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September 5, 2012

LOOKING AT CINCY

Filed under: Big East,Coaches,Football,Players — Reed @ 9:05 am

Is the negative experience of Saturday night starting to dissipate yet?  No? Well tomorrow’s another day as they say in show business and they also say the show must go on.  So even if we’d prefer the 2012 season to end right now as some PITT fans might, there will be more games.  Its not me threatening you with this – blame Steve Pederson.

Tomorrow night PITT goes into Cincinnati coming off what can easily be termed the worst pure loss in its history because of the conference level of the YSU team being D-II quality.  I say ‘pure loss’ because the 48-14 loss to Penn State when we had a shot at the NC game and the more recent come from behind loss to Cincy with a Big East championship BCS game on the line affected PITT’s season’s standings more than this YSU loss can.  In reality the YSU loss means nothing in relation to the BE conference play.  Psychologically though it was devastating.

So, the first and foremost thing PITT fans will want to see is how we’ll bounce back from something like that.  I’m not calling for a win, you may have to be insane to do that, but I believe we’ll acquit ourselves better than we did last week.  Put it this way, as disappointed as I was in the last game’s result I wasn’t shocked as I talked about it before the kickoff.  Just as with that, I won’t be shocked if PITT wins tomorrow night either.  I’d just never bet on it or publicly predict it.

We do have a few things going for us.  Even if the six players are still suspended, Paul Chryst has said that hasn’t been determined yet, the shock of that action to the rest of the team is already over so there’s that one distraction gone.  Some of the drastic problems we had last year didn’t show up.  We gave up no sacks after being last in the nation in 2011 when we gave up 64.  Sunseri had time to pass the ball which helped also.  If he’s not being hurried there is less chance he’ll panic out there as we saw last season.

Our KO return man in Layfaette Pitts did very well in averaging 30 yards per return.  Hubie Graham and Shanahan did well with their routes and catching the ball.  There were other bright spots also but really they were overshadowed by the negative play we saw out there.

However, I’m not sure our OL did that well when you look and compare the play last week to the rest of the schedule we have yet to play.  Granted no sacks given up is a good thing but we weren’t really opening holes in the run game.  4.6 ypc is nothing against a D-II team.  We continue to do that we’ll not help out the passing game either.

What I think may assist with that lack of rushing production is Graham having a full game under his belt.  He was very cautious out there and moving around a bit behind the LOS instead of going north-south.  He did well under the circumstances but last season he was decisive as hell out there and because he’s still testing that leg he wasn’t on Saturday.  I expect a better showing from both he and Bennett this game.

Street must improve his play; if not sit him down.  He isn’t so good to the point where he can’t be benched.  Play Brinson, Ifill or Felder in his place or perhaps even the true FR Wuestner.  Put anyone out on the field but a player who continues to make mental errors, drop passes and fumble the ball.

Sunseri threw the ball 30 times on Saturday.  For all the PITT fans who thought Chryst was going to handcuff him and rely strictly on our running game, think again.  Lest we believe that the passes were called because we were behind that isn’t necessarily true.  Chryst called 17 pass plays, over half the total of attempts, in the 1st half of the game when we were either tied or four points behind.  He wasn’t playing catch-up football at that point.

Chryst will continue to call passing plays at a normal rate as our passing game executed pretty well all in all, at least Chryst thought so:

“I thought protection was pretty good, I thought guys made some plays, and there were some good runs after the catch,” coach Paul Chryst said. “There are some things we can absolutely build on in the passing game, and that’s a credit to the guys. They put in a lot of work, and you’d like to be able to see them do that in a game.”

Of course Sunseri could have played better in spots also.  His problem of overthrowing receiver when they are wide open persists as does his inconsistency from pass to pass.  He’ll throw behind a receiver coming out of the backfield on one play then later on throw a perfect 35 yard line drive between two defenders for a TD.  It is maddening as hell wondering why he can’t pass like that all the time.

