2pm, ESPN
The less said about the announcing crew, the better.
Hello, all. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Nice and peaceful with my family. Stayed off the computer for most of it, though, I did watch plenty of football and basketball. Sometimes it is just nice to watch games without the running commentary on twitter and elsewhere.
I have been and will be rushing about to finish work early to get home to watch this game, and probably roll right into the Marshall-Pitt basketball game tonight (there will be a separate thread for those who are also double-dipping). 2pm on a weekday sounds great when you are off from work, but when you still need to put in the time, it becomes a bit of an annoyance.
Pitt is the favorite in the game, and the defense is about as healthy as it has been. Though, I still don’t think Jordan Whitehead will play.
There’s not much in the way of animosity between the two coaches or programs. I mean, come on. It’s Northwestern. Other than noting certain media folk who went to their School of Journalism (Darren Rovell), there is nothing particularly hateable about Northwestern.
I also concede to having a soft spot for the campus, having spent a year in Evanston while working in Chicago after graduating from Pitt. It’s a nice campus.
Time of possession NW 35 min vs Pitt 25 min
Turnovers NW 2 vs Pitt 4
Yardage NW 468 vs Pitt 424
Score NW 31 (season ave 24) vs Pitt 24 (season ave 43)
Star RB NW 241 yards 3 TD’s vs Pitt 34 yards 0 TD’s
FG’s NW 1 for 1 vs Pitt 1 for 2
4th down NW 4 for 4 vs Pitt 0 for 4
And on and on and on…
We have a shit load of offensive talent next yr. Clark (if his attitude is okay) and Browne should give us additional fire powder. Defense?
Narduzzi has his work cut out with what he calls a defense.
I was at the game. The refs called it fairly.(I rarely say good things about officials.)
However, they did blow the head to head against Peterman. Should have been a personal foul and an automatic first down against Northwestern.
That was another non score series.
JackAgain — Top-tier not cheating just investing more $$ in their football program. Why is Pitt losing their OC to LSU? $$
What a joke.
Do yourself a favor and go down the roster and mark off who the CONTRIBUTORS are and WHO recruited them.
You might start with the handful of Players projected to hear their name called in the upcoming NFL Draft.
True, a lot of things went south for Pitt today and somehow they still found themselves in it when Orndoff muffed a gimme that would have tied the Game.
But regardless, you still have to find ways to win.
And so far, in his young career as a Head Coach… Narduzzi seems to be finding ways to lose.
Pitt fumbles and interceptions, legit penalties, and really execution overall was not great by the offense. The defense was as bad as ever with missed tackles and inability to stop 3rd and long and 4th and anything.
Dinucci gave Pitt a chance, too bad Orndoff missed on a very makeable catch. I don’t think MC would not want to show well in his last game here, but the mix just wasn’t quite right. I DO think Pitt looked affected by the cold and field conditions and thought NW was not.
Really, the only dispute was the head to head no call.
Not worth the bitchin’ but the phantom PI against Pitt, the bad mark of the ball and the Conner hit. Anyone disagree or anyone else want to add to these?
The only way we can ever hope to win is for everything to be REALLY equal among the all schools. Ya, good luck!
The spot may have been the 3rd worst – not calling the two helmet to helmet hits cost Pitt their 2nd best RB (in it’s history) and their QB (9th best in nation). Conner being knocked out in the 1st half was a big blow – he is the team engine & motivator. NP being knocked out in the 3rd qtr cost Pitt the comeback victory.
Now let’s talk about THE SPOT (3rd down play). The NW receiver catches the ball a half yard short of the mark (clearly). The ref spots the ball incorrectly in NW’s favor and then, on national TV with the ball pinned to the ground with his hand, looks to the sideline for the chain mark, picks up the ball and moves it forward and past the first down mark.
Duzz went nuts and the review was granted. Like most reviews from this Pinstripe “Bowel”, the play stood as it was manipulated on the field. NW proceeded to score a TD when they may have punted with the correct call.
I could go on, but OPG and others don’t want to hear it and apparently did not see it. My wife screamed (in public) when she saw THE SPOT live and she is usually very quiet and shooshes me during games. But Txax1 asked for my opinion…
If that’s not showing up for work late and not being focused, then, never mind…
Problem is… NUs Gameplan was clearly to RUN the football.
Narduzzi’s professed commitment to stop the Run first… was an ABYSMAL failure.
Of course, it must have been the Players’ failure to execute.
How could it not?
With all the screwups by Pitt’s offense, left a possible 21 points on the field in the first half alone. And then all the calls/reviews went for NW, sans maybe 1 or 2.
One would almost think …someone wanted the game UNDER 63.5.
And it took ALL of THAT to keep it UNDER.
Capisce
No way the refs could be “crooked? Right?
Pitt failing to be prepared and lacking in proper execution, ABSOLUTELY. (Saw it with my own eyes)
Could Pitt have won this game if the refs were “crooked”, but they came prepared and executed properly? YEP
Could Pitt have won if they weren’t prepared nor executing properly, but half the “official reviews” went Pitt’s way? YEP
The Pitt players were just not as fired up as NU – that was very obvious. Even coming out for the intro, the team seemed distracted and flat.
The O play in the 1st quarter was tepid, reinforced by too many trick plays by outgoing OCMC (who palnned out the game to try and make himself look brilliant and worth a $$ million+ IMHO)and not enough JC up the gut to get him established. You could see the train wreck coming…
The D looked dazed and confused by the NU game plan to run almost 70% of the time…and never recovered. Inability to pressure QB on 3rd and 4th downs was deadly.
No effective adjustment on special teams was made when NU showed they were going to kick it short to deny QH every single time…Ibrahim (I think) got one around the 305 and could have lateraled to QH who was clean and running up the sideline behind him – QH had a lane blocked off and would have scored.
Refs sucked and it was obvious to everyone in our section. Never saw so many replays in a single game. They looked inept. Don’t think they were paid off; they were plain incompetent, slow, cold and also probably didn’t give a fart except it was a paycheck.
Even with all the above Pitt should have won anyway – the 1st quarter Offensive ‘no show’ did them in.
H2P
So non-P5 Cincinnati hires a P5 coach as its OC from ND.
Tommymac – agree with you that everything about the NU game was bad from a Pitt stand point.
Conner with zero carries on the first series set the tone IMO.
I was invited to golf today at noon – temps in central PA are in the 30’s with a 21 mph wind. I’d rather watch the replay of the Pinstripe “Bowel”.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi, 52, played college baseball for the Wildcats and is a friend of Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald. But he also spoke about how he’s a big-time college football fan on Saturdays, one former and one current Pitt running back included.
“I remember as a kid watching the great Tony Dorsett at Pittsburgh and how much I loved to watch him play,” said Girardi, who won the World Series three times as a Yankees player and once as manager. “I think when you have players that represent your university like a James Conner, how can you not be proud to be a Pittsburgh alum?”
That takes some of the sting off of the Pinstripe “Bowel” loss.
Back to work…
Happy New Year all!
The whole team & coaching staff as usual looked stupid, flat and outplayed like they do for 90% of their bowl games going back 30 years. Nothing new…..but it’s gotten real old….
I’m looking forward to next year.
Hail Pitt