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September 26, 2009

Pitt – NC State LiveBlog

Filed under: Football,liveblog — Chas @ 3:08 pm

I think the embed is working this time. If it isn’t you can find the direct link to the liveblog by Clicking Here.

In case you are new to this or forget the rules, comments are moderated unless I know you to be a trusted commenter. In which case I will clear you to unfiltered commenting.

I generally will not bother approving a slew of comments after a play that repeats the same thing. Nothing personal, but it really adds nothing and keeps me from doing any commenting as the game goes on if I just have to keep clicking them through.





Looks like if you can avoid the big play and run the ball, Cincy is beatable.

Comment by PantherChris 09.26.09 @ 3:13 pm

Great throw by Stull!

Comment by PantherChris 09.26.09 @ 3:39 pm

Who picks up the fullback? My god.

Comment by PantherChris 09.26.09 @ 4:09 pm

can we please play some f’ing D?!!!!

Comment by Pitt It Is 09.26.09 @ 6:04 pm

Pitt needs to fire the d- backs coach. D backs didn’t make one play all game.

Game left in stull’s hands after late turnover. He can’t carry the weight.

531 yrds of offense given up by Pitt is embarrassing.

Wanny has to go. He can’t pull together.

Comment by PItt fan 09.26.09 @ 6:53 pm

Stull was 12/23 for 206 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs. This loss doesn’t fall on him.

Comment by Jason 09.26.09 @ 6:55 pm

How can our D go from being one of the best in the nation to one of the worst. Our secondary miss about 100 tackles today. Pathetic. Stull throwing the ball away, especially with the way the officials were calling the pass interference. Give your team a chance and put it near a receiver.

Comment by pidoublet 09.26.09 @ 6:57 pm

That was terrible. I cannot see Pitt winning more than two games in the Big East this season. A 5-7 record just doesn’t do it at this point when one win is against the Little Sisters of the Poor and a second against a JuCo squad.

I’ve been a longtime defender of Mr. Wannstadt, he runs a clean program and his heart is indisputably in the right place, but it’s time to go.

Comment by Upstate New York 09.26.09 @ 6:57 pm

I am not a Stull hater, but 12 for 23 and 206 yard (about 70 of which came on one play), does not cut it. Too many drive stalling incompletes. Though the blame goes to the Defense for sure on this one.

Comment by pidoublet 09.26.09 @ 7:00 pm

NC St gives you on at the end and Pitt putstje game in Stull’s hands? Are you kidding me. Different year but same results. Wanny is a 7-5 or 8-4 guy at best. Walt Harris isn’t looking so bad after all. At least we could count on beating vtech and making a bowl each year.

Not one kid in the secondary deserves to be on the field. They couldn’t cover anyone. Decicco, berry, and fields are pathetic.

Comment by PItt fan 09.26.09 @ 7:00 pm

Face it — for the last 50 minutes, NC State was clearly the better team .. they should have won by 3 TDs. We never stopped them … they only srooped themselves a few times.

My only issue on offense is why they called the same freaking play on every freakin first down in the 2nd half???

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 7:01 pm

OK, all of you Wanny apologists, where are you now? Year five — I said year five and you don’t have a quarterback and your defense is the worst it has been in five years giving up 28 second half points and that was not helped by an offense which could not sustain any drives to give them a blow. Check out the time of possession. Who made the better halftime adjustments? Any you still want Wanny on the sidelines on Saturdays? For a minute, when he ran his hand through his hair for the 200th time, I thought it was a replay of an old Bears loss.

Pathetic and you know it.

Comment by steve 09.26.09 @ 7:02 pm

Jason, you’re right that the loss doesn’t fall on him, as the defense is most responsible … but how can Stull put the ball in a place where no receiver can possibly get a hand on it for the final offensive play? Was he worried about an interception on 4th and goal down by seven? Can’t score if you throw it out of the end zone.

It was a stunningly poor throw with the game on the line. An incomplete pass I understand, not giving any receiver a chance?

I don’t understand.

