How important is the Pitt game?

[MikeSU02]

Last week I asked, "How important is the Minnesota game" and there were some mixed reactions. Some thought it was of enormous import, some thought it was just one game and some felt somewhere in between.

Now I'm asking, how important is the Pitt game?

Last week in my post, I said this, "I can't help but feel that if we lose this game it will be the start of an unraveling of the team."

Here are my thoughts for the Pitt game:

[ ] The team is being held together by the smallest of stitches, imo. Losing breeds discontent and losing to 8 straight FBS teams has to be taking a toll on everyone.

[ ] A conference loss at home would be brutal. It would continue the death spiral we have been on, make us one game further from the bowl game we all want and it would put is in a hole to start conference play.

[ ] A loss at Pitt would also tee us up to get buried by Rutgers the following week which would make sense, since the world is ending in December per the Mayans.

[ ] If we lose at Pitt and Doug loses the team's confidence, we can be looking at a 2 or 3 win season.

[ ] I don't want to even think of the crowd for the Pitt game, let alone the rest of the season if we lose to Pitt.

[ ] Finally, right now I can convince myself that there are numerous reasons why we lose. This happened or that happened. But if we lose at Pitt, I think I'll have to admit that we are just a bad team. And I don't want to have to do that.

We need this win. This is a conference home game. If there is anything left in the playbook, we need to use it. We need to throw the kitchen sink at them.

 

[rrlbees]

The Minny game was very important to this years team. The Pitt game is important to the program.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[kingottoiii]

It is the entire season, maybe an entire career on the line. Can't see how a team can start 1-4 and then go 5-2 when 5 of those games are on the road. With the loss to Minny there is no zero margin for error.

 

[JJReddawg]

It is THE must win of must wins.

 

[SU2NASA]

It's the difference between 4-8 and 5-7.

 

[baggerbob]

This is the most important game of Doug's 4 yrs. We have to win even by 1 point, and it ends up ugly with someting like a safety.

 

[orangecuse]

How's this for size.

 

[TexanMark]

Bees has it mostly right. We lose and our season is toast and the program will likely suffer a collapse in confidence. This is where I differ from Bees...It could set us on a death spiral with DM leading to a new HC in '14. We could also recover after Pitt and win 4 or 5 games for the year and keep some momentum.

 

[orangeinjersey]

The Minny game was very important to this years team. The Pitt game is important to the program.

THIS.

If we lose, the is all going to snowball quickly.

That being said, everyone was writing off Pitt after their losses to Youngstown and Cincy, and look how they reacted, a solid conviniing win over the top 20 Hokies.

I could easily see everything click for us at home vs Pitt and we put up 40 again. You just dont know.

 

[rrlbees]

Bees has it mostly right. We lose and our season is toast and the program will likely suffer a collapse in confidence. This is where I differ from Bees...It could set us on a death spiral with DM leading to a new HC in '14. We could also recover after Pitt and win 4 or 5 games for the year and keep some momentum.

That's why I was careful to not use the word "very" like I did with the Minny game being very important to this season.

 

[44PRIDE]

We are on an 8 game losing streak against D1 teams. Many of these losses can be chalked up to our inability to make in-game adjustments and poor playcalling.

Honestly, I couldn't care less if we win or lose against Pitt. Doug's lost me.

 

[SaintTristan]

The Minny game was very important to this years team. The Pitt game is important to the program.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

who knew 'bees was such a wordsmith

 

[Cuseman78]

At this point, in year 4, with no depth issues, senior QB etc, the man in charge needs to start winning these toss-up type games. As I said in a post yesterday, its more infuriating losing when we are on relatively equal footing (talent wise) than it was when we got our ass kicked repeatedly during the Grob era.

He's done a lot of nice things, but wins need to follow. We have a schedule full of games left, none of which I would consider unwinnable. Good head football coaches win more of these than they lose. So far this year, he's 0-2.

 

[MikeSU02]

The Minny game was very important to this years team. The Pitt game is important to the program.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

This is what scares me. I think you are absolutely correct.

 

[Crusty]

Every game is critical at this point. If we lose to Pitt we will probably lose to Rutgers, which is clearly a better team than we are.
After that, every win will be like kissing your sister.

The question I always ask myself is could another coach do materially better with our players. I am sad to say that I now think the answer to that question is yes. This is just not working. Either Doug need to change or he will get changed.

 

[Toga]

Last week I asked, "How important is the Minnesota game" and there were some mixed reactions. Some thought it was of enormous import, some thought it was just one game and some felt somewhere in between.

Now I'm asking, how important is the Pitt game?

Last week in my post, I said this, "I can't help but feel that if we lose this game it will be the start of an unraveling of the team."

Here are my thoughts for the Pitt game:

[ ] The team is being held together by the smallest of stitches, imo. Losing breeds discontent and losing to 8 straight FBS teams has to be taking a toll on everyone.

[ ] A conference loss at home would be brutal. It would continue the death spiral we have been on, make us one game further from the bowl game we all want and it would put is in a hole to start conference play.

[ ] A loss at Pitt would also tee us up to get buried by Rutgers the following week which would make sense, since the world is ending in December per the Mayans.

[ ] If we lose at Pitt and Doug loses the team's confidence, we can be looking at a 2 or 3 win season.

[ ] I don't want to even think of the crowd for the Pitt game, let alone the rest of the season if we lose to Pitt.

[ ] Finally, right now I can convince myself that there are numerous reasons why we lose. This happened or that happened. But if we lose at Pitt, I think I'll have to admit that we are just a bad team. And I don't want to have to do that.

We need this win. This is a conference home game. If there is anything left in the playbook, we need to use it. We need to throw the kitchen sink at them.

 

[Scooch]

Hard to imagine more of a better state-of-the-program game than SU vs. Pitt.

We're fleeing to the ACC together and will play each other as cross-division rivals. We're both maddeningly inconsistent. We both have crappy fan support.

If we can't figure out a way to pull this one out, I'm not really sure what there will be to say.

 

[baggerbob]

The next 2 games to me are the last chance for seniors to step up, and lead the team, go 1-1 and you have connecticut , chance to get to 3-4.If we lose both games, its time for new blood and get ready for next year.

 

[OrangePA]

Gotta win this game.

 

[obliterata]

It's considerably more important than the Minnesota game, as close to a must win as you can get without really being one - it's a very big game.

 

[Rocco]

Admins: please tack the following thread "How important is the __________ game?".

Might save some thread volume. Thanks.