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December 2, 2016

I’ve tried. I’ve really tried. I’ve wanted to care about the City Game as more than just another non-con. I’ve made fun of their rebranding efforts and derisively referred to them as the Stage Magicians. I’ve written a few posts about their ineptitude over the years

Moving it to the Con Paint Store, was a good effort to try and make it special. But other than the humiliation of losing to a bad team and ending a 15-game winning streak against the Dukes, it’s hard to feel any animosity or hate towards Duquesne that should go with a rivalry game.

Maybe it’s me. Maybe as a non-native I just don’t get the same impact of friends and families torn apart by their loyalties and the importance of this game within the area. The trash talking that must go on between the two sides.

/thinking

/pondering

/contemplating

Nah.

Duquesne is ranked 22nd in KenPom.com. They have a 3-5 record, and a SOS of 328 out of 351. They have lost at HOME to Canisius, Tennessee-Martin and UMBC. Even beating Duquesne is likely to hurt Pitt in terms of SOS. And really, that has been the only way they have gotten over Pitt in this millennium. As a drag on the non-con SOS.

7pm game time on the ACC Network Extra/ESPN3.

 





Since Young wants to shoot from the outside and he knows his only chance of getting some sort of a pro contract is playing a 3 or stretch 4 in the pro’s.

We need somebody underneath, down on the blocks, a presence down there. If I was Stallings I would put Nix at the 5, Jeter at the 3 (where he played last year) and sit Jones and bring him off the bench to provide some spark, as the bench is pretty horrible (only 4 points last nite). The bench has been horrible all year.

So what this does is make Pitt bigger underneath, maybe provides some better offensive rebounding with Nix, so Young can do his thing from midrange and outside and shores up your bench with someone who might contribute something off the bench.

Now they have some teams coming up they could try this with, and if Stallings is any kind of a coach, he should know they can’t stand with this pat hand.

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 7:05 pm

Nix at the 5 also gives you a better defensive presence at the 5 since Young doesn’t really want to exert much energy on defense and is usually out physical’d and smaller than opponent in the middle.

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 7:08 pm

They’d have to use a different defense than the 3-2 zone though, as that’s too much space in the back for Nix to cover.

They’d have to go to a 2-1-2 or a 2-3 zone. This team can’t play Man to Man at all, so they should just recognize that and put that on the shelf.

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 7:18 pm

WVcc beat #6 and ACC power Virginia 66-57.

They can recruit kids to Morganhole to play in the forlorn places of the Big 12(Ames, Lubbock, etc) but Pitt can’t recruit worth crap to play in the ACC.

smh

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 7:41 pm

Emel… you can tune in right now to ESPN2 and watch Arkansas State and see your Favorite Pitt Quarterback Chad Voytik sit the bench.

I know… I know…

Comment by PittofDreams 12.03.16 @ 8:01 pm

Meanwhile… on another Channel you can watch the Coach who lived and died with Chad Voytik lead the No. 6 Team in the Country for a CHANCE at the National Playoff.

Comment by PittofDreams 12.03.16 @ 8:05 pm

The last two games we completely faded in the last 8 minutes or so….Could conditioning be a problem?

Comment by HbgFrank 12.03.16 @ 8:29 pm

And your point is…..PoD ?

Until we win another Bowl Game, Voytik is the last Pitt QB to win a Bowl game since Bill Stull.

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 8:45 pm

My favorite Pitt QB is Dan Marino btw.

Matt Cavanaugh is 2nd.

Got any problems with them

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 8:46 pm

Go Badgers! Wisconsin 14 Penn State 0.

Comment by Justinian 12.03.16 @ 8:47 pm

I believe you were a big Tiny supporter. lol

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 8:48 pm

And Cheesehead Paulie lived and died with the decision he made to make OutHouse the DC.

As Pitt scored plenty of points to win 8 or 9 games that year.

And his decision, not to ‘center’ the ball before Blewitt’s missed FG against Duke.

And his decision to ‘walk on Pitt’ before the Bowl Game.

Comment by Emel 12.03.16 @ 8:52 pm

FYI Emel… I caught a few passes from Cavanaugh. Unfortunately never in a real Game.

Comment by PittofDreams 12.03.16 @ 9:35 pm

Paul Chryst SPANKIN’ the Nitts.

Pitt Fans should be happy.

Comment by PittofDreams 12.03.16 @ 9:44 pm

PittofDreams, I’ll be happy when the game is OVER with Wisconsin ahead. Until then, I’m cautious optimistic.

Comment by Justinian 12.03.16 @ 9:58 pm

What bothers me about Penn State is that they’re LUCKY this year.

Even for them to be playing for the BIG 10 Championship tells you that.

Hoping for Chryst and the Badgers to pull it out!