Comment by Upstate New York 09.26.09 @ 7:04 pm

Enough with blaming Stull. The defense gave up over. 500 yds

Comment by tiger paul 09.26.09 @ 7:10 pm

They could not contain Wilson. How many third and long scrambles did he convert? Penalties… No discipline! Does Berry think he’s Revis? How about making adjustments? NC State made some and stopped Lewis in the 2nd half. I can’t accept a loss like this to a middle of the pack ACC team. Simply atrocious and embarrassing!

Comment by Pittastic 09.26.09 @ 7:11 pm

I hadnt read the PG for a few days, when did we re-hire Cav and Paul Rhodes?

Stull may be one of the dumbest men to ever play qb or maybe that concussion really did rattle something loose. 4th and goal needing a td to tie and he throws the f’ing ball out of bounds??? I really thought I had imagined that. I had to see it again to make sure I actually saw that happen. Why not go with our strength and run it, maybe a fade to baldwin, maybe some power running with hyno…no lets let Jo “Billy Stull” Montana win it for us with his golden arm. total horse shit!

The D is horrific, apparently nobody feels like tackling and the middle of the field is open season for opposing wr’s. Just like old faithful, Pitt is right on time for letting down the fans with a piss poor game.

Comment by Coach Ditka 09.26.09 @ 7:12 pm

We were winning this game by 14 at one point late in the 3rd…… what a fucking meltdown!

At that point I figured that we could at least out-score them if worse came to worse.

And they even gift wrapped a chance for us late in the 4th quarter that we pissed away.

Comment by Jimbo Covert's my Dad 09.26.09 @ 7:16 pm

No excuse for the shit that went on today…more bad penalties, the D just looks absolutely uninspired with zero emotion. this one hurts

Comment by Coach Ditka 09.26.09 @ 7:18 pm

this defense looked flat and out of shape, period.
I only could get the end of the 3rd and 4th on TV but is there any emotion from anyone out there? Also, it didn’t look like there is a leader on the offense or the defense. When things started to go bad we tucked our tails.

Comment by OntarioLett'sGoPitt 09.26.09 @ 7:20 pm

c’mon, obviously Stull thought that Turner was going straight to the back of the end zone while Turner broke off the route … but maybe Turner made the right adjustment and Stull didn’t pick it up. The real question is that why were they in that position? They just kep handing the ball of on 1st down the entire 2nd half, and it wa sputting them in 2nd and long …. it just doesn’t figure.

But again … after our fast start …. we didn’t belong on the field with them, especially when we were on defense …. they should have killed us, we didn’t deserve to only lose by 7

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 7:23 pm

Does anybody else think that interference call on Holley on their final drive was incredible BS?

Comment by steve 09.26.09 @ 7:33 pm

I don’t write on here often but how does this loss look any different than the Bowling Green or some of the other losses last year? You’re up 31-17 and you give up 21 straight points. Your leading rusher has almost 80 yards in the first half and less than 20 in the second half. This is so similar to last year…….. You can’t blame Cavanaugh or Cignetti at this point. You have to blame WANNSTANDT!!!!!!
This was also a repeat of the Buffalo game where they had over 500 yards of offense. Does anyone make adjustments after games or during halftime???? N.C. State sure knew what was going on.
I had hope head coaching wasn’t the biggest issue this team has…..but it is. Blame the Defense all you want. (They needed to make adjustments from last year, and haven’t done squat)You can blame Stull only so much as he would make a nice DII quarterback, but he’s all we have at this point. It’s head coaching all the way…… Even with Stull at the

Comment by beanboy 09.26.09 @ 7:44 pm

I think my last post had the ending omitted because Wannstandt is running the posts and missed my 2nd half opinion….. I tried to finish by saying Even with Stull at QB and the Defense faltering, it wouldn’t have been that hard to finish up a much stronger 2nd half and won this game by 10 points.

Comment by beanboy 09.26.09 @ 7:48 pm

yes steve…and it was a huge call in the scope of the game, because it went from the Defense off of the field to a TD. I think the refs called 3 PI’s on a string of 6 NC State passes there.

Comment by OntarioLett'sGoPitt 09.26.09 @ 8:05 pm

I know a loss is a loss is a loss, but I can’t really give Pitt one on this game and NC state a win. It was more a win for the referees that is for sure. I would love to know what NC State fan was blowing the officials cause that game was a doozy from a referee standpoint. I am now officially over the Bill Stull bashing, but what is going on with the Defense more importantly DeCicco and Berry. They both looked awful! Can’t wait to see the highlights; at the game itself they would never show the replays of the pass interference calls, so I need to see them again that is for sure.

