Pitt Vs. Rutgers: The Aftermath Of A Beatdown
by CardiacHill on Oct 8, 2011 8:21 PM EDT
in Pitt Football
Email
PrintLast week, Pitt was on the winning side of a beatdown. This week? Not so much.
Losing to Rutgers? Yeah, I could see that. As I mentioned in the wildly inaccurate game preview, I said Pitt could lose if they turned the ball over. But getting blown out? No way I saw that coming. Such are the oddities of Big East football.
What I'm most surprised about was the sudden regression of the offense. Sure, I can buy the fact that Rutgers' defense may be better than South Florida's. But it's mind-boggling that the offense could look this bad - a mere nine days after looking like world beaters.
There were positives. Well, okay - there was a positive. Ray Graham. But we all knew he was good before his 165-yard performance today, so there's not much more to say on that front.
The big thing was the play of the quarterbacks. Yes, plural because Trey Anderson did actually see some time on the field other than his obligatory one series that Todd Graham always says he wants him to play. If there was anything we learned from this one, it's that Trey Anderson probably isn't ready. I've said it over and over (and over), but Anderson is not only a true freshman, but he's only had the benefit of being in the system for about two months.
Now onto Tino.
Sunseri was all over the place. It's hard to figure out how he could have been so good last week against South Florida and so horrible against Rutgers. To me, he's bad, but he ain't that bad. The simple fact is that Rutgers' defense was just that good. Whether or not they'll be that good the rest of the way out is another question, but today, there's no doubt that they were incredible. There were the three interceptions and the numerous sacks as Tino again did his best statue imitation at times.
The times he didn't? The offensive line struck, but I'll get to that in a second.
I'm not sure what's up with Tino and other than the typical Pitt fan's statement of "He sucks," he's having a real hard time out there. Last year he wasn't great, but what we didn't see were all the turnovers. Tino has seven interceptions already - he had nine all of last year. The reason I've been on Sunseri's side more often than not is because he at least kept Pitt in games and gave them a chance to win. But while he wasn't the only reason Pitt lost today, his three picks didn't help.
Unfortunately, what you might not want to hear is that ... you guessed it - he's Pitt's best option right now. Todd Graham threw all of his eggs into one basket essentially when he decided Anthony Gonzalez wouldn't play quarterback this season (despite him being the presumed backup coming out of the Spring). He figured that Myers would handle the backup job and then after getting Anderson to sign as an insurance policy, decided he was set. What he didn't probably see happening was Anderson coming in and surpassing Myers. So now he's stuck with Myers not getting any game reps and likely not all that close in terms of being ready to actually play and Gonzalez out at H-back.
This mess won't get solved this year. It's really either Tino or bust at this point.
Okay, offensive line. Terrible. Three false starts (two on Juantez Hollins and one on Ryan Schlieper, who was filling in for the injured Lucas Nix) and plenty of breakdowns contributing to Tino getting sacked five times. The line was already suspect with Nix and Chris Jacobson out, so the fact that it hasn't been very good without them isn't a big surprise.
Is Pitt as bad as we saw today? No. But I think we clearly found out they're not as good as they looked last week, either.
Panthers Fan Confidence Poll
Last tallied on 10/05.
12 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Dude, last warning
If you have something intelligent to add, feel free. Opposing fans come all the time without consequence and are more than welcome.
But if all you’re going to do is come here after a Pitt loss and say “Pitt sucks”, then you’ll be banned.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at @PittPantherBlog
really buddy
do you see any of us coming over to the smoking buskit to tell you what a hole morgantown is? and now on to today’s game… this game had upset written all over it. if wanny was still here he would have been handing out his customary mouse traps before the game. i had a feeling coach cigs and co would know how to make life tough for tino. the simple fact of the matter is in order for this offense to consistently run at a high level we need a qb whose talents are better suited for this style of play. don’t get me wrong it’s not all on tino but this is a playmaker’s offense not a game manager’s.
And the problem is...
that Tino hasn’t even been able to manage the game at times, including today. Today, he was a big part of the problem with the three picks. I can live with 15-30, 160 yards and a touchdown as long as he’s not taking sacks and turning the ball over.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at @PittPantherBlog
My Assessment
I’m going to somewhat disagree with your assessment. It’s hard to disagree on how bad we played, though, and that’s not really my argument.