He completed 19 of 30 passes and a hidden stat is that 10 of those completions went for 1st down.  We only had 11 1st downs total so our passing game was effective in that sense.  His yards per attempt was 8.0 with a 12.6 yards per completion rate which are both fine.  We also had a 54% 3rd down conversion rate which is pretty good also.  I truly believe that given half a chance our offense would have produced on Saturday.

Our defense has to give the offense a chance to score points, that is fundamental.  If you take away the two possessions that ended in PITT fumbles we scored on three of six series, 50%, which is actually very good.  I’d say we would have had at least a FG if not for Graham’s fumble on our first drive also.

I just looked over our offensive play against BCS teams in 2011 and we had an average of 14 offensive series per game!  Man, that can’t be over stressed; how the fact that our defense gave up four double digit play drives kept our offense off the field and unable to even attempt to make it a game. Here’s the real telling point though, those four long YSU drives accounted for a whopping 26 minutes of possession.  That’s 6:30 per drive and you needn’t look further than that if you want a seminal cause for the loss.

How was YSU able to do that? We let them do it by giving the opponents a 70% 3rd & 4th down conversion rate.  If we keep doing that we’ll never win another game.  I think that if our defense had been able to get our offense its average 14 series per game against YSU we’d have won walking away.  Of course, that didn’t happen.

To me these are the keys to tomorrow’s Cincy game; lowering that opponent’s conversion rate and getting the PITT offense on the field more often.  I think if we can do that and give the offensive players a chance to actually play offense we’ll move the ball and score.  Accomplish that and we could win this game regardless of how poorly we played last weekend.





Thank you for putting in the writing after that demoralizing loss.

I must be high; Pitt wins 28-21

Comment by H.LandPitt 09.05.12 @ 9:32 am

Not high Land, just insane.

Comment by Reed 09.05.12 @ 9:34 am

lol.

Insane yes.

Im also a Raider fan; you have to be insane to be a Pitt and Oakland Raider fan.

Comment by H.LandPitt 09.05.12 @ 9:52 am

“Chryst believes he can build offense on Sunseri’s efficiency”

link to post-gazette.com

Coach Chryst – You are in no way, shape or form going to win relying on Tino. The only thing he has in common with Russell Wilson is his height or lack thereof.

Comment by Pittastic 09.05.12 @ 9:56 am

Some suggested changes…

Offense

Keep Brinson on the field. Not hard to tell he’s the homerun hitter — Pitt’s version of Mike Wallace.

Give Shell some carries along with Bennett and Graham. Let’s see if he’s any good.

Defense

Replace Gordon with somebody with a motor who can disrupt the offense by getting across the line to make plays. Graham benched Gordon last year. Chryst should have already seen enough to do the same.

Play Lippert. He was about the only D-linemen who seemed to get close to making plays as the game went on. Find somebody off the bench to play the other side who can move just a little bit. More than one player wearing a 90s number looked too slow or too out of shape to get off blocks to make a play against YSU.

Start Ezell next to Donald. Let’s see if all the talk during camp about Ezll was warranted.

Start Hendricks. He did fail to pick up the tight end on the fourth down TD pass. Other than that seemed to make more plays overall than Vinopal who had the one TD saving tackle before giving up the TD pass.

Playcalling

No more sweeps on fourth and ones.

Comment by PittofDreams 09.05.12 @ 10:01 am

I think Pitt will start out pretty fired up, play well, and have a lead at half-time. Somebody will make a mistake in the 3rd quarter (int, fumble), and the players will give up (thinking same old Pitt). How many times have we seen this movie?

Comment by 66Goat 09.05.12 @ 10:03 am

I just can’t see them beating UC in their house, this one might get real ugly real fast because UC will have a better defense than YSU and hence more pressure on the offensive line.

Unless the defense somehow transforms itself I see loss number 2. I hope I’m wrong but the way the defensive line was just manhandled by YSU really makes me think UC will do whatever they want from an offensive standpoint.

Comment by WLAT and the Big Beat 09.05.12 @ 10:04 am

When you lose, things like dropped balls and overthrows are magnified.