Comment by Heel Hater 09.26.09 @ 8:10 pm

I’m not sure there were any half time adjustments to make …. we just don’t have the personnel to stop them. This isn’t near the same team we had last year … I don’t recognize it at all on so many levels.

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 8:12 pm

Heel Hater, you can’t blame the refs though when you give up almost 550 yards of offense. Buffalo had roughly the same amount of yards as well. The commentators were talking about how good Pitts Defense was?????? When did this happen? They looked good against Navy, but Navy had no quick wideouts to catch balls 10 yards down field then run 30 more after the catch. That’s the biggest interference of all as far as I’m concerned.

Comment by beanboy 09.26.09 @ 8:15 pm

Pathetic…truly Pathetic…Defense played like a division II team…then the coaching and offense chokes when we need them the most. Chalk this game up to the D.W. choke game!

Comment by Marco 09.26.09 @ 8:33 pm

I don’t know, I’ve been a Wannstadt apologist for a long time. I was hoping that maybe Pederson would place strong assistants around him, let him recruit and serve as CEO. I love how he talks about Pitt and the Passion he has. I just don’t know if that is going to work. I’m watching PSU-Iowa, and hate seeing them do so well. I guess it’s more jealousy than anything. Why did they get a coach like JoePa who stayed in a wasteland like State College forever? Why is it whenever Pitt had a good coach (Majors, Sherrill, Howland) they couldn’t wait to leave? Why are the loyal Pitt guys like Fazio and Wannstadt so mediocre? Remember even Walt had one foot out the door when things were looking up

Comment by jaimz 09.26.09 @ 9:14 pm

I have been trying to put this difficult loss into perspective but this is all I can come up with…..I’m gonna get drunk…not like kinda hazy drunk, but fall down the steps from the top of old Pitt Stadium and land under a bar stool a Peters Pub drunk. Cheers!

Comment by bombersunshine 09.26.09 @ 9:31 pm

Been sayin’ it the last 2 freakin’ years, and my tune hasn’t changed – get rid of Wannestadt!! Please! If you’re happy with a below average program then I guess you are happy with DW, but I expect more from Pitt football, and all I’m seeing is more of the same – terrible play-calling, giving up large leads, and uninspired play. And for a guy who supposedly is a great recruiter, to not have a decent quarterback by year 5 is inexcusable!! And where the hell did the freakin’ defense go this year?

Comment by Wayne 09.26.09 @ 9:34 pm

If it was on a dry field, NCState may have scored 70! No loss is fun, but this was so ugly it ruined my evening. Yes the refs calls sucked but welcome to Tobacco Road. If Wanny is such a great recruiter, where is the talent at QB, LB, Safety etc. Again,making the same mistakes over and over…we have yet to cover a back out of the backfield and where was a run to the fullback? Once we got up 14 Wanny tried to take the air out of the ball and all it did was completely stop our momentum. This game is simply a re-run of all of Wanny’s losses at Pitt. What a wasted afternoon!

Comment by Dan 72 09.26.09 @ 9:34 pm

Didn’t see the game but followed the gamecast on ESPN…totally disappointing and irritating loss. However, the silver lining could be: we weren’t going to go 12-0, so get over that notion fast; it’s good for Wanny to have a shameful loss earlier than later, as non-conference losses are less critical; and, losing like this exposes our flaws early and gives Wanny a kick in the butt to make some changes before our tough run…if he is ready to this time.

Comment by Matt N. 09.26.09 @ 9:44 pm

What game were you guys watching today? Wanny was clearly the better coach today .. NC St should have won by 3 tds. Just becuase you had this preconceived notion that Pitt was the better team going in, doesn’t mean that they were.

How about the debacle that NCS had on offense right before the half? … how bout lining up in a shotgun when protecting the lead? … how about taking a pnealty when they stopped us on 3rd down in the 3rd quarter (that wasn’t a wise decision .. nor did NCS look prepared to play at the beginning. Pitt tried many different things on defense … but they were simply the better team.

