Fourth and one on the UNC 26 yard line. Down by seven, Pitt needed a touchdown to tie the game. This was their last chance to score, so obviously a failure on fourth down meant a fourth loss in six games. There are a lot of options on fourth and one, especially given the first down will stop the clock, so designing a play to get out of bounds isn’t necessary. Just get the one yard and you still have over a minute to go to get the remaining 25 yards to tie the game.

Chryst opted to give the ball to Conner on a deep handoff. A lot of people criticized this decision. I heard things like “if Chryst had balls he would’ve thrown it” and “of course the struggling running game wouldn’t get one measly yard. Without the ability to see the future, was it the right call? (more…)

When talking about the 2-3 zone last week, I mentioned how disastrous it was when Pitt attempted to use it back in 2011-12. That was nothing compared to what Pitt did to Howard’s attempt at using the 2-3 zone.

Howard coach Kevin Nickelberry blamed it on the Bisons (2-3) packing the paint in a zone defense, allowing Pitt to penetrate and kick out to shooters.

“I told them the bigs can’t beat us, the guards have to beat us — and the guards killed us,” Nickelberry said. “We tried to cut off what we thought was the head of the dragon.”

Howard lacks big guards, so packing inside on a zone was practically begging Pitt to shoot over the zone. And that is what Pitt did. Getting wide-open looks from outside.

A reasonable person would say it wasn’t an unsound strategy upon reviewing Pitt’s 0-11 3-point shooting in the prior game. But even the biggest optimist on Howard’s staff would have to concede that it wasn’t a shooting performance that would be repeated. Instead Pitt decimated Howard from outside. Shooting 6-8 on 3s in the first half.

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