Can’t wait for the Illini based Penn State OT victory t-shirt. Can you? But at least they can claim a win. Let’s see what Pitt can do.
When Paul Johnson talks about his view of football that led to his triple option, he reminds me of Dave Wannstedt taken to his logical end.
Pass? Georgia Tech largely ignores the custom of the day in college football in favor of a running attack that leads the ACC and is fourth in the nation (an average of 315.6 yards per game). Meanwhile, Georgia Tech’s 120 pass attempts and 45 percent completion rate in eight games are by far the lowest in the conference.
“It’s just the system that we choose to run,” Johnson said. “I just always had the belief that if you can run and stop the run, you’re going to have a chance to win.”
Johnson points to the national championship game after the 2009 season when Alabama beat Texas, 37-21, and threw only 12 passes.
The crazy ones don’t bother me. At least they are committed.
Pitt, on the other hand, needs the pass. That means they need Tom Savage to snap back to where he was before Virginia.
“I have to play like I have nothing to lose,” he said, recognizing a sense of urgency attached to this season. “I can’t play timid.”
That’s easy to say. Even easier for me to say he needs to play better. I’m not the one playing behind that O-line.
If there’s one thing to look forward to tonight’s game. Pitt should be looking to get back to throwing deep.
Savage and the rest of the offense will face different challenges against the Yellow Jackets, who have the 16th-best total defense in Division I-A. They have been vulnerable through the air, though, allowing 225.3 passing yards per game.
Last week, Virginia quarterback David Watford completed 43 of 61 passes for 376 yards and two touchdowns against Georgia Tech.
“Just from watching [Georgia Tech games against] Miami, BYU even, a lot of teams went deep,” wide receiver Devin Street said. “It’s definitely out there, but it’s all about executing.”
At this point, yeah, screw the short and medium passing if it is taking from going deep (but realistically, it is more about making sure Tom Savage survives behind the O-line).
GT can throw occasionally. No, really.
What else? First trip to face GT since Pitt won a national championship.
Devin Street would prefer wins to records. When you think about it, what really makes Street’s accomplishments so impressive is that he has done it with Tino Sunseri throwing for 3 of his 4 years.
Finally, a good piece from Joe Starkey on how Paul Chryst is still an unknown midway into his second year at Pitt.
Game is 7pm on ESPNU.
I said “compete.”
Of course if you want to be among the elite of the ACC… you got to add some players.
A QB who can use his feat to make plays (both running and passing) and a fast back or two might help.
But so far, I have not seen any of the fears realized regarding “SPEED of the ACC.”
Difference in team speed hasn’t been why Pitt is losing games.
Not to blame it all on him. I’m sure he made some good plays.
But if the Strong Saftey makes a tackle and a knockdown last night… we’re probably feeling a lot different this morning.
Pitts was bumped by the receiver and that hindered his jump. Still, the receiver is listed as four inches taller than Pitts and five inches taller than Vinopal. I understand it’s a lot of instinct at that point, but stripping the ball is an option when you can’t compete on the jump. Hopefully they are coached to think that way.
Savage sometimes holds the ball even when you see that he detects an oncoming rusher. I believe there were two sacks last night like this. Savage is no Roethlisberger. He also locks on receivers. Tino Sunseri finally started to break these two habits last year. Hopefully Savage can too, but the season is nearly over. Voytik take note!
This game was winable, as I stated earlier in the week. Pitt needs to learn HOW TO WIN however. Once again, Pitt gives up the big play and beats themselves. That 3rd and 16 play allowing Ga Tech to convert a 1st down late in the fourth quarter is vintage Pitt Football.
This was a game that many said Pitt was going to get blown out in. This game was supposed to demonstrate how poorly we defend against the option. This game was going to show how SLOW Pitt was on defense. That did not come to pass. The PASS came to PASS though. How do you permit a one demensional running team beat you with the PASS?
Then we have to watch an offense that is hampered by an invisible running game. Can our OL really be that ineffective in opening up holes, guess so. If we have ANY effective run game to keep Ga Tech’s defense honest, then our passing game opens up. Savage is improving but he still doesn’t go through his progressions very well.
Here’s is my ranking system for inepitude: POOR, BAD, AWFUL, SMELLS, STINKS, SUCKS, REALLY SUCKS, JUST SHOOT ME.
Right now Pitt is somewhere in the smelly-stinky range. What we need is one game where the entire team plays a complete game. If that happened yesterday, we win.
There was no reason to give Ga. Tech that 1st easy TD. Pitt’s D came out slow. We get that early fumble turnover and fail to put it in the endzone. We needed that score dearly. If only those two things get turned around in Pitt’s favor and the entire game dynamics change around. Then Ga Tech is playing from behind and that is not a good position for a running team to be operating from. And to return to the obvious back breaker, Pitt has to learn how to stop giving away first downs on 3rd and forever plays. UNACCEPTABLE!
I don’t know how to accomplish it, but Pitt has to learn how to win, this game was WINABLE, Pitt beat themselves.
Pitt defensive tackle Aaron Donald: The Panthers did little on offense against Georgia Tech, but Donald was so good on defense, he deserves a helmet sticker even in a losing effort. Donald finished with 11 tackles — all solo — including a whopping six for a loss. Donald had a sack and forced two fumbles in the effort, too.
Don’t let the score of this game fool you, this team is pathetic. Especially offensively. Coaching is sophomoric at best.
As I’ve said before the Wisconsin blueprint might only work in Madison. The other former wisky coach is 0-5 in the ACC.
Comment by gc 11.03.13 @ 10:51 am
haha PITT….the Black(Dark) Comedy continues.
1rst hospital on Mars….lmao
The fact is that we have a lot of FR and SOPH in our two deep at key positions on both sides of the ball. The result is erratic play and a six win season at best. The good news is that these young players are gaining experience that will pay dividends in future seasons.
1) Chryst not having the Vinopal intercept reviewed on a NAVy TD drive
2)Chryst ending the game with timeouts in his pocket in a 3 point game.
3)Chryst and offensive staff being outadjusted at halftime and being outscored again in the 2nd half of a game.
others too numerous to list. Plus what’s the point.
Look at Tiny for instance, he got worse !
it is not the recruiting or even the players it is poor coaching wake up and smell the roses,
nothing really changes untill the poor coaching is gone.
you can get bye with a so so head coach if you have top notch asst coachs.
but not if the asst coachs are duds and ours are brain dead.
I like Conner and Bennett but neither has the speed to be anything other than 3rd down short yardage backs – at least right now. Conner will presumably get stronger and faster, he’s a true freshmen. I’ll give him another couple years. But right now we totaly lack legit RBs.
The O-line is really where all of our problems start offensively. They cant push or open holes on runs and they can’t protect on passes. That’s pretty much the ball game offensively.
We’ve had 7 O-line play this year by my count. 2 freshmen, Bis and Johnson, 1 guy who played Defense last year, 2 guys who switched positions on the line and 2 are first year starters. The O-line just doesn’t have what it takes, the guys with talent don’t have experience and the guys with experience (such as you can even say any do) don’t have the talent.
