holes that LSH ran through at the end of the game were HUGE! The reasons he didnt go down right away were that offensive line cleared so much space defensive linemen didnt touch him, and he had so much speed, because he hit the massive holes so hard. Im not giving LSH too too much credit, because i think about anyone with legs should have got good yardage at the end of the game when he was getting his yards.
Rhoads blitzed a little more than normal, which i liked. Still his defensive scheme was awful, but the players came through and just did well on defense.
Pitt’s D is half decent against a pro style offense. Once WVU or even South Florida play us I’m a little worried we are going to get SMASHED….
PS. Bostick has the potential if he loses his happy feet. He got sacked one time i think??? but he gets so flustered. I guess he just needs more experience, but he is going to be half decent once he feels comfortable back there.
All in all its good to win, and i hope that we just played and coached really well, but I kind of get the feeling that Cincy was just pretty bad, and screwed themselves.
“PS. Bostick has the potential if he loses his happy feet. He got sacked one time i think??? but he gets so flustered. I guess he just needs more experience, but he is going to be half decent once he feels comfortable back there.”
I didn’t watch the game, but have seen the others and can see that Bostick is doing just what QB coaches teach young QBs to do – and that’s keep your feet moving at all times. Sometimes as a QB matures you won’t notice it as much – and some keep doing it through out their careers (watch Peyton Manning tonight – his feet look like the penguin’s in the movie “Happy Feet”).
He’ll probably grow out of it and become more like Montana who always kept his feet in motion but never brought them high off the ground – more like sliding around. The main thing is that even with all the lower body movement and pass rush avoidance (which he is becoming very good at small moves to avoid pressure) Bostick always keeps his head up and eyes downfield to attempt and complete the play. That’s instinctive and most young QBs tend not to be able to do that. Watch the films of Kevan Smith when the pressure got close and that’s how most new QBs react.
