For the game, the offense had nice enough numbers. 363 total yards. 222 in the air. 141 on the ground. The overall play calling appeared a bit run heavy. 35 rushes (including one sack) to 24 passes. About 59% run, 41% pass. It’s the way it ended up there, that is a bit of a concern.
Last week after the win over Virginia Tech, Head Coach Pat Narduzzi admitted that Pitt got very conservative on offense in the second half. That approach continued — and if anything was worse — in the Virginia game.
Pitt came out in the first half dominating Virginia. A balanced mix of runs and passes. Most notable in the passing game, was that there was a lot more vertical passing. Taking advantage of Virginia being so concerned about Tyler Boyd that at times they would have both safeties shading his way.
That opened things up especially for the tight ends as Scott Orndoff and J.P. Holtz. The two tight ends caught 4 passes for 99 yards and a TD. They never saw the ball again in the second half.
Stark numbers time.
1st half: 19 passing attempts; 17 rushing attempts
2d half: 5 passing attempts; 18 rushing attempts
—
Total yards 1st half: 257
Total yards 2d half: 106
—
1st half yards passing: 172
2d half yards passing: 50
—
1st half yards rushing: 85
2d half yards rushing: 56
74 of the total 2d half yards came on one drive — the one that ended in Ollison’s fumble at the goal line. 33 of the passing yards came on the one vertical pass to Dontez Ford on that same drive.
By the way, that was the only pass attempt that wasn’t sent towards Boyd in the second half. And all the passes towards Boyd were of the 10 yard and under variety.
Essentially, Pitt was attempting to salt the game away with over 26 minutes left, after the quick score following the Galambos interception.
The offense became completely one dimensional, and even a bad Virginia team can look a lot better defensively when they know what the offense will be doing.
It’s hard to argue with success. Pitt has won both of those games despite the offense being neutered in for the second half.
But…
What he won’t tolerate from his team is an absence of emotion. He saw too much of that in the fourth quarter when Virginia scored to trim what had been a comfortable Pitt advantage to seven points late in the game.
“It was kind of quiet over there,” Narduzzi said of his bench. “I tried to get them cranked up. They have to have emotion. You can’t lose your emotion.”
The Panthers didn’t fold as previous Pitt teams have done after a big victory. The Panthers stood tall — or, at least, they didn’t bow their heads — in the face of an opponent trying to rally to victory.
“They got a pass on us and all of a sudden, the kids start to go, ‘Oh no. Here we go again,’ ” Narduzzi said. “That’s our job to make sure they don’t say that. We’re not going back that way. We’re not taking that route.”
For the second week in a row, the defense picked up a slumping offense that was not able to run out the clock. Virginia moved to the Pitt 42 late in the fourth quarter, with a chance to send the game into overtime or win it. But the Cavaliers never budged while quarterback Matt Johns, who already had been sacked four times, threw four consecutive incomplete passes.
If Narduzzi’s worried about the mindset of the players come the fourth quarter when the game tightened up, a good way to avoid that is to not have the team in that position.
You have to keep the pressure on with both sides of the ball.
Hail to Pitt.
To this point, none of us can reasonably be too critical of the conservative philosophy identified above, because it’s working- we’ve got results. However, if we continue with this mindset, it will eventually cost us.
One point I will make though, in fairness to the coaching staff, is we have an OL that is still learning on the job, and a QB with a penchant for turnovers, which is why I think we got conservative later in games. If we had a more stable OL and more confidence in the QB position, I suspect PN would have a more agressive approach to finishing out games.
Even though there has been adversity and Pitt misadventures in every game this season, Pitt has prevailed as the victor 80% of the time. The “we aren’t going back there” comment made in his post game interview speaks volumes to the attention that Coach is paying to changing the cultural mindset of this team.
The mind leads and the body follows applies to the student “body” as well. Coach Narduzzi called out the students for being lazy about closing out games in a blanket email sent out before Homecoming. He got the PantherPitt to respond to his challenge and the Twitter buzz after the game reflected the feeling that the student body positively impacted the game when Pitt fumbled at the goal line down at their end of the field. The noise from them influenced the game and helped create the Pitt safety IMO.
Getting the crowd to understand how THEY can produce a home field advantage is huge! Coach Narduzzi and AD Barnes are on task about this. It will be very interesting in how our Thursday nite crowd responds to this novel concept of influencing the on field results by their support of the Panthers via showing up, staying the course for the entire game, making noise while there and celebrating with the team after we beat the tar out of the Tar Heels!
As Bob Dylan sang many years ago, the times they are a changing.
