The points didn’t come in one wild quarter or half. There wasn’t a defense that completely overwhelmed and demoralized Duke. Instead, they were steady consistent blows on both sides of the ball. It didn’t even feel like a blowout until you looked up at the score in 4th quarter.
Duke never quite seemed out of it in the first half. In part, because, Pitt fans have been conditioned this year to understand that no lead is truly safe. But primarily because while Pitt was dominating, they weren’t destroying.
A lead of 28-14 at the half was nice. The defense was decent, but still showed its weaknesses. That Duke missed a short field goal at the end of the half seemed like a bit of luck.
The offense was solid, with the running game leading the way. Still, there were worries as Peterman threw a horrid pick six, and the passing game in general looked sluggish. Dropped balls and bad throws bailed out by a running game. Even that had worries with James Conner leaving for nearly a quarter because of his ankle.
Then the second half came, and Pitt continued to pound. Beating Duke in all facets. Consistently executing. The offense and defense both playing cleanly. Not making mistakes. Disciplined. Very disciplined.
Putting Duke into submission as the steady drives continued on offense, while the defense kept Duke from advancing to even field goal range. Another 14 point quarter, and it was 42-14 when that damnable song was played.
Still, Pitt kept doing everything well. Even as the starters were slowly being taken out for the back-ups. By then, Duke wasn’t even desperate. They were beaten. The cumulative effect of the first three quarters breaking them in the fourth.
About as solid a victory as Pitt has had. A quiet blowout that exuded a confidence from Pitt that hasn’t been seen in a while. Not cocky. Not arrogant. Strength and confidence in themselves and their coaches.
Michigan St is 1-7 in conference this year.
I know our D is designed to stop the run but man, that doesn’t make it any less impressive. Absent a some sloppy play against Miami, we’ve shut down our opponents run game, week-in-and-week-out. Duke had really good success against GT, VT and UNC running the ball leading up to our game…and got nothing against Pitt. They couldn’t stretch the field well vertically and that aided our D. Solid effort.
Offense is really clicking on all cylinders. I think Peterman has had an excellent season and he does so many little things well. Nice touch on the ball, good play-action, tough, can run when needed. He’s been very steady.
I wish I could fly in for the Syracuse game. We all know we lost 3 really close games that could have went our way but these guys fight. Wish I could be there for the last game of the year to show my appreciation. h2p
This is why I said it was dumb to schedule OKST, wins are the only thing that matters, strength of schedule is irrelevant. One less loss, and we would have been ranked, with our two big wins.
Playing one of PSU, WV and ND each year is enough and they will be in front of a packed stadium. Even the Marshall game was dumb since we have to go there next year.
I’d prefer that Pitt play a solid schedule rather than playing record padding games. I say that as a fan and season ticket holder.
Win games against solid opponents and the ranking takes care of itself. If Pitt plays even decent pass D (say 75-100) this year they’re probably a one loss team (Miami). That would indeed be very impressive with their schedule. It would probably place them in the Top 10 and some consideration for the championship.
Jerry DiPaola ?@JDiPaola_Trib 16h16 hours ago
@BruceFeldmanCFB Is Conner a candidate for a trip to NYC?
Bruce Feldman ?@BruceFeldmanCFB 15h15 hours ago
@JDiPaola_Trib My guess is he’s probably a big longshot to get invited to NYC for the presentation.
In UNC game if Pitt ran the ball the last 3rd down try then the clock probably runs out before UNC has a chance to win. Part of learning experience for the coaches too. (Give UNC some credit too – they made the correct calls on 4th down and executed them…game is not played in a vacuum.)
Tough loss (VT loss hurt more emotionally imo) but not one to ruin the season in retrospect imo. I’ll take the yuge upset @ Clemson (a game for the ages) and the win against PSU in compensation at this stage of the rebuild process. Win against ‘Cuse and HCPN is waaaayyyy ahead of the curve for a newbie second year head coach. H2P
Both Duke and Syracuse have lesser athletes than us and are probably two of the ACC teams with even less depth than Pitt. (along with BC and UVA)
As injuries are taking their toll on just about everyone at this stage of the season.
Imo, this is one of the reasons Miami pretty much owns us. They have far superior depth and we generally play them towards the end of the season, when depth matters.
Yea we beat them in the last game of the year in 2014, but there were very odd circumstances revolving around that game. (to say the least)
Let’s not fool ourselves here, Pitt’s receivers could get open against Duke’s secondary, even Dontez Ford.
Not so much against better teams with much better secondaries. And much better athletes.
They should be able to sling it around against middling Syracuse as well.
SU will pack it in early, the Panthers have something to play for and the defense will perform like they did in the Duke game.
Pitt 35
Cuse 16
Since you’ve beaten me to the punch (orange sherbert) again, I can only hope to get the juices flowing by Friday. The pressure you keep me under is almost unbearable. Glad this season is about to end. Go Pitt – Pluck the orange.
So they can play the game, direct traffic and pick up trash without changing their cloths.
Crush the cuse!
Pitt has 7 non-offensive TDs this year. Only Alabama has more by a Power 5 team.
Was anybody but me impressed by Jay Stocker, second on team with 5 tackles. Each year draws raves in camp then bench.
We played # 4, 8, 11, 27, 29, and Miami.
Top to bottom a much more difficult schedule.
They are ranked we are not.
Only one team with 4 losses in the top 25, LSU.
This year we had no passing game till our fifth game, with our new coordinator. Next year we won’t have Conner the TouchDown King, and a new QB, hopefully not a new coordinator. We would have beaten UNC with any fourth quarter offense. Who knows what might have happened if we had another tune-up instead of OKST on the road.
The rent-a wins serves two purposes, warm-ups and victories.
We can schedule better opponents when we are worthy.
Not to mention a totally rebuilt defense.
The team will be better next year, with the biggest question mark being QB. There could be a grad transfer that steps in (Max Browne from USC) or one of our guys may be ready.
The Oline will have Jones-Smith replace Bisno, Dintino for Johnson, Clark for Orndoff and NO ONE replaces Conner, but we will have five very good RB’s in Aston, QO, Moss, Hall and Sibley. Don’t forget K.Pugh and J.Whitehead –
On D, the landscape starts to take shape for the future. Our obvious weak spot this year was the D, littered with SR’s. Price will be replaced by Hendrix (is he still in school?), Soto and Jarrett will be replaced by Watts and Taleni. The LBers spots are where we will see improvements with Brightwell and Wirginis replacing Caprara and Galambos. And then there is Webb and Lewis replaced by P.Ford/L.Wade? and Hamlin.
Let’s not forget we will be replacing our kicker with three know possibilities, all unproven in P5 CFB, and the long snapper.
Back to focusing on cuse. If Pitt is truely a 24.5 point favorite, we should see plenty of the cast I mentioned above making plays on Saturday.
HTP!
Better days are ahead for Pitt FB…
Honor Conner!!!
The return of Henderson also helped. He had been pretty much shutdown for the last three games. Should have insured his ALL-America after Saturday.
Only memorable Pitt mistakes were the INT for TD, and the drops by Hall and Ford on one drive.
James Conner with two career ACC records.
The only letdown was crowd size.
Could have been worse, PSU-Rutgers looked like an empty stadium. I guess we are more important to PSU than Rutgers.