Comment by PittofDreams 12.03.16 @ 10:04 pm

As I said.

Comment by PittofDreams 12.03.16 @ 11:59 pm

And if you listen to the “pundits” last night after the games, then Pitt must be one of the best teams in the country…cause penn state won the B1G Joke championship, with the B1G Joke being the best conference in CFB, per James Franklinstien. And of course we all know that Pitt beat penn state on September 10, 2016. I used the date because the creepy valley cult looks past that non-rivalry game.

“Pundits” is another word for IDIOTS.

Potato Paul did his best imitation of employing the “Turtle Offense” in the second half AND I think the “Outhouse D” was also in full execution during the 2nd half…

My prediction for the playoff teams:

1. Alabama
2. Clemscum (who’s only loss is to Pitt)
3. tOSU
4. Washington

5. Michigan (who beat penn state 49-10)
6. Oklahoma and/or penn state (who lost to Pitt)

25. Pitt (in need of a QB and a defense for 2017)

Comment by Erie Express 12.04.16 @ 7:27 am

Oh yea, and I forgot to mention, Pitt beat the ACC champion and the B1G Joke chumpion.

Maybe I did, but not in those exact words…

HTP!

Comment by Erie Express 12.04.16 @ 7:30 am

Sun Bowl or Pinstripe what’s the one you want?

Comment by WLAT 910 radio and the big beat! 12.04.16 @ 8:32 am

ESPN is projecting Pitt vs Utah in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas. I was hoping for the Sun Bowl and Stanford.

Comment by Justinian 12.04.16 @ 8:45 am

The statistic that no one in the media picked up is that Pitt is the only Power 5 Conference team to have played 7 power 5 conference teams, with 8 or more wins. When you add that to beating 2 top ten teams, they should be higher that 24 or 25 in the rankings.

Comment by Justinian 12.04.16 @ 8:51 am

I don’t know why, but my gut tells me Pitt will drop from the Top 25 today and settle for an ACC 2nd tier bowl.

I hope my “gut” is wrong…I am usually more optimistic with Pitt FB.

Comment by Erie Express 12.04.16 @ 9:51 am

@Emel You’re still bitter about the missed field goal in the Duke game two years ago? Blewitt’s missed plenty of centered kicks since then including an extra point last week. At least Chryst played Voytik. I would have hoped that would redeem him at least a little for you.

PSU certainly improved since the Michigan beatdown at Ann Arbor in late September. They haven’t won by less than 14 points since they beat Ohio State. They eventually beat Wisconsin. Other than Michigan the only decent teams in the Big 10 that they didn’t play were Nebraska and Northwestern. Have to give them some credit…

Just imagine if Pitt had had a credible pass defense this year. They probably would have also beaten the Big 12 runner up on the road.

Comment by Barvo 12.04.16 @ 9:55 am

Barvo, The Panthers lost by 1 point to North Carolina in closing seconds, by 3 to Virginia Tech, and in overtime to Oklahoma State. If they win of those games they would be ranked a lot higher. Heck Virginia Tech was only one win ahead of Pitt in the standings. On the Fan an NFL scout commented that people don’t realize how close this teams is.

Comment by Justinian 12.04.16 @ 1:46 pm

PissyU wanted to be considered for National Championship Tourney – Give ME A BREAK! They didn’t even win their STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!
HAIL TO PITT.

Top 3 takeaways from this 2016 season:
1) BEATING PSU
2) BEATING Clemson
3) Being the SOLE reason PSU is NOT in the final 4!

Again (& forever) – HAIL TO PITT!!

Comment by Giffer in Denver 12.04.16 @ 2:00 pm

If Narduzzi would have realized earlier that he had to win with overwhelming offense rather than relying on a suspect defense to hold a lead, we probably win a couple more. At least he figured it out in time to win 8.

Comment by gc 12.04.16 @ 2:18 pm

Great night. Paul Chryst lost and PSU was one spot from the Playoff … thanks to Pitt. Two birds, one stone. HTP.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 12.04.16 @ 2:33 pm

Just saw the top six rankings – the committee place 2 loss penn state ahead of 2 loss Michigan who blew out the pedo enablers 49-10.

Head scratcher – but yes, Pitt also beat penn state.

Comment by Erie Express 12.04.16 @ 2:40 pm

I am glad Potato Body Chryst lost The only reason Wisconsin was as good as they are is because these arn’t Paulie’s players. Watch Wisconsin go down hill when Paul Chryst recruited players play! He wanted to leave Pitt when the coaching job became open after 1 year at Pitt but Barry Alvarez said stay at Pitt awhile.

