Another game, another loss because secondary was torched.
Tech’s emphasis on testing Pittsburgh with deep passes was a matter of necessity, in Hokies coach Justin Fuente’s opinion.
“They don’t give you a whole lot of choice with the way they play,” Fuente said. “The amount of people in the box, the leverages, how compact they are in there. I thought our guys accepted the challenge. They knew that going in. It certainly wasn’t a surprise.”
And Pitt fans knew it coming into the game. The only question would be how many they would get. Give VT’s QB, Jerod Evans a lot of credit. He didn’t miss too many shots. He put the ball where the receivers at least had a chance.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi had issues with the officiating all game long, but I really am a bit disappointed in the appearance of sour grapes from him.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi was frustrated by the loss, and by some calls — or non-calls — from the officials.
“I thought the coverage was real good,” he said. “I thought there were some things that were one-sided that irked me.
“We had guys in position to make plays and we didn’t make them.
“Give the quarterback some credit. He put some balls out there. (Receivers) did a great job of pushing off all night.
“Give them credit for that.”
Was the officiating particularly good or consistent? No. No dispute there.
But there was not one offensive pass interference call all night against either team. In general that has been the way things are these days in football. The receivers are allowed to get away with more pushing and offensive pass interference.
The fact is, Narduzzi and the defensive staff have stubbornly maintained stacking the box to stop the run and try and bring pressure. In the second half, when VT was trotting out a clearly gimpy Evans, Pitt continued to stack as if he was a threat to take off.
I hate repeating this over and over, but…
I understand Narduzzi has a vision for the defense. Not even one I oppose. He is, however, doing a disservice to the team by stubbornly not adjusting to the reality of the players he has and this season. He loses nothing long-term, but making dealing with the present.
Pitt has now lost two cornerbacks to injury. 8 games in, freshman Damar Hamlin makes his debut — and fares about as well as the rest. There is no depth at cornerback. They were clearly getting worn down as the game continued. And they were still getting no help.
The Hokies didn’t just make a play. They made dozens of them, taking full advantage of Pitt’s man-to-man coverage that left its cornerbacks on an island with little to no help from the safeties. By my count, Virginia Tech completed 20 passes of 10 yards or longer, seven of 20-plus yards and four of 30-plus yards.
It wasn’t fair to redshirt sophomore Phillipie Motley, making his second start in place of the injured Avonte Maddox before leaving the game. It wasn’t fair to his replacement, Dane Jackson, a redshirt freshman. And it certainly wasn’t fair to Damar Hamlin, the heralded recruit who burned his redshirt after not playing the first seven games.
“They did have help at times,” Narduzzi said. “You’ve got to stop the run. Virginia Tech is a team that likes to run. There’s not a whole lot you can do, or you’ll get the ball run down your throat.”
VT’s O-line did a good job of protecting Evans, and even used their running backs as blockers as they allowed the receivers to run vertical.
This game was going to be frustrating for whichever team lost. VT would have been bemoaning all the points they left on the board — especially in the first half — with six field goals. Pitt couldn’t do enough on defense.
The offense had some early issues, and had a sputtering in the start of the fourth quarter. Still, they put up 39 points. The offense is not the problem.
It keeps coming back to the secondary for Pitt, and an unwillingness to deal with the problems of right now.
In any case some creativity is needed.
Penn State fans bought very few of the season tickets. Next year will have the same rules in place as this year. To be eligible in two years for PSU tickets you’ll have to buy a package for the next year. Is it a gimmick? Sure. Did it work? Yes. Will it work again? Yes. That buys Pitt another two years to get to the vision Narduzzi has and hopefully Pitt will be able to sellout on merit.
if this was year 4 or 5 of Narduzzi, the wins would mean more to recruits as his vision should have started reaping some of the rewards. In year 2 it’s a non-issue. With this season it’s real easy for him to say if we had you back there we would have won the game.
Just let this season play out. The team has been ultra competitive. That’s a great foundation. These kids get punched in the mouth and punch back.
I so look forward to watching Pitt to see our offense! I loved that Oh Canada has developed such an effective jet sweep. I’m sure that the steps VT took to stop it are what made the middle so soft, and opened the door forJC to get the yardage he did.
