The offense has faced a lot of criticism, and deservedly so. The players know they need to do more on offense. Even if they parrot the words of their coach.
It’s frustrating that we’re not scoring,” Pitt junior tight end Nate Byham said. “I don’t feel that we need to score 48, 50 points like Florida. We just need to execute and put up our mid-20s and 30 points. That’s how we are. We have a great defense. We can play and win games with 27 points, 24 points, with the defense that we have.
“That’s not our problem. If we just execute like we should be and learn the game schemes of the other teams, we should be able to put up big points. We’re not setting a goal for how many points we need to score. We’re going to score as many points as possible. It’s just that we have a lot of confidence in our defense that they’re not going to give up a lot of points.”
There is some credence to the basis of Byham’s beliefs. The Panthers are 5-2 when holding opponents to 20 points or less and 0-6 when giving up 41 points or more. But Pitt is winless when it gives up more than 21 points, and the Panthers have done so 11 times in their past 18 games.
That last bit is damning. It would be nice to hold teams to under 21 all the time, but come on. You also should be able to win some games when the other team scores 24, 27 even 30 points.
Coach Wannstedt?
Yet Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt has remained steadfast in his philosophy that the Panthers will control the clock by running the ball and rely on their defense to shut down opposing offenses.
“Scoring has gone up significantly the past few years,” Wannstedt said of the Bowling Green game, in which the Falcons scored two of its four touchdowns after recovering fumbles. “We know that, but we also didn’t help ourselves (Saturday) by creating short fields for our offense. We got one turnover, and we turned it over four times, which is eliminating four possessions. We can’t turn the ball over.
“It is the difference between winning and losing.”
So scoring is up, but that’s not a big deal? There’s nothing to change but the execution. I hate to do this on so many levels — referencing Skip Bayless, dredging up more past, mainly referencing Skip Bayless. A hat tip to reader S.N. for sending me this article written just after Wannstedt had quit the Dolphins in 2004.
As a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, I closely followed Dave’s final two Bears teams. Nearly every conversation I had with him began with, “Geez, we can’t get a break.” His creativity began and ended with, “This week, we’ve just got to run the ball and play defense.”
Disturbing familiarity.
Bowling Green was 4-4 in the redzone on Saturday. On 3 of the 4 TD drives, the Falcons had to go 52 yards or more. They never had to settle for a field goal. The defense may have had decent numbers with regards to total yards allowed, but they weren’t that impressive. But for the ineptitude of the offense, they would be getting more flack.
The offense, though, no one can defend it as it is.
By every objective measure it is clear this offensive coaching staff and philosophy are stuck so far in the prehistoric era of football that Fred Flinstone probably ran some of these plays when he was a quarterback at Bedrock High School but by the same token, did anyone catch Alabama, using the same playbook, mauling Clemson the other night? That tells me if you get the right offensive linemen (which Pitt doesn’t have) and running backs (which Pitt might have) and you can physically impose your will on teams (which Pitt can’t) that playing this power-I — or whatever you want to call it — style of football can be effective.
The problem Pitt has, however, is this: The coaches want the Panthers to be a power team, but they don’t have the personnel and, to this point, the coaches have not made much of an attempt to change the philosophy to adapt to the personnel. Few teams in college have the kind of powerful and talented linemen to line up and consistently blow other teams off the ball. There just aren’t that many top linemen around. In year one and two — when you are trying to establish a new program, that is acceptable. In year four — when you need to win games — it is probably time to do something different.
Hey, at least Matt Cavanaugh will talk after a bad performance by his unit and actually take some responsibility.
Cavanaugh said yesterday that in retrospect, the criticism of him was justified because he clearly didn’t have his best day as a play caller. He said the Panthers did make some key mistakes — like the four turnovers — but he admitted he needed to do a better job of putting together a more aggressive game plan to make teams pay for bringing pressure on every play.
“It was a combination of play calling and execution,” Cavanaugh said. “I understand some people’s vision of what a big play is and that is when the ball is thrown 40 yards down the field. But we can make big plays other ways, and I need to give the guys a few more opportunities this week to see if we can make a few. Scoring a lot of points comes with execution and good play calling and we were lacking in both the other day.
“I am accountable for this, too. It has been like that since day one around here — I have never pointed fingers at any player and players haven’t pointed fingers at the play calling.”
Cavanaugh said he spent some time Saturday after the game reflecting on what went wrong. He said he knows he made at least one key mistake in the sequence before the half but also second-guessed himself on the way he called plays the entire second half.
He said Bowling Green was basically daring the Panthers to throw deep a few times, and he didn’t try to take advantage of it.
And he even admitted that he really screwed up the play calling at the end of the 1st half. Hey, after most of the week of Head Coach Wannstedt going with a “not my fault,” “we were playing for field position,” and “we just didn’t execute,” Cavanaugh admitting that he actually screwed-up is a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t excuse it. Especially in the first game when there should be no excuse not to be well prepared and truly ready for what an opponent will do. But at least he is copping to some real mistakes on his part.
LeSean McCoy even took blame for his game.
McCoy said the Falcons “had my number,” that he got “frustrated” and “started doing my own thing” and wished he could have back the fumble late in the second quarter that led to the game-tying scoring drive.
“I was a little impatient, trying to see if it would open up a little bit,” McCoy said. “I kind of got out of the strategy of the game plan and started doing my own thing a little bit, trying to get a little extra.”
Naturally Wannstedt defended both as his guys, but with this for McCoy?
On McCoy: “Shady just needs to run where he’s supposed to run, block when he’s supposed to block. He’s still learning. This is his second year of playing in college. I think because of the publicity that he gets, the perception is that he’s been around here playing for three years. He’s still learning every day and every game. The key is to improve week to week.”
Inexperience is the excuse? Still learning? I would have accepted, simply “trying to do too much,” but not that. That’s more crap, and another thing that has really come to bother me with Wannstedt as head coach at Pitt. If a player is not a redshirt junior or better, he seems to feel they lack the necessary experience and that is the built-in excuse. Not the coaching, teaching or responsibility of the player. Just too darn little experience.
This is college in 2008. Not 1968. Not 1978. Not even 1988. The days of being able to redshirt a player, load up with 100+ scholarships and build deep experienced players has been done for years. It isn’t the pros. In an ideal world you have players with lots of talent and experience. Reality is different.
You aren’t going to have many players with a lot of experience that are on the high talent. Odds are they are gone by their junior year. That’s why the CFB Coaches want to eliminate the redshirt and give a flat 5 years of eligibility. It gives them more flexibility with the use of players. If they redshirt a player who suddenly blossoms, they will lose him as a redshirt sophomore. Not getting enough use of them. McCoy is almost certainly gone after this year, inexperience is the one excuse that won’t wash.
This AP article points out, again how Pitt under Wannstedt is just not winning games.
“We have something to prove,” tight end Nate Byham said. “We definitely have something to prove, especially after this loss, but the ability is there for us to play with anybody.”
That’s the ongoing story line at Pitt: The Panthers can beat anybody, but they do so all too infrequently.
And that is why the frustration and anger after last week continues to fester. It’s nice to say, time to let it go. Time to move on and focus on Buffalo. It’s another thing, to simply try and ignore last week. Especially when it seems very obvious that things aren’t changing.