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 9:44 pm

and one more thing … who says they are a middle-of-the-road ACC team? Their only loss was by 4 pts to what apparently looks like a really good SC team …and NCS had many more injuries and Illnesses vs SC, especially on the O-line, than they have now.

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 9:48 pm

Too many penalties and their QB really outplayed our QB. Stull just can’t get most passes on target – I cannot watch him play – the last pass of the game made absolutely no sense – THROW IT NEAR SOMEBODY!

Comment by dishman 09.26.09 @ 9:50 pm

This loss hurts because it proves that we are and will forever be nothing more than a mid major. We will never compete with the PSU’s, USC’s, Florida’s, ect. that Wanny promised us when he was hired.

Why? As much as it hurts to say it, no one cares about this program in our city other than the diehards like us, no one cares about our conference other than the diehards like us, and no truly incredible recruits like Pryor come here because they know no one cares about us. Losing to NC State is unacceptable for what we want to be and a new regime needs to come into power for us to truly come to the next level and I don’t care where the new coach is from. Just win baby.

Comment by AJ 09.26.09 @ 9:54 pm

1st and goal from the 8….if you give it to the FB Hynoski 4 times he will probably get more then 0 yards….smash mouth old school football is not floaters to the back of the end zone….its run it right at them and see who has the best line. They still had time outs and were playing for the tie… Anyway, how bout that knob creek….kinda burns at first but then its like drinking honey from one of those little plastic bears.

Comment by bombersunshine 09.26.09 @ 9:57 pm

You are right WBB …Wanny is a genius and we should all be grateful that he kept Pitt this close to one of the great traditional winners of college football, NC State….

Comment by Dan 72 09.26.09 @ 10:02 pm

AJ, do you not think that many teams wants to be what we aspire to be including NC St? The fact is that there is a handful of elite teams out there, many more teams that seem to be clueless almost every year, and for the vast majority it is a crapshoot.

Look how good FSU looked last week, and the U for the past few weeks … Cincy was lucky to hold on playing at home, Cal got killed today by an Oregon team taat hasn’t shown a thing this year, PSU is struggling before 110 large as I am writing this .. I could go on and on.

WE have a decent team but we werenot the favorite today going into the game.

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 10:11 pm

Blaming this debacle on Stull, Wannstedt and being out of shape? Come on….The d-backs wiffed on so many tackles it was pathetic!
Maybe we should look at a technique coach. I understand Wannstedt had referees working with the team the past week but it didn’t seem to help. Discipline….they worked hard but didn’t play smart.

Comment by wldrnss 09.26.09 @ 10:13 pm

Dan 72, go ahead and resort to hyperbole. Fact is that we all have seen these Pitt players block, tackle, run, pass and catch before (they are very capable) .. but today, for the last 50 minutes, they outblocked us, outtackled us, outran us, outpassed us, and outcaught us …… FOOTBALL 101

We weren’t outschemed — their players were better than our players today.

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 10:17 pm

D-backs are terrible. There isn’t one thAt could start on another BE team. Decicco is the worst. Does he ever come up to lay a hit on anyone? He is the freaking free safety. You have a license to come up and finish off people. At least do that since you can’t organize the secondary.
Berry has never loved up to potential. Fields has to make a play. But decicco is clearly the worst. Poor coverage, tackling and leadership.

Comment by PItt fan 09.26.09 @ 10:47 pm

Wannstedt has not made Pitt an elite program yet. Elite programs win games like today’s. We have 3 straight BE challenges ahead. I hope Wanny refocuses the team and moves forward. Unfortunately, having followed his career, I’ve learned that his teams struggle with one or two big issues every year, improving little as the season progresses. Hopefully this is the year the trend abates.

Comment by TonyinHouston 09.26.09 @ 10:52 pm

My analysis

1) RB’s – solid job by Lewis in first half. Not much left in second after NC St. made adjustments but he can still play

2) WR – solid play. A couple of balls thrown behind them but they did enough for us to win

3) O-line – Not the greatest job (especially in second half) but hey you looked good for most of the game and gave the QB time for the most part.