If you remember, the YSU QB had 2 overthrows on the very 1st drive that would have most likely resulted in TDs — they scored anyway, just like Pitt did in the 4th qtr after 2 overthrows.

Tino of course will never make us forget about Marino, but like any other QB, he will be sufficient given proper time. What remains to be seen is if he has improved in clutch situations from last year.

Comment by wbb 09.05.12 @ 10:31 am

Great article . U are right on the money with your assessment. We did not lose the YSU game because of Tino or the offense. Tino did miss a couple throws and we did have the fumbles and dropped balls but on just 7 possessions we amast almost 400 yards . This one is on the defense with it’s injuries and suspensions . We will bounce back and we will win Thursday

Comment by Duke 09.05.12 @ 10:33 am

One thing I don’t like already..
The discipline…
What do you mean you don’t know if they are playing?
You delve out the discipline… 1 game sit.. fine.
If the disciplined players are not going to play in game 2… tell them up front and let them practice with the scout team instead of the 1’s or 2’s.
Jerking the team around also by what he is doing.. not just the 6 players.

Comment by Joe D 09.05.12 @ 10:44 am

They have to contain Munchie from running he is not a great passer they should load up the box. Can we lay off Tino except for the deep ball he played well, if you dog him when he stinks praise him when he plays good, he over throws the deep ball for fear of int’s. Can we tackle somebody #4 is still running around Heinz field, linbackers and safetys including Tags got run over all night falling backward instead of delivering a blow. Predictions are pointless is this the real Pitt team or is there something to build on we’ll see tomorrow

Comment by steve h 09.05.12 @ 10:46 am

another small positive i noticed watching the game saturday was that it looked like saddler has his quickness back..he caught that one underneath pass and took it for a nice gain.

He also had a couple decent punt returns, not in terms of yards but making some people miss

Comment by rhyno527 09.05.12 @ 10:46 am

Reed, with all due respect, when a division AA team rushes for 204 yds we have many more problems than third down conversions. YSU scored on 5 of their 9 drives. Barring a few mistakes, they could have easily scored more and put the points in the 50s. We had 8 drives and scored on 3 against an inexperienced defense. Come on man….

Comment by DJS 09.05.12 @ 10:48 am

these are 19-20 year old kids. it’s impossible to accurately predict how they’ll play week to week. it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see pitt bounce back and beat cincy ala the south fla game last year (tino plays really well, ray graham has a monster game, defense forces a couple key turnovers, etc.) would sure make the trip up for the VA Tech game a lot more interesting and enjoyable!

Comment by scott 09.05.12 @ 10:51 am

Agree with Scott, I have teenagers their mindset is unpredictable.

Comment by Joey V 09.05.12 @ 11:06 am

The only hope is that Pitt not get embarrassed on national TV again Cincy. The YSU game had to be the most dissappointing and humiliating defensive “non-effort” I’ve ever witnessed. I heard Grigsby’s name a couple times, but otherwise I don’t think a single LB made a play all night and frankly all the hype about the D-Line was clearly a joke. Without LBs and any defensive pressure up front this team could go 2-10 and be lucky for the 2.
My bet is Huxtable is gone after this year.
Tino is Tino, generally any win is likely to be in spite of him, not because of him.

Comment by Taxing Matters 09.05.12 @ 11:28 am

I agree with P.O.D above about keeping Brinson on the field. Thought in limited action he definitely showed glimpse of being a difference maker. (And also agree with another poster about Cam Saddler — the “burst” seems to be back.)
And it is definitely time for Street to turn it up. Yes, he was woefully overthrown on one play, but it’s apparent his routes are not consistently sharp — and, when you have the chance to make a big catch, you have to make it. Combine his inconsistency with Tino’s inaccuracy (even being just a hair of on simple throws at times) and it’s not making either of them look any better.

With all that said, if the defense can’t get off the field, it’s moot. I know Cincy is reloading a bit, but I’m not optimistic about Pitt’s defensive personnel (at least what we saw last week) against a spread attack.