Comment by Boo Boo #1 12.04.16 @ 2:55 pm

We’re #22 in the poll that counts and just out of the Coaches poll. I guess butt hurt Franklinstein gets a vote there.

link to espn.com

Either way, if we win our bowl game (for a change) we’ll end up ranked in the Top 20. Not bad.

Getting revenge on Utah would be nice too. I still remember Urban Meyer running up the score at the end of the bowl game and laughing on the sidelines with his QB Alex Smith.

Comment by Jackagain 12.04.16 @ 2:57 pm

I am hesring Pinstripe Bowl vs Northwestern Yuck. or the Sun Bowl I forget who they would play.

Comment by Boo Boo #1 12.04.16 @ 2:57 pm

Pitt to the Pinstripe Bowl !

link to twitter.com

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 3:16 pm

They’ll probably have us playing Buttgers since they have the NY market sewn up…. 😉

We need an easy win here though because we stink in bowl games and because we HAVE to be ranked going into LOI day…..and only a win will achieve that. The pedos & hoopies will be ranked even if they lose.

We’ll get a better bowl next year.

Comment by Jackagain 12.04.16 @ 3:23 pm

Very nice comments about Pitt on the Selection show. Very positive comments about Pitt’s game plan vs Clemson and about how Clemson could not stop them.

Comment by Justinian 12.04.16 @ 3:43 pm

Fuck the Pinstripe bowl!! What a joke. Barnes should try to open talks with the Big 12 cause the ACC hates Pitt

Comment by Steve h 12.04.16 @ 3:59 pm

BTW Emel, I’m surprised that tweet didn’t start with “Up Yours Panthers!”

Comment by Jackagain 12.04.16 @ 4:01 pm

Emel, I knew it was either going to be the Pinstripe Bowl or the Sun bowl, but I really wanted to see Pitt in the Sun Bowl, a Pitt -Stanford match-up. The Panthers are tough against the run and Stanford is a running team.

Comment by Justinian 12.04.16 @ 4:02 pm

Steve, I think it’s not the ACC, it’s the Gator Bowl comm. They decide who plays there I believe. Maybe the ACC placed us there and the Gator Bowl Comm. said no way.

Would love to know how that works though….

Either way, we need a win, not a ‘good’ bowl game against a better ranked team. If we win we stay ranked going into LOI Day, period. The pedos & hoopies will be doing everything possible to poach our players in late January. Being 8-5 and unranked would be real bad news for the Duzz.

I mean, it’s not like we’re great playing in bowl games lately.

Comment by Jackagain 12.04.16 @ 4:07 pm

ikr Jack.

ACC has done us absolutely no favors in Bowl selections for sure.

Took care of the good ole boy schools of UNC and GT and even Miami over the Little Panthers.

So sick of it. I hate this conference anymore.
Sux for bball too !

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 4:30 pm

right Justinian.

Did a full review on why Stanford would have been the ticket for Pitt the other day.

They are ranked above us, so we could move up.
They are a running team
Only avg 159 passing per game
They have a winning record.
They have a National Name.

Should have known we wouldn’t get them, because it made too much sense.

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 4:32 pm

Jackagain, Pitt does need a bowl win that’s true. Beating PSU and WVU in the same season could have been huge for recruiting. Everybody wanted The Brawl in the Russel bowl. It would have gotten a lot of national publicity. Now nobody will watch that crap

Comment by Steve h 12.04.16 @ 4:44 pm

Of the ACC tier 1 bowls, Pitt was obviously the last team picked.

I knew no way we’d get the Russell, they had the #2 pick of ACC teams.

If they could have dropped Pitt to a Tier 2 bowl they would have.

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 5:12 pm

I’m fed up with the ACC.

It sucks for football as far as selling out Heinz with attractive opponents. And they don’t take care of us obviously with these bowl selections, even though we handed them 5-6 games per year with Notre Dame in football, while giving up our Notre Dame games.

And the marquee basketball programs aren’t guaranteed to play at the Pete every year. Other than Syracuse.

Basketball interest at Pitt is not growing per the ACC it’s declining.

Other than when Duke or UNC comes, there is not much interest in the other games.

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 5:17 pm

Agree Emel. Except I was fed up with ACC before we joined. No natural rivals – no one works in the office every day with a competitor’s fan(s). No chance for trash talking – win or lose. No way we come out of this “partnership” any better than wvcc & Big 12. Only good thing about this is the bigger $ than BE. But most away games are too far away from Pgh to get a strong contingent every week. We are the red headed step child; the carpetbaggers from The North. Our only hope is to kick butt in FB, and make ’em hate us even more.

Take this bowl game and unleash the dogs. Roll up a big score, and be happy with a good win for the guys. Next year, 10 wins, and another crappy bowl, and kick some more butt … Etc, etc, etc. Till we get 12-0 and a shot at the big dance.

