Torn between rage and apathy. Very odd sensation. At the moment, I’ve drifted back to rage.
Right now Pitt football is a complete mess. The offense has played 3 good halves in 5 games. The defense is being consistently shredded; and even when it shows moments of competence, it can’t stop stepping on its own dick. Special teams… whatever.
3:30-ish, ESPNU.
Do I feel a little checked-out on this game? Yeah. Kind of. This game may determine just how checked-out I am for the rest of the way.
UCF flat out has a great offense, and Pat Narduzzi’s mindless speculation as to its reality as compared to UNC, only made it more ridiculous.
Hey, team basketball practices started yesterday. No, I’m not trying to change the subject. Stop questioning such things.
MMMMmmmm. That new coach smell is still there. Everything is upbeat and positive. There’s energy and good vibes (no, not that one, but now I’m thinking about it) around the players, the coaches and fans.
Pitt’s website has videos of the interviews with Head Coach Jeff Capel, senior Jared Wilson-Frame and junior Malik Ellison.
I’ve held off writing/posting anything for a few days, because I really needed to be calmer about things. I also needed to climb out of the “Black Pit of Negative Expectations.”
The BPONE is a state of mind in which no part of a football game is enjoyable because it is merely a prelude to some pratfall made more embarrassing and or painful by whatever minimal, temporary successes are experienced prior to the pratfall.
…
Alcohol will not improve anything but will be consumed in quantity anyway.
At some point repeated defeats will create an OMINPRESENT BLACK PIT of NEGATIVE EXPECTATIONS. OBPONE is a severe condition with consequences such as writer’s block, writer’s block, and writer’s block. The only cure for OBPONE is a new season, but yo-yo-ing in and out of OBPONE makes individual occurrences of BPONE more severe.
This state could also be used to describe almost the entirety of the Stallings Era.
Raycom affiliates and ACCDN.
Get excited for this broadcast folks. This is a full-on Raycom production. No ESPN affiliation for this one. We could have a real throwback in terms of production values and missed camera shots. I didn’t fully realize the extent until I started looking around for the links. For the older folks, we are talking legendary Jefferson-Pilot possibilities.
Pitt is not cursed against UNC. Just as Beamer’s Hokies weren’t cursed against Pitt. It may feel that way. it may have the fans (and perhaps some players) a bit spooked. Not the easiest thing to type when Pitt is 0-5 against the Tar Heels since coming into the ACC.
Yet, Pitt has never lost to them by more then 7 points. The last two years have come down to losing thanks to poor defense and a fumble. I suppose that is what contributes to the sense. It’s one thing to lose a bunch of times. And to be blown out in a few. But to always be within one score, but not get there. That can cause you to look for other reasons.
UNC is not as bad as they were last year, but they aren’t that good either. They got to avoid playing UCF last week because of the uncertainty surrounding Hurricane Florence, but no one is forgetting how they got destroyed by ECU two weeks ago.
Sorry about the tardiness.
The GT-Pitt game, on a personal level was a lot of fun. Taking the time with my son to sit in the stands. Not fully tethered to twitter, on-line stats and the actual game sort of made it relaxing. Aside from those final seven minutes or so, when things got tight.
Getting to cheer. Scream. Everything. My son, at one point after I screamed about a questionable call looked at me and said, “I forgot how loud you can get during games.”
Just a great day and a good time with my kid. The flat tire at twighlight on the turnpike on the way home, however, I could have done without.
12:30 pm
Taking the day off from the press box, in fact by the time this posts I should be in Pittsburgh. Instead I join the common folk in the stands. My son is coming along today so I get to be a fan (along with being dad). We’ve been looking forward to this. He wants to see the game, but he’s already been asking about a post-game trip to Aiello’s for pizza. Not sure about that, as I may have to insist on at least one more trip to Uncle Sam’s in Oakland. Might wrap it around swinging up to the Pete since he desperately wants to see the Lego Script Pitt.
Hope the coaches and players have moved on to the GT game, because I sure haven’t.
So many threads that I have not tugged on to this point. So little time. Games where everything falls apart, can be tough to break apart because EVERYTHING FELL APART. That means everyone has that one thing that really chafes them.
Special teams. The punter. The penalties. The kick returns. The offense. The offensive coordinator. The offensive line. The pass protection. The quarterback. The wide receivers. The defense. The secondary. The substitutions and rotations. Recruiting. The head coach. The other team’s head coach. All the bleeping penalties. So, so many things.
If you stayed for the entire game, why? My friends in the stands bailed early in the 3d quarter. When I met them after the game — they gave props to me for staying the entire time. Even though I was dry and warm in the press box.
By the time I met them in a Northside dive, it was late and I was just hoping they were ready to go back to crash. Nope. We stayed out until 2. I’m not built for that any longer. That realization that over the last few years, the number of times I’ve gotten up for something (job, travel, trip) around 2-3 am far, far exceed the number of times I’ve stayed up that late. Not sure when that flipped, but it has decisively.
Needless to say, I’ve been sleeping a bit since that night.
8pm, ABC
To go from 90+ degrees for a good portion of the week to 50s-60s with rain expected today. That’s something.
I suppose the rain might, um, dampen the eagerness for some to get to the stadium to tailgate early. Potentially making the expected traffic snarls a little less immediate. Who knows, maybe the Pirates will be rained out. Of course, knowing ALCO they would still keep people from the lots until 5pm and have the Pittsburgh Police enforce the no tailgating between 1:30 and 5 rule.
In theory I should be posting a ton of stuff this week. It’s Pitt-Penn State. Everyone’s hyped, or at least pretending they aren’t. Or something. I lose track.
The reality is that between a short work week, but still having to fit a normal week of work into it; and wanting to make sure that everything is done to be sure there is no bleeping way I can get called about something this weekend. Well… It’s been hard to get some time to write.
Guess it’s time for a few quickies.
Happy Labor Day. Nothing like your boss announcing around noon, that, hey it turns out there’s a special project that needs done before 6 am on Tuesday. Just as I poured that first pint from a growler of Omnipollo Nebuchadnezzar. Let’s celebrate the American worker.
The Albany game was excellent in the first half and was at best perfunctory in the second. Not really complaining. Pitt put away an overmatched team early and never really gave them a chance for hope.
Maurice Ffrench began the season taking over as the primary kick returner with aplomb. Going 91 yards with the opening kick for a TD. He showed really good speed and vision. The entire special teams unit put out excellent blocking to spring French and make the score look easy.
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