Comment by JW 09.05.12 @ 11:28 am

@66Goat, LOL!! Of course, thought the same thing.

Pitt winning or in the game at half time, stupid play in 3rd quarter, flood gates open.

I’ve seen that movie once or twice!! LOL

Comment by Dan 09.05.12 @ 11:37 am

What concerns me about tomorrow nights game is Cinn’s D.. they have been strongest up front and the DBs are suspect…of course those things do change from year-to-year, but I think they have the same DE’s as last yr and the DBs are the same.

So, does that tempt Chryst to come out passing to set up the run?

Comment by JLawrence 09.05.12 @ 12:00 pm

Chas, agree with you on the offense keys but would love to hear more from you about the D for tomorrow. Huxtable seems to play a read and react defense with soft coverages. I would like to see a more agressive approach, load up the box to attack cincy, play man on the outside. We may give up a few big plays but if we make some big plays and contain this QB, think we have a chance to win.

Comment by pittfan92 09.05.12 @ 12:23 pm

If Pitt gets embarrassed on national TV again we will probably not be on again for awhile – I hope everyone has Comcast ESPN 3 to watch us on computer.

Comment by Frank 09.05.12 @ 12:44 pm

DJS – I didn’t want to take the time to list every single thing that went wrong – but I think that if a team is converting 70% of its attempts the defense giving up rushing yards contributes to that.

Re: our drives. Our first drive we went 50 yards in five plays before the graham fumble so we were moving the ball.

There are a million fingers to point I suppose but IMO the defense let us down in every aspect of thier play, including as you point out the rushing defense.

Our offense never had a chance Saturday night.

Comment by Reed 09.05.12 @ 12:52 pm

One thing we usually do well against Cincy is running the ball. Hopefully, the line can open up some holes. Secondly, this is Cincy’s first game of the year, so I would think they will make mistakes early in the game. We need to capitalize.

Comment by gdodson 09.05.12 @ 1:01 pm

DeJuan will be there, probably rooting for his brother Greg tackling Uncle Cam

Comment by wbb 09.05.12 @ 1:43 pm

It’s funny you mentioned Graham being cautious. I asked my buddy during the game if Graham was being patient or tentative. We never figured it out. Hoping he’s decisive tomorrow. At least he’ll be fun to watch regardless of how badly we get killed this year.

Comment by RedRooster 09.05.12 @ 1:48 pm

“Our offense never had a chance Saturday night.”

reed, cmon. it was Youngstown State…not Ohio State.

Comment by scott 09.05.12 @ 2:02 pm

Reed – I agree that our defense was porous and put our offense in bad positions but last year YSU gave up 34 plus points to Illinois State, Indiana State, South Dakota State, and Missouri State. With all their returners, YSU went 3-2 in their last five games. I think it’s a big deal that we didn’t score more points especially when our coach is said to be brilliant offensive mind. Putting this game in perspective it was horrible.do you really think this team can put together a respectable season?

Comment by DJS 09.05.12 @ 2:04 pm

DJS – I have no idea whether or not we’ll have a respectable season. Remember I’m the guy who has been saying that we needed a non-losing season to stop the two year slide we’ve been on. I figured at the end of camp that we’d be 7-5 this year.

Can we still do that? We’ll see how they play tomorrow but I figured we’d be 3-3 going into the 2nd half of the season – I just didn’t think we’d lose so quickly.

Scott – I think you have to look at our offensive chances that we actually had again. Two fumbles killed two drives. Those had nothing to do with YSU’s defense really. So that leaves six drives left and we scored on three of those.

That actually isn’t a bad percentage unless you feel like we should have scored every time we had the ball of course. You can only score points if you have chances to do so. Our defensive failure precluded that from happening.

If you re-read what I wrote we averaged 14 series per game last season. If we had scored on 50% or seven series per game we’d have put up great scores. Instead we put up 24 points per game.

I’m not saying the offense played great or anything but they weren’t as nearly as bad as our defense was. I think it is a matter of putting the offense in perspective.

