Sunday, October 4, 2015

The Lost Weekend


Yes, this was to be the weekend of a "Guys Trip" to Blacksburg, VA to see Pitt take on Virginia Tech.  However, the dire news of torrential rains, high winds, flash flooding, road closures, Hurricane Joaquin, and the Governor of Virginia declaring a state of emergency across the state, well, come Thursday afternoon, a unanimous decision was reached among the six of us to cancel the trip.  But, hey, we all have that unused ticket as a souvenir of What Might Have Been.

Too bad, because we missed what was an impressive win by Pitt.  The 17-13 score makes the game seem closer than it actually was, as Pitt put on a thoroughly dominating defensive performance in stifling the Hokies.  Pitt now stands at 3-1, and yesterday's win was the most impressive of the season thus far because (a) it was against an ACC opponent, and (b) let's face it, Pitt SHOULD win against schools like Youngstown State and Akron (something they were NOT able to do in the not so recent past).

One thought that I had in watching this game was that the offensive play-calling by Pitt seemed to be really conservative.  My question is, is this a function of

a) The weather conditions in Blacksburg yesterday,
b) The abilities of the offensive personnel, or
c) Coaching philosophy 

If the answer is (a), okay, I get it.  

If the answer is (b), then you have to trust that the new coaching staff will recruit better players.

If the answer is (c), then I guess we better get used to seeing a lot of runs into the line, punts inside of the opponents forty, screen passes on third-and-eight that gain six yards, and not-so-high scoring games.  This will be okay so long as the defense can continue to play like they did yesterday, and, oh, yeah, Pitt wins.

Now, bring on those UVA Cavaliers next week!

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