Hoping for the best, but expecting the worst,
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?
Many have stated, why stop going to the tight ends? At least until they lessen the coverage of Boyd.
Most important, must stop the unforced errors. My guess a lot of snap practice this week.
I thought we went conservative far too early again on Saturday. I don’t want to take unnecessary risks, call wild and crazy trick plays, etc. However, I do think we should stay within the flow of the offense by continuing to utilize the TEs, play-action pass, etc.
Peterman showed his arm strength on a couple throws.
Winslow had a good game punting. Redeemed himself for last week.
WTF was Rowell doing. Another week like that and he needs to sit.
Dontez Ford needs to see the ball more. Powerful runner after the catch.
I like the focus on the run, this team needs to get better at it. The talent is there.
HCPN is doing exactly what he said he would do and the players and fans are responding. Yes it will be a gradual process but it is unfolding right before our eyes. Many observations to make.
The players exiting the busses and the Pitt band and fans lining the street at 10:20am was exciting. Then the band played a concert on the steps at Gate A, again will get the heart of any Pitt Fan pumping blue and gold. Then the March to Victory parade along Robinson Street into the stadium.
Inspired play on defense and an improvement in QB play made for an awesome afternoon.
I woke up at 4:20 am, drove to Pittsburgh and watched the WHOLE game from start to finish, then drove to Morgantown and watched the Hoopies play OK State. My son was in the Homecoming court there. What a day of college football! I can write a whole post on my experiences there, but that is for another day. Hail to Pitt!
And this from the ESPN.com ACC Blog Power Rankings:
5. Pitt Panthers (4-1, 2-0). Pitt notched its 700th win in program history Saturday, and even though its victory over Virginia was uneven — in addition to not being decided until the game’s final possession — Pat Narduzzi has to like the way his defense is performing through two games in ACC play.
H2P!!!
We begin in fall camp with our first legit QB competition in many seasons. Then we also have the best PA recruit on the roster and need to find a spot for him to contribute some. Then of course an all new coaching staff headed by a guy who has never prowled he sidelines as a HC.
The season begins and the Redemption tour for Pitt starts off with the mighty Penquins coming to town. Of course all of us SOP fans develop pregame nervous tics recounting the last home opener we played YSU in. And we have this new coaching staff that is unproven, what will go wrong to cause us to $hit the bed this time, we wonder? So we get our 1st win after all, and in the process find a new RB in Qadree Ollison who runs crazy after Conner gets picked up in the 1st half. No worries Coach says Conner will be back, NOT!!!! Holy $hit, no Conner, we’re in trouble now.
We end up still winning game two in our redemption tour in a freaking monsoon in Ohio and all of a sudden Chad isn’t our entrenched QB any longer with Nate Peterman showing his wears are effective.
On to Iowa, and a 57 yard FG at the buzzer to hand Pitt there first loss of the season. Now it’s game on for the negative Nancy’s. Cries of SOP arise because we lose a game at the bitter end. You know, there are no moral victories, and stuff like that, but we don’t fully realize that this Hawkeye team is actually a really good football team and our Panthers are learning how to win the close ones. They just aren’t quite there yet.
On to VT, oh boy, they just got beat by ECU and we play them in Blacksburg. The hand wringers don’t give us much of a chance against the Hokies, they got this mobile QB after all that is going to run all over our slow bunch of two star LBs don’t you know? Well, say hello to the Narduzzi Defense! Seven, yes count them, seven QB sacks in this one with a couple defensive stands at the end to preserve the win that we haven’t witnessed at Pitt for a long, long while. All of a sudden these bunch of no name, slow, untalented players gelled into a formidable force, who knew?!
But let us not forget, this is still Pitt. We always lose one that we shouldn’t. Pitt comes back home against the Cavaliers who have their backs up against the wall. London’s job is on the line and Pitt always seems to play down to their competition. But no! Even though Pitt does in fact try to screw this one up with dropped a TD pass, a weird pick six off a NP fumble/tipped pass/INT thing? And another Pitt score squandered by a fumble on the one yard line,,,,,,,,,REALLY?
So how does THIS Pitt squad respond? How about a safety? Not too shabby. And now Pitt is 4-1 and tied at the top of the ACC Coastal. I’m pretty happy right now!
This has been accomplished by a brand new coaching staff, with a HC that has no experience in running the entire shows, without the help of our All American RB with a disadvantageous schedule that had us playing three consecutive away games, two of which were against Power 5 teams in very hostile environments! Plus we’ve settled some things in the process. We have identified two starters now at both QB & safety. The newbie at the safety spot having a “defensive” coming out party similar to a Freshman named Tyler Boyd a couple seasons ago. Yes, Whitehead is a difference maker! Recruits take note, early playing time available at Pitt, IF you got the skills and come in ready to learn and contribute. This kind of opportunity at a major program like Pitt that is now on the up swing just doesn’t come around that often.
