Lots of open tabs. Some with direct Pitt stuff. Others not so much.

Attendance, attendance, attendance. The Wednesday UConn non-attendance issue was a popular topic of angst. I’m not going to rehash the reasons/excuses. I didn’t make the trip, but I knew that even before I ordered season tickets. Chris Dokish looks at Pitt’s (paid) attendance relative to many factors to conclude, that things aren’t really that bad. I’m just not too worked up over it. Especially when I look at the conference to where Pitt is heading.

Miami tried to one-up Pitt on their Thursday night game. They at least had a beautiful evening. Then there was Maryland on a Saturday (click to see the picture).

Eric Prisbell wrote that there “appeared to be no more than 10,000 fans at Byrd Stadium.”

“Saturday’s abject eyesore, where lower-level tickets at Byrd Stadium were going for a penny on StubHub? That’s more than frigid, rotten weather. That’s unacceptable,” Mike Wise columnized.

At least Pitt’s tickets on StubHub were 99 cents. We will fit right into the ACC.

Honestly, I’m not too stressed on attendance. It’s frustrating at times, but the fact is there are a lot of Pitt fans hanging back right now. Frustrated by the past decade, maybe even the past 30 years. Happy to cheer and support the the team (and even buy tickets), but not quite willing to make that final action of going to the games. The only way it changes is with Pitt winning.

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With the exception of the Iowa game, the Pitt defense has really done a great job this year. They’ve kept Pitt in games. They changed defensive systems, and have had to play a lot more minutes than they did last year given the change (and struggles) of Pitt’s offense.

There have been no indications that the defense is outwardly frustrated with the offense, or even rumblings of such. Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson has done a very good job as the season progressed of getting the defense to make more stops. Though, he isn’t satisfied.

“What I tell our guys, you can go all the way back to the Iowa game, we’ve just played good but we haven’t played great yet because there isn’t an opponent we have played yet that we couldn’t have held to 15 points or less — not one — so that is what we are striving for.”

Patterson said he wants to “shoot for perfection and shut people out.” That will come down to paying attention to details and maintaining a focus throughout the entire game.

He cited examples of what he was talking about from each of the past three losses (Notre Dame, Rutgers, Utah), instances when the defense lost focus for one or two plays, and it cost them.

That’s part of where the terror comes into play. During the games themselves, I get frustrated with the defense. I literally find myself squirming when the defense is out there. As if twisting and contorting while watching will improve on the angles the defensive players are taking to the ball.Failing to get off the field a lot of times. Giving up big chunks of yardage, and letting the field position be shifted against the offense. As close as they seem to be to making the big play, they are just as close to giving up the big play.

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There has been a lot of chatter in the media, blogs and the message boards regarding Todd Graham’s seemingly superior attitude when it comes to talking about how the players have performed this season.  This was evident in a recent Post-Gazette Q&A:

Q: Why does Todd Graham have such a hard time complimenting his players? This week he called Tino Sunseri’s performance “average” even though he set a Heinz Field record.

ZEISE: I think there was a little more at work with Tino Sunseri and Todd Graham than meets the eye. Simply put — Tino Sunseri sometimes gets a little overconfident after a good performance (see the two games aftter South Florida) and I think Graham would like him to stay humble and hungry and that’s what he was getting at. He obviously knows Sunseri had an excellent day but he feels like he needed to make it clear that the Panthers have a long, long way to go before they are really and truly operating the offense at a high enough level.

Remember what Zeise is referring to?  After the USF game Sunseri strutted into the post-game interview room and proclaimed, without being asked a question, “Didn’t I tell ya’all that we were close, didn’t I?”

Zeise reports it as this:  Sunseri got really happy after the South Florida game – he came into the media room after that game and said “Didn’t I tell ya’all that we were close…” – and then he played like, well, this is a G-rated blog so I will just say he played poorly for two games. (more…)