OK…I guess I have calmed down from Friday night’s game to look back and give a recap of the game. As you know by now, West Virginia outlasted the Panthers 21-20 and put Pitt on the brink of elimination from a bowl game. A bowl game is something that I feel would benefit this team with extra practice to digest the new systems on offense and defense a little more before spring practice rolls around. This makes the Syracuse game very important.
Now…onto the game. I sat there and watched it with my father on Friday night and needless to say, we were thrilled with the start of the game. Jumping out to a 14 point lead and the defense looked strong. Then, the chips began to fall….first Zach Brown went down and then Ronald Jones went down as well. Isaac Bennett also was spelled for a short time due to being banged up. All of this led to Pitt putting the game on Tino Sunseri’s shoulders. Instead of mixing it up with Brown and Bennett and a little Davis and then throwing in Ronald Jones for a wildcat package here and there, they were limited in the second half. This led to the disaster that was the second half.
I started this blog with the intentions of not throwing student athletes under the bus and being rude about their play. I have the intentions to stick with that. With that being said, as kind as I can be…Tino Sunseri cannot….CANNOT continue to take sacks as he has been doing and especially with the last few drives against the Mountaineers. It is hard to not point out also that Drew Carswell and Devin Street could have helped out with two huge catches on some nice deep passes in the second half by Tino. I will admit that, but in the end, next year’s QB competition should be wide open and that includes ALL QBs on the roster.
My reaction above is kind. If you had a camera on me during the game on Friday evening, you would have laughed and laughed at my little hissy fits and then maybe even just felt bad for me. I was acting like a 3 year old. I couldn’t help it. Pitt’s hoop team was victorious, the Penguins were up big, and my family was visiting for a very fun wedding the next day….but Pitt football is just a team that I care VERY deeply about. I would have traded the Pitt hoops win and the Pens win in a heartbeat (not the wedding though, as that was a really good time with family I have not seen in a while). When the last drive began, my father and I guessed how many sacks Tino would take. I said 2, while my dad was kind and said just one. In fairness to both of us, we did not anticipate a first down, so taking four on the last drive is not something we expected.
I really can’t expand anymore…as this one hurt. I still FIRMLY believe that this program is moving in the right direction under Todd Graham and Dorin Dickerson maybe should look at the game a little more objectively before commenting on twitter. I used to love Dorin Dickerson, but after his comments were directed at Coach Graham after the game…he can just not be part of what Graham is building at Pitt. Never thought I would have to type something like that. It hurts almost as much as the loss did.
Let’s hope it’s not the last Backyard Brawl.
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