Put it this way – as the season goes on I think we’ll feel better about how the offense has played rather than the defense. If Graham can be more aggressive and stay healthy that will help a lot and, IMO, if Sunseri can play the way he did on Saturday – and as I said – given more series per game, then we’ll score points.

Comment by Reed 09.05.12 @ 2:47 pm

I’m not Sunseri fan…
but anyone pointing at Sunseri for the loss doesn’t know anything about football.
– No QB is going to hit 100% of his passes..
What I saw… Sunseri didn’t hurt Pitt.. no fumbles, no sacks for losses, no interceptions.. all in all… an ok game…

It was the defense from the 1st series…
I’ve said all along… the Dline.. with 3 of the 8 no playing (1st and 2nd team).. not a chance.
And the “D” just couldn’t tackle…

Comment by Joe D 09.05.12 @ 2:55 pm

IT was the defense for sure. I didn’t see a whole lot of the game, but did we blitz at all? From what I saw at the end it looked like we were playing contain and missing a hell of a lot of tackles. Maybe just telling these young kids to get out there, pin their ears back and go might be a better option. But hey, it’s easy to play armchair DC on a Wednesday afternoon….

Comment by The Atlanta Panther 09.05.12 @ 3:08 pm

Just saw the power rankings for the Big East and PITT is listed in 8th place. That sounds better than saying last place?

Comment by DJS 09.05.12 @ 3:19 pm

i’ve noiced students on campus wearing tee shirts that read:

keep calm

hail to pitt

i don’t know the reference but i’ll try to keep it my motto as long as i can.

Comment by pittkeith 09.05.12 @ 3:58 pm

Looking over possible replacements who probably should get a chance to show what they can do.

Here’s one name that can’t be overlooked… No.96 Kris WILD-MAN.

If there’s one thing this defense needs is some “Live Action!”

Comment by PittofDreams 09.05.12 @ 4:25 pm

BetweenYSU abd Gardner -Webb Pitt could only count one victory so no real harm done with the YSU fiascoother than the psychological impact losing to YSU caused.
Hopefully Ezell can make a difference in the defense. What is Cummings status for Cin ?

Comment by spindler's spirit 09.05.12 @ 4:45 pm

pittkeith,
Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of invasion. It had only limited distribution, so was little known. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of products.
I am glad to see the Pitt kids have adopted a version of this motto. It did work for Britain. Of course they did have one of the greatest head coaches ever, Winston Churchill.

Comment by Houston Panther 09.05.12 @ 4:57 pm

We may have something to look forward to on September 22. The Runnin’ Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb started their season in a similar fashion to Pitt. They lost 34-7 to Wofford who outrushed them 402 to 12. Perhaps this could be a confidence builder for our defense and a chance to pull off a win.

Comment by Houston Panther 09.05.12 @ 5:30 pm

thanks for the information houston panther. i learned something new thing today in spite of being an old dog.

Comment by pittkeith 09.05.12 @ 5:32 pm

PittofDreams,

I read the Kris Wildman reference and couldn’t help but think of a blue-and-gold-clad Ed Orgeron barging into a Pitt team meeting with a baseball bat, ripping off his shirt, getting one side to yell “HAIL TO PITT” and the other to yell “WILD BOYS” before challenging the entire team to a fight.

(For those who may not know, the legend goes that something very similar to this allegedly happened during Orgeron’s first team meeting as head coach of Ole Miss.)

Comment by Stoosh 09.05.12 @ 5:34 pm

Well if we’re going there, “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, namesless, unreasoning, unjustified terror”. Pitt will win again.

Comment by Dr. Tom 09.05.12 @ 6:01 pm

“I have not yet begun to fight!” JPJ…pretty sure it wasn’t the Zeppelin bassist, unless he had a bad night in Scotland or Manchester or something.