4) QB – mediocre performance. Take away the 78 yard strike to baldwin (it was nice) and you are sitting at 130 yrs and the inability to lead your team to victory after being handed a gimmie on the 8yrd line with less than 1.30 left in the game. You are the senior leadership right? Pass to Dickerson at the end was poorly executed. You threw it behind him. Throw it over his left shoulder and lead him. If you do this then he has a chance to score. Ball to dickerson at the back of endzone was ok. You got it there. Tough to bring down. Last throw was pathetics. YOu must play better

4) D-line – Solid job most of the game until the last 1/3. You looked tire. Understandable since I dont recall one blitz to help you out. You chased all night and I for one am content with you effort. You gave NC St fits in the first half. You got no support from the LB’s and Secondary the second half. Solid job. Several NFL contracts coming your way

5) LB’s- Ok job. Not much up the middle on you until the end. No one made a big play. Short crossing routes were open all second half. You had a terrible time covering the crossing routes.
Mason showed that he is a freshman today. Lots of potential but he didnt standout this time.

6) DB’s – Plain and simple – YOU SUCKED! If you werent missing tackles then you were blowing coverages or commiting unneccessary penalties. Most disappointing were the blown tackles. That is pop warner football fellas. You didnt were your big boy pants today. Left them on the bus. Sad to say but if I were the coach some of you would be on special teams coverage only. Then again since you can’t tackle I would have you on the bench. Decicco was horrible. Berry was just as bad. Fields was a step to slow. And the kid from florida (not sure of his name and if he continues to play that way I will never know his name) was just plain in over his head. Hard to play so poorly as a unit and individually. Usually someone steps up but that wasnt the case today

7) Coaching – 31-17 late in 3rd quarter! First and goal on the 8 yrd line after NC St gives you one! Lewis with 70 yrds in the first half and then less than 30 in second. D-backs getting torched all day long. NC St QB getting all the time in the world to decide to throw or scramble (even the ESPN announcer began to count 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi…). Where was the consistent blitz to help out the D-line. You coahes were out coaches plain and simple and for the money that you make and the opportunity that you have at PITT you should be embarrassed. DB coaches should be relieved of his duties.

One simple question. You have the ball handed to you on the N.C. St. 8 yard line with less than 2 minutes to go. You decide to throw the ball 3 of 4 plays. The best receiver on the field is Baldwin. The tallest receiver on the field is Baldwin. Did anyone think to throw the fade to the corner at least once? Shame on Wanny. Time for him to go!

Comment by Oh how I dream of 1976 09.26.09 @ 11:18 pm

you want to see bad coaching, you saw it if you were watching the ND – Purdue game. Purdue aided ND with a timeout in the last 35 seconds

Comment by wbb 09.26.09 @ 11:24 pm

yeah that was a bone-headed time to call a timeout. unfortunately for Purdue, on a 4th and goal the ND QB actually threw the ball in the general direction of someone.

Comment by thewrathofwalt 09.26.09 @ 11:30 pm

I was depressed until I knew Iowa would make my day and JoPa and his crew do the usual in the mighty Big 10?????? I can now sleep better knowing PSU is never going to be an elite program since leaving us so many years ago. Don’t get tired of people complaining the Big East is a weak conference. California, Ole Miss, and PSU prove these teams in other conferences are overrated and the top 20 is a joke till November hits. LSU is lucky not to be down and out as well…….

Comment by beanboy 09.26.09 @ 11:38 pm

misery loves company. Great job Iowa! BTW, the coach is from pittsburgh so in a way I feel like I got one today. Hail to PITT. GO STEELERS! (make the FG’s tomorrow)

Comment by At least Penn Stater lost to a Pittsburgh Guy 09.26.09 @ 11:50 pm

Steve tou are pathetic. Go root for some other school.

Comment by tiger paul 09.26.09 @ 11:52 pm

Good morning, tiger paul.

What also irked me yesterday was being the only Pitt fan at an NJ sports bar (joined by 1 really annoying NCS fan). There are over 4500 Pitt alumni residing in NJ.

And in the party room? 100+ screaming Hokie fans.

Comment by steve 09.27.09 @ 7:58 am

With the way that pass interference calls were going against us, I can’t imagine why Stull did not just throw at least 2 jump balls in the end zone who almost certainly would have pass interference written all over them…..

Comment by JoeyD 09.27.09 @ 8:32 am

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