Comment by Savannah Panther 12.04.16 @ 5:38 pm

Emel, Losing the Notre Dame games really sucks! Particularly this year. I grew up walking up Cardiac Hill to Pitt Stadium for mane Pitt-ND games over the years. I remember watching Tony Dorsett’s 300 yard game against Notre Dame.

Comment by Justinian 12.04.16 @ 5:41 pm

Yea it would have been nice to have had the opportunity of pounding Notre Dame this year.

Instead the ACC got our game. Fookers.

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 5:52 pm

The Pitt-Duquense game the other nite was ACC Network/ESPN production.

Yet the announcers were celebrating Duquesne’s win, even cheering for them.

This is getting ridiculous, that Pitt lets this crap go on.

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 5:57 pm

Emel, we easily could have been UConn….and almost was…..

link to bostonglobe.com

We lost the ND game to get the pedos. No way we were playing both. You’ll notice that when the pedo series ends we’re back playing ND.

Comment by Jackagain 12.04.16 @ 8:24 pm

~ Jack. Pitt would have moved into the Big 12. They were interested in us BEFORE the Hoopies.

Big 12 wasn’t interested in Uconn.

Comment by Emel 12.04.16 @ 8:33 pm

I’ll take the scraps. If we beat who we needed to beat and if our fans cared and traveled, we would be in Florida. Pitt has nobody to blame but Pitt.

Comment by TX Panther 12.04.16 @ 8:40 pm

Pitt is a 3 point favorite, jump on it

Comment by WLAT 910 radio and the big beat! 12.04.16 @ 8:52 pm

@tx panther

GT, Miami do not bring fans at all no matter where, I can tell you that from living here in the south. VT, Clemson travel well, UNC fans will not flock to their bowl game this year when UNC played UGa in Atlanta for their first game this season maybe 5k to 7k fans the rest UGa .

I agree Pitt doesn’t travel well but neither do a lot of ACC teams

Comment by WLAT 910 radio and the big beat! 12.04.16 @ 9:02 pm

“On offense Northwestern boasts a trio of talented threats: QB Clayton Thorson (2968 yards passing, 21 touchdowns) WR Austin Carr (84 catches, 1196 yards, 12 TDs) and RB Justin Jackson (266 carries for 1300 yards, 12 TDs). But little else beyond the three stars.

For the season, the Wildcats are 94th in the nation in offense with 25.6 points per game and 23rd in the nation in defense; allowing only 22.1 points per game.

Stat to watch: Northwestern is 2-10 all time in bowl games, which is the second lowest winning percentage in the history of the FBS (of teams with a minimum of one victory).”

Pulled this from PSN –

NW is 6-6 on the season and 5-4 in B1G Joke conference games. They lost occ games to W.Michigan and Illinois State. They did squeak out a win vs Duke. None of their games were against a high powered, scoring offense – best team they played was tOSU who has a very inconsistent offense (see penn state game).

For recruiting purposes, fan morale, #ThePursuit and keeping the B1G Joke tag line, Pitt needs to run up the score in this bowl game and then score again.

The D needs to keep stopping the run, play a decent game (pass coverage and tackling after the catch) and let the O be our best D.

Thankful for the extra practices –

HTP!

Comment by Erie Express 12.05.16 @ 5:17 am

occ = ooc (or out of conference)

Comment by Erie Express 12.05.16 @ 6:04 am

For Miami’s last home game against Duke they had over 57,000.

For Pitt’s next to last home game against Duke Pitt had over 35,000. That was the first game after the Clemson win. For Pitt’s last home game against Syracuse the attendance was just over 34,000. The Steelers played away games both of those weekends.

For the Pitt-Miami game Miami had over 52,000 in attendance.

I understand bowl games aren’t primarily about attendance but the bowls are put on in part to boost the host city.

Pitt fans don’t typically show up and the team has tanked in some recent bowl appearances. Most notably with Navy, Ole Miss and SMU. Struggled to beat Bowling Green.

Comment by Barvo 12.05.16 @ 8:19 am

Look, I’m not big on this bowl game either, but the fact of the matter is if we want better bowl games then win more regular season games. Simple as that. Now, go out and win the bowl game, regardless of the less than thrilling opponent. And then next season, win more games than the 6-8 win range. Everything will work out if that happens. Pitt WILL push through if we continue on from there, but ya gotta win consistently, season to season.

Comment by The Pitt Dilemma 12.05.16 @ 11:38 am

t

Comment by daddylonglegs 12.05.16 @ 12:29 pm

This is what you get for hiring Stallings in the first place – He is now completely exposed as a failure. This set the program back 25 years ! Maryland win ( who started 3 freshman ) means absolutely nothing !!

Comment by daddylonglegs 12.05.16 @ 12:34 pm

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