You can say UCONN sucks, you can say it was an aberration and you can say it won’t last. But what you can’t say is that Tino Sunseri failed to give Todd Graham everything the HC wished for in a QB last night. In doing so it allowed Graham to justify, in his own mind I’m sure, his decision to keep Mark Myers at third string QB so far this season.
After going out on (another) limb this week and stating that Sunseri was going to be the “Starter for Life”, Graham for once didn’t have to turn around and saw off the limb he was sitting on. What he got from his QB was Sunseri’s best game in his three year career and a effort that overcame what every PITT fan said would be unachievable, a win where our star RB Ray Graham couldn’t influence the outcome.
When all else failed, with Ray Graham going down, another OL out with an injury, Cam Saddler having his best game as a Panther then being injured, Sunseri stood tall and delivered.
I know! What the hell was that!
But Sunseri put on a passing clinic last night. His actions were decisive, he looked off defenders, he hit the receivers quickly and his throws were strong and accurate. Few passes went over 15 yards in the air but that is the design of this offense, to get the ball into the receivers hands quickly and allow them to get YAC. Which we did by having over 325 yards picked up by the receiver’s after the catch.
He also completed passes to eight different players last night, five of which had over 50 yards receiving. Amazingly all of them were wearing PITT uniforms. Hell, even his compulsory deep incompletions had a least one shot at being successful.
Graham had to love every second of what he saw. Except for those dang gum bonehead plays by the QB… he probably didn’t like those very much and chewed Sunseri a new ass on more than one occasion, especially after that play where Sunseri pulled up lame with a phantom Achilles’ injury at the end of the first half.
Here how the passing totals shook out:
| Pittsburgh Passing | |||||
| C/ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | INT | |
| T. Sunseri | 29/42 | 419 | 10.0 | 2 | 0 |
| R. Jones | 1/1 | 14 | 14.0 | 1 | 0 |
| Team | 30/43 | 433 | 10.1 | 3 | 0 |
One can say Sunseri isn’t a “Running Quarterback” and if your reference is Pat White or Cam Newton then you would be correct. But what he is is a quarterback who can run. He’s mobile and pretty fast for a guy in his position. We have seen that when he embraces the HC’s mandate that he either keeps the ball on the option or runs it straight off the snap as a primary component of play. The problem is that when Sunseri waivers in confidence he reverts back to what he is familiar with, that of a purely passing QB. Last night that didn’t happen.
So what Todd Graham really desired Sunseri delivered in spades, another strong running game from the QB position. That is the nucleus of the offense Graham brought with him to PITT and that is what has to be productive for the other components of his offense to fall into place to keep it going.
Last night Sunseri ran for 73 yards on nine carries after you take away the three sacks for (-) 33 yards. Read that again folks…73 yards on nine carries for 8.1 ypc and a TD. It was what got us going and take the lead at the beginning of the game and what allowed us to pick up some crucial 1st downs later on. It isn’t the first time he’s done this. We saw it against Iowa and USF also. In these three games, where Sunseri actually has used his run option aggressively, he’s rushed 25 times for 169 yards for a 6.8 ypc average (again, minus sack yardage). Place that up against Ray Graham’s 5.7 ypc this season and you can see how much of a positive it would be to have that on a consistent basis.
What does this all mean? It means that Sunseri playing this way, both throwing and running, made the odds even that much longer for Mark Myers to see any meaningful action on the field. He played last night in a charity role by handing off three times in the last 120 seconds of play, but the handwriting on the wall had just been repainted in bright bold colors already.
Actually Myers was, in essence, relegated back to third string during the game last night as the staff inserted Ronald Jones in at QB to play our last genuine series. Jones responded by throwing a TD pass to Shanahan.
BTW, that wasn’t the Wildcat or a trick play I believe, that was the staff having Jones doing what he did well in high school in playing dual threat QB. He passed for 1,698 yards and 20 touchdowns, and rushed for 624 yards and 10 TDs in his senior season.
Jones is well put at WR obviously but the staff has had him practice a bit at the QB position earlier this season and he’s is a legitimate player to be considered as an emergency QB if needed. That would be if Sunseri, Anderson, Gonzalez and Myers all go out for a post-practice Team Building exercise meal at The Dirty O and come down with mass food poisoning.
This may be a good time to put the “Myers is being screwed” issue behind us. It is even more evident today how committed the staff is to having a run option threat at QB and Myers hasn’t competed successfully with the other QBs in that area since the spring practices. He just hasn’t.
That has been the decider for the staff’s decision making in regards to the QB two-deep. He flat out couldn’t play better in Graham’s desired offense than Sunseri, Anderson or Gonzalez for it. What Sunseri did last night was put the exclamation point on the issue of what Graham requires at that position. It hasn’t been a personal vendetta, an ego issue or just plain stubbornness on the HC’s part. It’s been football.