I’m going to blame Tino for this one more than you did. He’s just not any good. I’m not sure that he can complete a pass of more than 10 yards. He routinely struggles to throw horizontal passes out to Cam Saddler when there is no pressure on him. He holds the ball way too long for this offense and takes bad sacks including one today that gave Harper a much longer kick (which he missed).
Anderson may not be better than Tino but it’s time to find out. Putting him in for one series a game or throwing him in when Tino is struggling isn’t giving him the opportunity he needs to be successful. He needs to be told this week that he’s starting against Utah and that he’s got the support of the coaches and then he needs to get the reps in practice all week. That’s the right opportunity and I’m convinced it’s the right time to make the move. I know Anderson had a terrible interception today but Tino does this on a routine basis. He’s shown that the only thing we know about his game is that it’s inconsistent.
With all of Tino’s experience he still looks awful. If Anderson can come out there and improve then that’s a start for this team because currently we will strike no fear into any secondary. We stand a better chance of putting Gonzalez back there and just becoming a strictly option team (if he can run at all, that is) than we do with Sunseri playing because we’re one dimensional anyway. At least we’d add another dimension to our offense if we had a QB who can keep the ball on option plays with success and threaten the defense that way.
Fair point about Anderson maybe needing more confidence
I’m still not sold, but if Anderson got the start next week, I’d be fine with that. My sole reason for keeping Tino in there is that I still think he’s Pitt’s best option.
Don’t get me wrong – he was miserable today and under normal circumstances, did nothing to make me say he should get another start next week. But Pitt is in a unique situation. Their backup is a true freshman that wasn’t heralded in any way coming in and he’s been on the team for only a couple of months. He didn’t have the benefit of Spring ball and from the little we’ve seen of him, looks like what you’d expect – an inexperienced QB. Not his fault – it is what it is.
If Pitt’s going to play Anderson, it’s got to be next week in my opinion. It’s the last non-conference game of the season and even if he plays poorly, Pitt can (as you said), find out about him. The good news would be that even a loss wouldn’t hurt Pitt in the Big East standings.
Manager of Cardiac Hill - SB Nation's Pitt Panthers blog
Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter at @PittPantherBlog
Here is the deal
Pitt isn’t any good, but neither is the Big East, so 7-5 and a trip to some crappy bowl game remains a possibility.
As for the question of Tino vs Anderson…yeesh. It’s like being asked to choose between a date with Rosie O’Donnell and, um, a date with Rosie O’Donnell.
I can only imagine how bad this would have been if Ray Graham had really popped a hamstring in the first quarter. He’s the only thing standing between us and Minnesota-type ineptitude.
Yes! Now RU beat both of the assholes of the Big East
I hope you lose every game for the rest of the year
draftdatabase.wordpress.com
Follow @steelersrule124
As my coach, Coach Toal says, "if your tougher than them and you play harder than them and you whoop their ass but only win by six, I don’t give a shit. You still won the game. The media might not like it but we don’t give a fuck about the media, all we care about is winning."
by seton hall and steelers on Oct 8, 2011 11:44 PM EDT reply actions
way to keep it classy pal
aren’t you the moron that said you were gonna drop your drink on pitt players when they come out against seton hall? ladies and gentlemen i give you the one and only seton hall super fan… way to represent-but what are you gonna say when rutgers bolts the big least the first chance they get? do you really think any of the other football schools really want to stay in that embarrassment of a conference? rutgers, uconn, wvu etc. are about as loyal as their options, so get ready for some more heartbreak because if any of them get their chance their gonna leave the crappy-ass seton halls and snot-nosed providences in the dust and who could blame them? you i suppose- but i doubt that will influence their decision. all i’m saying is you better be ready to break out your wallet cause you are gonna have a lot of drinks to drop once this whole thing shakes out. rest assured though that after the conference re-alignments are over with seton hall will still suck so you have nothing to worry about.
Seton Hall
Really?
At least the WVU has some ground to stand on when he stops by to be a jerk.
by DITO on Oct 9, 2011 8:51 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
