A random collection of thoughts while neglecting my family. These are probably expressed elsewhere, but here goes:
Loved the defensive line. Great game for this group. MPB, Bromley and Sharpe all had outstanding games. A bunch of other guys contributed and this group was really only a hair or two away from a couple other really big plays (including one awful missed int. grounding call, IMO). I loved, by the way, that the announcers stated that officials couldn't judge a QB's intent ... wait for it ... when deciding whether or not to call intentional grounding. Nicely done fellas.
Nice job by Shafer. I admit that I irrationally love Shafer b/c I love an aggressive defense, even if it surrenders some chunks of yardage from time to time. But on this night, at least, really nice game-plan by putting it on Sunseri's shoulders. This is a defense that has some key parts missing, but played really well.
Specials looked better. It's nice to at least come out of game and feel like Specials didn't absolutely kill us. Even did some nice things at times with great kick coverage putting Pitt in a major hole on at least one occasion. Coker nearly made a huge play as well on punt coverage.
Nassib is what he is. Not Nassib's best game, obviously. He's a solid QB but, equally as apparent, he's limited. Not a great feel for moving in the pocket, an awkward (though occasionally pretty effective) runner, and obviously prone to missing some very completable (not actually a word) passes. I haven't seen as much debate on him here lately, but ultimately I think he just is what he is -- decent but not great QB.
OL still looks seriously wobbly to me. Getting Pugh back didn't make me feel that much better about our OL. This is a group that just gets abused at times. Thought Macky got beat inside a few times, thought the tackles were merely OK in pass pro and thought the guards allowed a couple plays to be blown up before they started. Going to be hard to have a consistent offense until we figure out how to excel here.
Diabate is not great in the middle. I like the kid, he plays hard and can move pretty well. But he's struggling in the middle. Thought he blew coverage twice and, generally, is a non-factor vs. the run. We've probably been worse here at times but if we were a bit better in the middle, I think this defense could be really, really good.
AAM is unquestionably a load, but mostly in a bad way. Were people really arguing last year that he was "just a big back"? He still looks way slow and out of shape to me. I guess he's OK in short yardage, but I'm still not terribly excited about him there. He needs to drop another 20 lbs, IMO.
Gulley might need more touches. Just feel like he can be a threat to make a 5-yard run or pass into 15 or more. We don't have much of that, even from some of our better players like Sales and West. Would like to see him closer to 20 touches between runs and catches.
DM was pretty aggressive. In fact I almost thought he was a little too aggressive on that last drive, NAssib snapped the ball with 25, 26 and 20 seconds left on the clock. But I like that he played pretty aggressive generally. I really don't think it's terrible to conservative at times, but with the present state of our specials, I like idea of being aggressive on both sides of the ball.
Overall impression ... bleh. I honestly don't know what to make of that game. Nice to get a win and end a miserable streak against FBS teams. And a win is a win. Thought the offense looked a bit better than the numbers suggested as did the defense (Sunseri eclipses 300 yards, but Pitt had to earn most of those, with the exception of the one big play to shanahan). But ultimately it's hard to really get a great feeling out of that win. We couldn't score a point after the first drive and we got out-gained. Just ugly but I guess we'll take it and see what happens next.
Loved the defensive line. Great game for this group. MPB, Bromley and Sharpe all had outstanding games. A bunch of other guys contributed and this group was really only a hair or two away from a couple other really big plays (including one awful missed int. grounding call, IMO). I loved, by the way, that the announcers stated that officials couldn't judge a QB's intent ... wait for it ... when deciding whether or not to call intentional grounding. Nicely done fellas.
Nice job by Shafer. I admit that I irrationally love Shafer b/c I love an aggressive defense, even if it surrenders some chunks of yardage from time to time. But on this night, at least, really nice game-plan by putting it on Sunseri's shoulders. This is a defense that has some key parts missing, but played really well.
Specials looked better. It's nice to at least come out of game and feel like Specials didn't absolutely kill us. Even did some nice things at times with great kick coverage putting Pitt in a major hole on at least one occasion. Coker nearly made a huge play as well on punt coverage.
Nassib is what he is. Not Nassib's best game, obviously. He's a solid QB but, equally as apparent, he's limited. Not a great feel for moving in the pocket, an awkward (though occasionally pretty effective) runner, and obviously prone to missing some very completable (not actually a word) passes. I haven't seen as much debate on him here lately, but ultimately I think he just is what he is -- decent but not great QB.
OL still looks seriously wobbly to me. Getting Pugh back didn't make me feel that much better about our OL. This is a group that just gets abused at times. Thought Macky got beat inside a few times, thought the tackles were merely OK in pass pro and thought the guards allowed a couple plays to be blown up before they started. Going to be hard to have a consistent offense until we figure out how to excel here.
Diabate is not great in the middle. I like the kid, he plays hard and can move pretty well. But he's struggling in the middle. Thought he blew coverage twice and, generally, is a non-factor vs. the run. We've probably been worse here at times but if we were a bit better in the middle, I think this defense could be really, really good.
AAM is unquestionably a load, but mostly in a bad way. Were people really arguing last year that he was "just a big back"? He still looks way slow and out of shape to me. I guess he's OK in short yardage, but I'm still not terribly excited about him there. He needs to drop another 20 lbs, IMO.
Gulley might need more touches. Just feel like he can be a threat to make a 5-yard run or pass into 15 or more. We don't have much of that, even from some of our better players like Sales and West. Would like to see him closer to 20 touches between runs and catches.
DM was pretty aggressive. In fact I almost thought he was a little too aggressive on that last drive, NAssib snapped the ball with 25, 26 and 20 seconds left on the clock. But I like that he played pretty aggressive generally. I really don't think it's terrible to conservative at times, but with the present state of our specials, I like idea of being aggressive on both sides of the ball.
Overall impression ... bleh. I honestly don't know what to make of that game. Nice to get a win and end a miserable streak against FBS teams. And a win is a win. Thought the offense looked a bit better than the numbers suggested as did the defense (Sunseri eclipses 300 yards, but Pitt had to earn most of those, with the exception of the one big play to shanahan). But ultimately it's hard to really get a great feeling out of that win. We couldn't score a point after the first drive and we got out-gained. Just ugly but I guess we'll take it and see what happens next.