PS Loved seeing Hugh at the game last night!!!!
HTP
You are simply out of your mind. Last night Tino never completed a pass beyond 25 yards. Come to think of it I do not believe he has completed a pass (thrown over) 25 yards all year. Tino’s arm is a joke, he belongs at a 1AA or Division 2 school, not on the field in Pittsburgh.
Yes he played a great game yesterday, but is the South Florida game so long ago. Simply put the UConn coaches are fools, they never brought up their safeties so that dink and dunk passing game worked.
The bottom line is Tino is not cut out to be our quarterback and the excuses that Coach Graham gives is maddening.
I just looked at this, some info added to the above:
Sunseri’s quality of play revolves around his actually using the run option as Graham requires him to. Here is an example:
In three games, Iowa, USF and UCONN, where Sunseri actually has used his run option aggressively, he’s rushed 25 times for 169 yards for a 6.8 ypc average ( minus sack yardage) and 2 TDs. Place that up against Ray Graham’s 5.7 ypc this season and you can see how much of a positive it would be to have that on a consistent basis and how it helped in those games.
Also, In those games we scored 27, 44 and 35 points – the highest totals against BCS opponents this year. He also threw for 225, 216 and 419 yards respectively in those three games – with 4 TD and 0 INTs.
This is what drives Todd Graham crazy when Sunseri doesn’t play aggressively with his run option – and is the basis for what Graham wants in his offense. His running helps the passing game – it just does – and leads us to wins or real close games. That Iowa loss was all on the defense.
His arm was pretty damn good last night, strong and accurate. You obviously don’t HAVE to throw passes over 25 yards to win.
Sorry you don’t agree but he is what Graham wants to run his system.
I also think Tino needs some speakers in his helmet so he can “hear footsteps” a little better. (or maybe a rear view mirror!)
All in all, I think the staff adjusted to T’s strengths and it showed. Now, if we can adjust to keep ahead of the defensive plans of the opposition.
Sure, Tino should have had the presence to get rid of the ball somehow, but you don’t expect a guy to come unchecked from your back side as you’re rolling away from him. And before anyone calls Tino slow, Williams runs a 4.64 40, which is faster than Lindsey.
If Gaskins had gotten any kind of chip on Williams, Tino either gets out of bounds or gets the ball away. TG needs to look at that part of it too.
Again, not trying to give Tino a complete pass on that one, but as wbb has said in the past, and above, there are a lot of moving parts in TG’s offense and it’s not always just the QB being good or bad.
Like Reed said, Tino made his running a threat last night and that put UConn off balance. He has to get that through his head permanently and stop reverting to the drop-back passer the previous offense wanted him to be. It makes all the difference in the world to the way High Octane functions.
One thing that continues to puzzle me – Cam Saddler still playing although he is not very good, can’t get open, can’t block..not sure he is even a D1 player at this point. I would rather see the young guys like Jones play more over him.
Graham just pulled another backhanded compliment … “this is the way the offense is supposed to work” No kidding!! But it was the same personnel that played vs USF and UConn and played vs Utrah and Rutgers .. and you can’t tell me that all of a sudden they all completely forgot their assignments entirely vs Utah and Rutgers .. that’s just silly!
That may have had something to do with those two impressive wins.
I was amazed that they didn’t follow the Rutgers – Utah formula of constantly blitzing and playing press coverage on the receivers … but instead they stayed in a zone. Apparently, they don’t have the LB or DB talent to do so.
Consequently, there were a lot of open receivers .. which wasn’t the case the past few games.
One game at a time. I hope the 7pm start against 1st place Cincy will bring the fans out.
Go Pitt!!
Marco, did you watch any of Pitt’s games last year when Tino operated out of a pro setting? From my perspective, he put up some pretty good numbers and had a high QB rating. (A hidden statistic: for many of his completions last year, the ball traveled more than 25 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.)
Our two most impressive Ws this season, and both teams pretty much suck.
Let’s hope the D is ready for for Pead and Collaros. Cincy is one of the few above average teams in this conference (I refuse to refer to any Big East teams as “good”).
My point, all four teams are very close to each other.
A good thing, at least this isn’t Johnny Majors II.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda…..all of our losses were winnable.
Bottom line, Tino played well, no matter the opponent. The o.c. play calling was much better.
One thing that is fairly obvious to anyone.
When Tino runs, by design on the option read, or eluding the pass rush, Pitt’s offense opens up ten fold!!!