Reed — solid statistical analysis, however, lost in the numbers are the trends within the numbers…Tino hit three yard outs like they was goin’ outta style, but the net gains were quite modest overall, and made Pitt take a long time to score. Because he offers no consistent credible downfield threat, we get no easy scores, except broken plays or amazing Ray Graham runs. Because of this, teams cheat and make everything that much harder for our blockers.

Its like guarding a guy who can’t go left with his dribble — you know what he’s going to do and his life is that much more miserable for it.

Comment by Matt N. 09.05.12 @ 7:19 pm

Vegas lines…
predicting a close game… Pitt +4…
over/under total points of 48.5

Comment by Joe D 09.05.12 @ 8:03 pm

good ones dr tom and matt n.

keep calm

hail to pitt

Comment by pittkeith 09.05.12 @ 8:07 pm

Tino will come around. I think he should apply to the NCAA for another 4 years of eligibility!

Comment by JP 09.05.12 @ 8:20 pm

If you haven’t seen it, four of the six suspended players made the trip to Cincy.

Odd players out, Gonzalez and freshman Davis. Both had previous suspensions.

Chryst is going to soon lose his patient with Gonzalez. You’re probably seeing the reason why Chryst has not considered him at quarterback.

Wouldn’t surprise me to see Chryst cut him from the team in the even of another necessary suspension.

Davis certainly not earning any points this early into his collegiate career.

“LIVE ACTION”

Let’s go catch us some Bearpussy.

Comment by PittofDreams 09.05.12 @ 8:34 pm

Did we give up when the germans bombed pearl harbor?

Comment by dhuffdaddy 09.05.12 @ 9:24 pm

hahahahahaha

the rest of you will have to entertain me tomorrow.

have a good night all.

Comment by pittkeith 09.05.12 @ 9:27 pm

Never quite saw why you threw Pederson under the bus for this Reed but you’ll get no argument from me. Hell, if he still has a pulse back er up and run his sorry ass over again and be done with him.
Graham was thinking not running…he will be better on turf but he is about 70%.
Defense is the key. Last week was so bad…coaching, effort, etc…is was impossible to fathom. How could we be THAT bad? How could a D1 coordinator get smoked so badly and ARE there adjustments this week?
Wexwill know very early whether the D has any hope. Me? Man, I have no idea.
But, I will be watching from Pedophile State. Have a conference at the conference center (go figure) that has pictures of Pedophiles of days gone by.
I want to win. Screw playing well. As my brother in California tells me “Pitt has the reputation as a team that plays just well enough to lose”.
Time for Pitt to flip the world a big old bird and be mean, nasty mother fuckers.
Joe D. Find any ambiguity there? I didn’t think so.

Comment by SFPitt 09.05.12 @ 9:29 pm

Anybody who thinks we win this game is stark raving mad, IMHO.

His name is Chryst, not Christ, and he is by no means a miracle worker.

I’d love to be wrong.

Comment by BATR 09.05.12 @ 9:31 pm

POD,
I emailed the PG and Trib beat reporters to ask Chryst why Gonzolez is not kicked off the team… it’s his 2nd suspension.

Since the pressors are powderpuff… I figured to feed questions to the media to ask.
Jerry of Trib responsed… good question… but we don’t know the nature of the infraction…
I said… who cares… it’s his 2nd suspension!
Lets free up a scholarship!!

Comment by Joe D 09.05.12 @ 9:34 pm

Joe D ask him is that all they can ask is
powderpuff Questions.
ask if they are ever going to ask chryst any hard
Questions,
like what the is wrong with your D.

Comment by FRANKCAN 09.05.12 @ 9:48 pm

This is Chris Davis 2nd suspension…

Chris Davis and Gonzo need to be kicked off the team to free up 2 scholarships.

Frankcan…
this was the response to pooh pooh questions..
hear ya, but I think it is really unfair to assume he doesn’t know how to motivate players by what you saw in one game. You don’t see him around his players on a day-to-day basis. Head coaches aren’t the only ones who motivate. He has been an assistant for more than two decades, so I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt

Comment by Joe D 09.05.12 @ 10:00 pm

I figured there would be a lot of sorting of players during the season after the type of camp they had. Seemed to be a lot of questioning from the coaches of who wanted to be here.I would not be surprised to see several transfer outs come end of season – either voluntarily or not. Time to load up on young men who want to play and play with passion and discipline.