Now we go to GT. This game was penciled in by EVERYBODY as a Pitt lose preseason, not so fast my friend. Right now, the Yellow Jackets are a mess! We could not catch them on our schedule at a better time! Once again the Pitt naysayers are pontificating that the Jackets will be hungry for a victory after three straight losses. Plus it’s another Pitt road game! Sound familiar? How did that work out for Virginia Tech?
This is a Pitt team that is believing in itself and is learning how to win. Look who turned the momentum back in Pitt’s favor during the Virginia game, Matt Galambos, that slow, always out of position, no talent linebacker, who in this case just “happened” to be in the perfect position to catch a INT and was fast enough to return it some 50 yards for a nice YAC stat for himself.
This Pitt team will be going into Atlanta fully expecting to bring home a win. This Pitt team has momentum with them, this Pitt team has leadership, both in the roster and in this coaching staff, and most importantly this Pitt team is NOT the SOP!
Reed has been playing the wait and see game, as have many others. Well what are you waiting to see? This GT game marks the midpoint of the season. With a win Pitt is staking it’s claim as a legitament competitor for the ACC Coastal Crown. Pitt vs GT is a contest between two teams going in opposite directions. This game is Pitt’s for the taking, they just have to believe, they do. Do you?
Hail to Pitt! Swat the Yellow Jackets!
H2P
One thing that really saddens me sometimes about our blog is the simple fact that we are all Pitt fans and want the panthers to win. But some how, unfortunately, we start pitting (no pun intended) our own boys against one another. All these kids are Pitt Panthers. We are their fans. Hence whoever our coaches send out onto the field we should be rooting for them, that’s what fans do. But instead we act like little children when “our guy” doesn’t get the call. HEY, THEY ARE ALL OUR GUYS!
I can say with all honesty their isn’t one player on our team I don’t like. I have rooted for all of them when they enter the game. I realize it’s hard sometimes when the coach doesn’t go with “our guy.” But the point is these are still kids, teenagers, not pros, and they are ALL our guys. We are!..PITT FANS! Not Tom, Dick, or Harry fans. Quite frankly, the kids themselves are handling the roster changes much better than us adults. Hence, what does that say about our maturity? I know we can do better, maybe even as well as our Pitt players. Let’s go Pitt – beat Tech!!!
Galambos recognizes a lot of plays and understands the game, he just doesn’t have all the physical tools to make all the plays. He was in zone coverage and made the right read.
BTW, I definitely see a Voytik play action pass in this coming game for a huge gain. GA Tech D will be looking for the rush by Voytik.
H2P!
There will be a point where being too conservative will eventually catch up to you! All the D needs to do is to continue to target Pitts side…quickest way down the field
I’m not sure that the 2nd half conservatism is not due more to the pass rush which either can put Pitt in a bad down and distance situation, or cause a turnover.
It is also possible that, like the VT game, HCPN is telling OCJC to be more careful … as we seen, defensive coaches can be pretty conservative and may have too much confidence in the defense.
you guys are drinking the Kool-Aid 10-2?? Best case scenario
is 8-4…most likey 7-5. calling a loss to ND whcih pains as i
woould trade several victories for a W against them. So
4-2 then a split of the remainding ACC games leads me
to 7-5 at this point. Still many questions to be answered..
Offense (as of October 10, 127 FBS teams)
Scoring – 27.2 ppg (81st)
Total – 337.2 ypg (111th)
Rushing – 162.8 ypg (79th)
Passing – 174.4 ypg (107th
Passing eff. – 145.44 (37th)
Pct. comp. – 67.3% (18th)
First downs – 83 (124th)
3rd down conv. – 39.4% (65th) [28/71]
4th down conv. – 60.0% (T45th) [3/5]
Red zone eff. – 76.5% (T105th) [13/17]
Sacks allowed – 2.8 pg (T103rd) [14 for -109yds]
TFLs allowed – 7.0 pg (T104th) [35 for -164 yds]
Turnovers – 8 (N/A) [4 fumbles – 4 INTs]
please can we see some left lane hammer down!
17-3 after 1st Q
no attempt to score for over 2 Q?
lucky it was Vtech & Va 2 offensively challenged teams.
Please, once up keep jumping up and down on em!
Stillers do same thing & it cost them the Raven game.