Why he didn’t do this against Utah and Rutgers, I don’t know. Not blaming him, the coaching staff, should have 5-8 plays a game, option read if you want, whatever, that he is told,
“Tino, we want to to drop back, and take off”, or, “we’re calling an option read, but in no way do we want you to hand off, you are to run no matter what”.
Even if you get stopped for no gain, we want you to run the ball no matter what.
Anyhow, keep the D honest.
Well, nothin’ sexy, but a good win. 4-4. What the hell, maybe they could pick off Cincy.
Feel terrible for Ray Graham, what can you say, hope it’s not as bad as it looked.
This was only one game, one point on the graph, too early to judge if things are turning around. A win is always better than a loss. Cincinnati next. Get to feel good for over one week until then. Wife asked why we cannot go to game like this instead of Utah.
Hope Ray Graham is not seriously injured. Hope his injury does not affect his future pro career.
My experience tells me Ray Graham’s problem is with his MCL, not ACL. Best result would be a partial tear that can be repaired with arthroscopic surgery. Out 4 weeks max. Worst would be he needs major surgery for MCL and worse to be repaired. Out until next season.
My hat is off to Ray. He is a real talent and a warrior. I have re-watched his cut where the injury occured and it appears he caught his spikes on the turf.
God Speed Ray…
I believe they were in scoring position 3 times against UConn and turned the ball over twice and missed a field goal. UConn’s only touchdown came after a fumble at the USF 10. They had Cincinnati beat until Collaros went nuts in the 4th quarter and still only lost on a last second drive.
I guess we’ll see how the rest of their season unfolds just like we’ll see if Pitt is a real contender again next Saturday. I’m hoping they recover and win out, because it only helps Pitt’s chances for the BE title and legitimizes our win against them.
NOT lost in this is that Pitt sucks really bad also. With Ray Graham going down early in the game and with our already depleted OL losing another guy to injury, this could have been just another ugly loss for the Panthers IF they had taken their eye off the ball once again.
With all of the flack that has been heaped on Sunseri (including by me) his confidence level had to be in question coming into the game. However, last night he and the rest of the team stood up to the challenges thrown at them. And lets not forget that IMO the Panthers had absolutely NO home field advantage at Heinz Field last night. The energy of the fans that did show up for the game could not make up for the thousands of no shows and empty seats that were everywhere. Shame on the Pitt students, fans and Pittsburgh residents in general for their lack of support for this team during this tough season.
This was a landmark game for this Panther team who have taken a lot of hard body shots to their egos up to this point in the season, I don’t care how bad UCONN sucked. This Pitt team pulled themselves up by their boot straps last night and just decided that they were not going to lose another game, which easily could have happened when Graham after went down.
Congrats to the Panthers and to Sunseri in particular, job well done.
Not true…maybe the simplified offense they are running for the sake of the players but not the offense they want to run. The offense is predicated on “Big Plays” that Graham classifies as 25 yards or more…and he wants 10 of them a game.
I hear you though. I was surprised at how empty the USF game was also. Basically the same conditions with it being a work night game with a chance of rain. I guess that’s why they call them fair weather fans.
However, some folks, and many on this blog, travel a good distance to attend games, so they do have a bit of an excuse especially because of the work night and the two previous outings. I’d give those folks a pass.
As for Tino, his stats were good, and we won the game. Hard to complain about the result. Besides, UCONN’s QBs are WAY worse. I can’t believe I will say it but I would actually pick Tino over another D1QB!
The one thing that doesn’t seem to change is that the student section empties out after Sweet Caroline. The song is supposed to create synergy with the fans and pump the team up, but to see 60-70% of your classmates leave right after the song has to have the opposite effect.
It has to be quite embarrassing to the program, players, and the other students and fans that are committed to this team, to watch the droves of students leave at the beginning of the 4th quarter. They came for the party, not to support their school, and they should be ashamed of themselves. If I had my way, I would shut down the buses until the end of the game.
If he can put two back to back then he is the man but like they say in mizzou show me.
Either way Graham wants this aspect of the QB play to be front and center – that the QB is capable of getting yards on his own. It we then put what Sunseri did in that context – and as referenced to the discussions we have have about Myers lack of playing time – those runs cement Sunseri’s place at the starting spot. Myers wouldn’t be able to pull off what Sunseri has done with his feet this season.
John, I was making a joke about Sunseri. I thought he was hurt also and, as a matter of fact I liveblogged right aftwrward that I thoiugh Sunseri is a gamer and tough kid and that he’d be out in the second half. I guess that when i use the same tone so often to make a real point I should watch how I use it in jest.
(More in a second – have to run out the door)
I’m sure he wants to see more of a vertical passing game also, but he has been pretty insistent that the quick passes (one, two, out) are what the offense runs on… when those quick passes net more than 15 yards gained they are the explosive plays he talks about. We saw a ton of them last night with the receivers getting 325+ yac.