I don’t want to say this is a lost season yet but someone posted a few blogs back that red-shirting Price and other decisions show it is all about the long term and next year. They may be more right than I thought.

Looking at the number of plays each player got (as best I could tell) it is amazing how young this D was. RS freshmen and true freshmen a lot at cornerback, rs fresh and soph at lb., etc. The only real oddities for this theory are Tino and Lippert. But that may say more about how ready their backups are than anything else. At least I HOPE this is the case: We are just really young on d and not really that pathetic.

I agreed with Reed early on that we were very young on d and would take some early lumps. I never would have imagined this lump though. I still think the potential is there to be a good defense (barring injuries) by week 7, 8 or 9…

Have to agree with Joe D on several accounts. Gonzalez may have burned his last bridge or is close to it. Also, Tino wasn’t great but he was at least average or above average. The place for improvement this week is on defense, coaching and attitude.

I would just love to see a Pitt team take the field that played their hearts out and just want to stomp and dominate the their opponent physically and emotionally. Haven’t seen that in a while.We need some attitude!

Comment by Bolwing Green Panther 09.05.12 @ 10:12 pm

Matt N. – This is what we get with Sunseri. We already knew all that and this is what Chryst has to work with unless he starts someone else.

But as far as the ‘three yard outs'” Both Sunseri’s ypa and ypc numbers were very good in that game – good enough that had he done it all last season he’d be in the top rankings of national passing stats.

link to web1.ncaa.org

8.0 ypa is very effective as is 12.6 ypc – and this was done without any big ass passing plays to skew the numbers (darn it!).

I really don’t care if he’s throwing the ball one yard and the receiver gets 12 more on the ground or if Sunseri throws it 13 yards. It’s all the same as the primary purpose is to move the LOS forward.

We all want to see passes thrown for 15-20 yards and completed on a regular basis but he’s not that type of QB.

That is what kills me about that 35 yard TD pass. People who complain about Sunseri having a weak arm just are off the mark. He can really zip passes sometimes as we saw. He’s just inconsistent with that as he is with everything else.

Comment by Reed 09.06.12 @ 6:37 am

SFPitt – that SP reference was a joke.

Comment by Reed 09.06.12 @ 6:37 am

Thanks Reed.
Guess humor is needed in times like these.
Got my chastity belt on right. Pulling into state college.

Comment by SFPitt 09.06.12 @ 8:03 am

Reed — you missed my point. Yes, statistically a 13 yard catch is a 13 yard catch…on paper. But its much harder for a receiver and a team blocking for a 3 yard completion to be turned into a 10 yard run after the catch — putting moves on guys, breaking tackles, blocking downfield, etc. — than a pass that covers 13 yards when caught. When you always put the onus (yes, I used ONUS in a football blog) on the rest of the team to carry your water, you’re not helping much as a QB…ie, no big play ability. Teams can’t keep taking three yard passes and turning them into 13 yard gains, marching all the way down the field and score 3-4 TDs a game that way…especially when the defense fears no deeper plays and is all over the short stuff. If that’s not clear, don’t know how else to explain it to you — that’s why stats alone paint such an incomplete picture.

If you play tennis vs a guy with a huge serve, you back the hell up in order to have a chance at it…which makes his spin serve or change-up serve that much more effective, right? His 35 yard td pass was a nice throw but he frequently can’t make the deeper pass that requires loft or touch, or accuracy — and you can’t fire passes straight line through defenses and not have many of them tipped or intercepted…probably worked in high school but kids are too athletic in D1 for that.

At least you’ve finally conceded that Tino is what he is, and allowed for the possibility of a change…which I consider a victory for Reason, not blind adherence to the known evil.

Comment by Matt N. 09.06.12 @ 12:31 pm

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