Its not like our O doesn’t need the work.
If you want a safe O hit the TE across the middle & just keep hammering it. our TE are fully Mission Capable with great catchabillity & runabillity after the catch!
Just to give you a feel for the dark cloud hanging over the GT campus now, check out their Yellow Jackets blog.link to fromtherumbleseat.com
Four straight losses, the last three all conference games will put a major crimp into any team’s self confidence. Now to add to GT’s worries, you got a HC bringing in his team with four weeks of game tapes blue printing how to castrate this potent triple option of GT’s. And the guy just happens to be a defensive guru to begin with and is in the process of convincing his defensive players that they’re the real deal. Very worrisome for GT.
Like I said above, these are two teams right now that are going in opposite directions. And to those of us lamenting the fact that the Panthers are getting no respect from the national pollsters, I couldn’t be happier. Our days of sneaking up on our competition are dwindling fast.
Narduzzi knows what’s important at this point. Just win baby, WIN. All the other stuff works itself out in the long run. 11-1 until proven otherwise.
Scoring – 20.6 ppg (39th)
Total – 264.6 ypg (7th)
Rushing – 84.8 ypg (6th)
Passing – 179.8 ypg (27th
Passing eff. – 99.63 (12th)
Pct. comp. – 51.3% (N/A)
First downs – 74 (4th)
3rd down conv. – 30.0% (24th) [21/70]
4th down conv. – 20.0% (T6th) [1/5]
Red zone eff. – 100% (T125th) [8/8]
Sacks – 4.2 pg (1st) [21 for -170yds]
TFLs – 8.0 pg (T15th) [40 for -222 yds]
Turnovers – 6 (N/A) [1 fumble – 5 INTs]
Turnover margin – minus 2 (T90th)
Thank you for complying with the “Spirits” of our wager!
Appreciate!
Just so sorry that the Peterman/ Voytik battle has caused
Pitt fans to turn on each other. How bout we KITFO!!!
Still with Tossing 10-2
Pitt has played their “A” game for only one quarter. They will
need all 4 q’s to win at Tech!
Agreed w Pitt Hoopieland… Best Pitt crowd in years at HC
I was a delivery boy while at Pitt and know every back road in the Burgh for 30 sq mi and was life and death to get back to
my hotel with road closures…. Especially Pkwy West.
How the rest of you made it is beyond me. Even Siri got lost!!
Did not help!!
I would like to see:
1. No Wannyesque brain farts – like punting from the opponents 35 yard line. Or when we’re lined up for the winning field goal, we don’t run to the sideline then miss the field goal.
2. If the opponents can’t stop something, we keep doing it. No more “that works, let’s try something else”.
3. When we score a TD, the opponent doesn’t immediately score on a kickoff return or long pass.
4. The phrase “same old Pitt” never comes immediately to mind.
5. We ALWAYS cover an on-side kick
6. We never fumble the ball multiple times in a row
7. The team always comes out fired up regardless of the competition.
8. When we get a big lead, we think “pour it on” not “how can we f*ck this up?”
To begin the 2nd half vs Va Tech, we lined in a Power I formation and went 67 yards in 2 plays t score. Then, in a key 4th and 1 early in 4th quarter, we do the same and get 6 yards.
That was the last time I recall we used that set.
Rule #1 of coaching: Never trust a fumbler. Period. Foge Fazio/Mike Gottfried never grasped that concept and the blind faith given to guys like Joe McCall, Charles Gladman, Curvin Richards, etc. was misguided at best.
There’s a reason these guys never stuck in the NFL. Hold onto the damn ball!
Pitt has its hands full this week, it will take one hell of an effort to come home from this conference game victorious. PN give them hell and good luck guys.
Not a good environment to be a visiting team to have to play in.
That’s the way the ball bounces. So far, except for that 57 yard FG the Panthers have stayed slightly ahead of those averages.
Thanks for the D stats. Didn’t know that we were 1st in the nation for sacks! What a 180 degree turn around from last year. Really quite unbelievable.
link to theacc.com
I happened to catch the end of the Ravens/Browns game on the radio, and as Cleveland was setting up the game winning field goal, the announcers said that the Browns would likely win “unless they do something Brownsish”. Kind of like us and Pitt, huh?
link to theacc.com
I don’t see that on the offense. Players can be coached to never fumble. There are teams that haven’t fumbled in years. There are drills for receivers so they never drop the ball (catch it one-handed in practice so two-handed is easy, etc.) Offensive fundamental practice is lacking.
#6 on your list is what’s going to happen.
My list is the same as your list but we aren’t there yet on all line item’s. But I love that Pitt is only 2 scratch’s away.