I look forward to similar competitors’ efforts. Canada is amazing!
VT took away the jet sweep, but they were powerless to stop the newly conceived “Turtle Sweep”!! Can’t wait to see what he comes up with for Miami!
I hate that our pass D is so awful, but while I’m waiting for it to improve, I’ll get my entertainment from the O.
I guess in my case, the glass is really only half full!!
Tarp off the Upper Deck Endzone sections with a Giant Blue Tarp with Yellow Pitt Script.
And then wear the Royal Blue & Yellow Uni’s dummies.
Pitt is beyond dumb. The WNBA figured this out over a decade ago.
Maybe the guy who did the Campus stadium study with the diagrams, etc.
I think it would look pretty cool on TV, if when the TV camera panned, a GIANT Yellow PittScript on a Royal Blue TARP, overlooked the North EndZone from the Upper deck.
Now something like that might actually help Ketchup Bottle Field feel like a real Pitt Venue.
However the muckety mucks aren’t even looking at a feasibility study for an OCS.
Even Temple (which has drawn far more poorly) has done that.
Pitt’s avg attendance is right about the average in D1 football.
“Football Bowl Subdivision attendance for home games averaged 43,288 fans per game, down less than 1 percent from 43,483 in 2014, according to a CBS Sports analysis of NCAA attendance data. Crowds declined by 4 percent in 2014. ”
Thursday nite was an aberration.
Participating spectators had 2-color cards. We could cover the backs of upper deck seats to spell out a Royal Blue script “Pitt”. The rest of the yellow seats would look like accompanying background! Cheap AND effective.
Jus’ tryin’ to lighten things up!
As for the Duzz…he was hired based on his enthusiasm for his system. He has to believe in it, right or wrong to be a man of his convictions. Time will tell….but we’re fast running out of time as fans.
Emel – I can get behind a tarp
Jackagain – exactly
TX – unfortunately Pitt had no quick fixes
Gc – Yes, recruiting is better the more you win. Pitt should be able to get better and better classes as the program establishes itself. Some kids will be star struck by the blue chip schools though. it’s not the end of the world. And who knows, maybe he changes his mind again.
Don’t know if the Card Section thing would work like it does for UCLA or USC home games.
They also did it at the Tenn/VT game at Bristol this year. It look awesome. Of course they had over 100 K
We don’t have enough fans. lol
http://cdn.thespun.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Battle-at-Bristol-National-Anthem-775×465.png
The damn coach has had the team in position to win the games. Its funny to read these damn stupid post about playing zone coverages and given help. Did any of you know-it-alls see the results of that in the 2nd half of the OSU game? They then just ran it down Pitts throat and just like last year the defense could not stop that neither.
If Narduzzi and these recruits see and read these post from the same idiots over and over I would not blame him if he did leave and the good recruits dont come here. You all dont deserve shit. And you wonder why coaches dont stay?
You all talk this shit about Narduzzi cant coach and his defense sucks well look what happened to Oaklahoma iast week. They gave up almost 600 passing yards and they have 5 and 4 star studs everywhere.
Shut the hell up and give this man a chance to shape the team up. Its only been 1 and a half years. His team won 8 games last year with still a chance to do it again.
Not a way you’d like to start the Week.
BTW, Pitt is 125/128 on pass defense (Per Dokish). One of the teams worse is #12 Oklahoma. There is also the fact that Fraud Graham is worst … If the OU stat doesn’t make you feel better, at least we have that.
He was the stereotype of a PETULANT Child on the Sidelines.
Not a Good Look… especially in the eyes of Recruits or their Parents.
You said it all-bravo !
The warning was that Narduzzi had trouble controlling his emotions and might not have the temperament of a Head Coach. And maybe that was one of the things playing into the fact that he was a CAREER Assistant 25 years in the making until finally being offered the job at Pitt.
Dokish strongly disagreed as if there was ABSOLUTELY no basis to the claim.
Well, we’ve learned differently.
While I was NOT on board with hiring of Narduzzi when it was done, since then I am ROOTING for him to succeed.
I’ve met him. Talked with him. He’s not a bad Guy… just a little HIGH Strung.
Apparently, Narduzzi’s TEMPERAMENT is a bit of an issue.
