In hindsight, the Penn State game could not have gone any better. Pitt won, but the second half showed the areas Pitt needs to improve. I had a great conversation with a coworker, a former high school offensive coordinator with decades of experience, about the game. I mentioned the thing that bothered me was how Pitt dominated the game, but still almost lost.
The issue, as we both agreed, was passive coaching. The second half was a terrible combination of the offense stagnating due to conservative plays and PSU’s offense getting into a rhythm. I’m not entirely sure what happened on defense other than they started playing tight after PSU began moving the ball consistently. The offense, however, is very easy to see. Here’s where Matt Canada and the offense went wrong in the second half. (more…)
Kind of wish Pitt had a bye week here, so I could spend that time basking in the reflected glory and writing all week and beyond about the gloriousness of that game. Alas, there is a high-profile road game against a ranked team that is going to be very pissed after the way they got screwed this past weekend.
For all the fears of some fans getting out of control before or after the game, things seemed relatively peaceful. Between the noon start time and soul-draining humidity, I’m not sure a critical mass of people in any area had the energy to really go at it, or the time to end up over-served. Though, some tried.