H2P Beat GT
The knee injury suffered by Nick Chubb of Georgia was devastating to Bulldog fans, not to mention that they lost to Tenn. also. But even worse are the GT fans. Most won’t even talk about football now. The Clemson game really exposed the underlying issues that this team is dealing with. Clemson held GT to like 80 yards rushing. Totally dominated, GT was. Believe me, this GT team is referring on the verge of throwing in the towel.
This GT team is in the midst of a free fall. They are anything but “hungry” & “angry” right now. They’re starving for a win, for sure but they are dealing with some major self doubt at the moment. As I stated earlier this morning, we are catching them at a perfect time in our schedule now. Our defense playing to it’s full potential will spell V-I-C-T-O-R-Y this week.
They remain a dangerous team but one lacking confidence in themselves at the moment searching for answers. I’m feeling Pitt lowers the boom on these guys early and it creates a situation where GT just lacks the will to win. That is how close this team is to a total meltdown.
Rowell was off throughout the game. A few high snaps and some shaky blocking for sure. He hasn’t been great this year but I think he can play much better than he did Saturday.
GT is wounded and will play with nothing to lose. They’ve played a tough schedule and it will be very tough to get ready for the option. Even though a lot of our guys played against GT the past 2 years, I wonder how much different Narduzzi and Conklin’s approach is from the previous staff? I imagine there are some significant differences and a bit of a learning curve.
Thanks for the close up analysis of the GT fans and the problems GT is experiencing.
I hope you are right on the money.
The defense is playing at an elite level and the offense is getting better … slowly … but it’s improving. This game was very close to being a blowout and breakout game for the O. I understand they didn’t but what held them back this game wasn’t execution, it was mistakes. A drop and two fumbles prevented this thing from getting out of reach. They looked like a coherent offense though. Not one still looking for an identity.
Thanks for those O numbers. Horrendous.
Good thing we’re playing scrub teams so far, sans Iowa.
Who cares if 20 guys catch passes if you’re 107th of 127 in passing. And 124th, almost dead last…in First Downs.
Unbelievable that an offense can be transformed to that, from what it was.
We’re just hanging on… in these games against suspect competition.
If we would have trounced VT & UVA, I can assure you we would be getting some votes, maybe even Top 25.
One thing missing from the analysis and commentary regarding 1st half vs. 2nd half is the glaring difference in possessions. We had 8 possessions in the first half (42 plays) and only 5 possessions in the second half (25 plays) and one of those 5 possessions was the victory formation at the end of the game. You take away the quick score after the Galambos INT (2 plays, 20 yards, :24), we only had the ball THREE TIMES in the second half. How is that even possible??? And of course we fumbled on the goal line one of those drives and had the huge Peterman run called back on a second.
I don’t think we were in a nail biter again late because of conservative play calling. The fumble and the holding penalty took at least 7 (probably 10 and possibly 14) points off the board. The play calling had us in position to score on three of our four possessions in the 2nd half (not counting victory formation). I have no issues with the play calling if we score 75% of the time.
I have more of an issue with us having a turnover, three punts and 35 yards of total offense with our 4 possessions in the 2nd quarter.
The 2nd quarter issues would seem to indicate, that after UVA made defensive adjustments, Pitt either didn’t. Or the ones we made didn’t work.
Same thing happened at VT after we scored 10 points in 1st quarter.
That seemed to be a theme on the Tenn & Ark blogs I perused regarding Chaney.
Even looking back at the 2nd quarter possessions, we had a drive killed by the fumbleception, a fumbled snap on third and 2, an illegal shift penalty on 3rd and 2 and a goofy throw out into the flat to Boyd for no game on 3rd and 2.
Three of those four possessions did not end due to play calling. One definitely did, but the others ended because we shot ourselves in the foot. Much like the entire second half.
Red zone eff. – 100% (T125th) [8/8]
We need to stop somebody sometime from scoring.
What we have seen is the nfl version of the “Prevent Offense”. Our offensive play calling gets too conservative and they struggle to get their mojo back when needed. If the offense is playing well, let them go. Not crazy passing every play, but surely enough to keep the opponent from stacking the box and creating three and outs. Look at the Patriots as an example of this. They get a lead and then systematically kill you when you try to stuff the box. Oh, plus they are just a better team.
Point being. Conservative play calling when the situation does not call for it, can kill momentum. Our guys need more practice offensively as a unit and what better way to do it than to keep the pressure on when it is going well. I personally won’t complain if we toss an interception while trying to step on someones jugular. Let’s go get number 5!