Ted_3 – Gonzalez was dropped from the QB rotation after Anderson came onboard and outplay both Myers and Gonzalez. Really though, it was painfully evident back in the spring that Gonzalez just can’t pass at this level. That, combined with the good play he has put in at H-Back has allowed Dodge to move him over to the receivers. Keep an eye on him there also. He’ll be a big contributor down the road in this offense IMO. remember that Sunseri will be a rsSR next year, Anderson will be back and we may be able to shift another player over to be that 3rd string QB. I really don’t expect Myers back next season and, of course there is always Gonzalez to switch back if needed.
One thing to note is that while Graham didn’t promise Voytik and playing time as a FR, he did tell him that PITT wouldn’t recruit anymore QBs for 2012. Of course, that was then and this is now so I wouldn’t be too shocked if after Voytik signs the LOI we magically have a JUCO onboard as a transfer for the summer camps.
Joel, while Myers may just love PITT to death he most probably loves football and the opportunity to see if he can make it to the next level better. Every kid who plays college football wants to get playing time and starting time if possible. In a real sense I hope he does transfer because I think he’s been a good teammate and deserves a stage to show off his talents. There is no shame in dropping down to a D-II school and playing for three years – just ask Joe Flacco who is pulling in millions per year after having done so.
Frankcan – I’m not sure how many PITT fans are actually ‘onboard’ with Sunseri after the drastic ups and downs he’s had so far this year. But I do think that more are realizing that he’s going to be the starting QB come hell or high water. The point of my article wasn’t that Sunseri is going to play like this from here on out – i wouldn’t take that bet for any odds in the world. It was that he’s Graham’s guy from here on out and cemented that in Graham’s mind with his performance last night.
As to the “he’s not a D1 QB” that some espouse? Get real – he may not be a great QB or even a very good one but there are loads of QBs who don’t produce as much as he does and they are playing in D1. what he doesn’t do is live up to everyone’s expectations of what a good starting QB in D1 should be… but that varies just like opinions do.
That being said, I doubt that these flaws will be available for the remainder of the season.
I fear without Graham, we will be very limited. I am not hear to roast Tino. But the fact remains…we can’t stretch the field vertically and without Graham we don’t really have a back that can stretch the field horizontally. Coaches even mentioned that when you see Brown’s 40 time you cringe.
And now the cherry on the crap sundae…our receivers can’t seperate at all…this does not look to be a good mixture for success.
I hope I am wrong. I just think the one area the Panthers could least afford an injury was HB.
DaveD
Let’s not forget this was against a truly horrid team that lost to Vanderbilt and Western Michigan, among others.
And when it got to 21-13 in the middle of the 3rd quarter, I’m sure all of us started thinking are we actually going to lose to this horrid team who’s QB’s were worse than ours (certainly hard to believe).
So again while it was great to stop the bleeding, let’s see if we can get a W against a somewhat legit team. And we’re still looking for the first road win of the year.
So Take with Grain of Salt and hope the best works out with all these injuries now.
Hope they all get well and recover fully.
Truth & Virtue
Hail to Pitt !
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP)—Alex Carder threw for a career-high 479 yards and five touchdowns to lead Western Michigan to a 38-31 win over Connecticut on Saturday.
I know you’ve all heard of the great Alex Carder right. The guy threw for more yards and more TD’s than Tino against the horrid Uconn.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)—Geno Smith always seems to pull West Virginia out of a rut.
Smith threw for 450 yards and four touchdowns in navigating No. 16 West Virginia through another slow start to beat Connecticut 43-16 in their Big East opener Saturday
When looking at this game, PITT had 529 Total Yards and of those 433 were passing yards.
Yet we still only scored 35 points and 7 of those came with Ronald Jones at QB. So in effect the 1rst team offense scored 28 points, heck a 4-4 Western Michigan team scored 38 points. Since that game, Western Michigan has got beaten by Eastern Michigan 14-10 and slaughtered by Northern Illinois 51-22.
This offense is still not scoring as many points against shoddy competition as it should.
Pretty much the same story since Games 1 & 2.
So again don’t get overly excited by this win over Uconn or Tino’s performance.
I’ve read a lot of people being excited about the win last night as well they should. We played a good game and won by a nice margin.
Two different things.
you didn’t mention how wide open the receivers were last night — something I didn’t see live vs ND or Utah, and was told the same vs Rutgers.
One last thing you didn’t mention .. the read option where the QB can run is a ‘running’ play .. if the QB gains yardage on a pass, it is purely on a scramble (which kind of contradicts the 1-2-3 and out concept). There just weren’t that many running played called vs Utah.