Pitt (5-1) at Rutgers (4-1)
Time: 8:01 p.m. TV: ESPN
Radio: WOR-710 AM, WCTC-1450 AM
90 minutes before Kickoff: I’m up here in a press box that’s almost as busy as the one we had Week One, when Cincinnati was in town. If I’m not a player, am I allowed to admit there’s a different (read: big game) feel to this? Oh wait, I could definitely say that if I was a Pitt player.
Assorted Panthers have been out on the field, running around, doing high kicks, whatever it is they do to loosen. I haven’t seen any of Rutgers’ kids yet. It’s not quite as cold out there as it was this morning: hopefully the weather isn’t scaring away tailgaters. I know Security’s in top form. The gentleman who checked my bag wanted to know if there was vodka in my water bottle.
63:23 before Kickoff: Rutgers is honoring Cappie Pondexter and Gary Brackett at halftime. Cappie just won her second WNBA title with the Phoenix Mercury. She had surgery for a scratch she got on her retina during the championship game, so she can’t go straight overseas and I think she’s hanging out in the area for a little bit. When she was here, she was definitely the most dynamic athlete I’d ever covered and I remember the way she said, “Awww” when I told her that.
Gary was just awarded the 11th annual Arthur S. Arkush Humanitarian Award by Pro Football Weekly. The award goes to an NFL player “whose contributions to the community and charitable organizations are especially outstanding” and for Gary, that’s highlighted by his IMPACT Foundation, a charity that gets opportunities and resources to kids affected by cancer. I was just talking to Rutgers corner Devin McCourty about Gary Tuesday and how he is probably my all-time favorite story ever. I did an SI.com column on him before the 2007 Super Bowl and I think that will explain exactly why. I hope I get to see him tonight.
48:22 before Kickoff: Rutgers’ wideouts are out, catching balls. It’s not raining apparently. It’ll be interesting to see if weather is going to affect the game plan.
42:03 before Kickoff: Pitt’s extraordinary sports information director just came by to share the shaking in Pitt’s secondary. In the bad news department, starting corner Aaron Berry hurt his right shoulder against UConn and he’s still hurting, so he’s out tonight. Ricky Gary, who’s been a little vulnerable to the deep ball (Paul Zeise of the Post-Gazette just looked at me and said, “He’s been VERY vulnerable. You don’t have to be nice”), will start in his place. In the good news department, starting free safety Elijah Fields, who missed last week’s game, is healthy. He won’t start, but he’s available.
27:03 before Kickoff: Oh boy. Paul just said this Gary-for-Berry thing is huge. “He never met a pump fake he didn’t fall for,” Paul said.
6:13 before Kickoff: The gentleman from the Rose Bowl just smiled nicely at me. The gentleman from the Orange Bowl is wearing a VERY orange blazer. Reps from the Sugar, Fiesta and Papajohns.com Bowls are also here.
4:44 before Kickoff: More tinkering from on the Rutgers o-line. Howard Barbieri is starting in Desmond Wynn’s place at right guard.
1:19 before Kickoff: Freshman Steve Beauharnais came out with the axe. I’m still not into this thing. Pitt’s running out and the boos are pretty good. This is most definitely a late-arriving crowd. Bummer that ESPN can’t pan to a packed stadium.
9:41 left in the 1st Quarter: Argh! The internet was down here in the Rutgers press box and they JUST got it back up. We’re tied at 7 already!
Hi to Spanky: how’s the Scotch? Did you do the count of your collection? Rutgersguy, you’re so right. This crowd was bopping after that ball bounced off Dom DeCicco’s heel and the Sanu playcall. (Funny how Greg Schiano said this week the Wildcat package isn’t there as it stands… but if you sub the main dude?) That huge Ray Graham return and then the huge Dion Lewis run sucked some air out for sure.
9:24 left in the 1st Quarter: Direct snap to Sanu again? For eight yards. And now Lovelace? Watch, it’ll be a play action and he’s going to throw a pass. No! He hands off to Martinek. We’re all looking at each other funny up here.
6:27 left in the 1st Quarter: After three picks in the season’s first two quarters, Rutgers’ offense hasn’t turned the ball over since. But now tonight, Savage has thrown two balls that could’ve been picked already. One was tipped byPitt’s Jabal Sheeard, the other by Rutgers’ Tim Brown. Last week some of Savage’s balls were low. Today some look a little high. I’m sure he’ll settle in.
People are still coming in. I hear the traffic’s awful out there.
6:14 left in the 1st Quarter: Uh-oh. Antonio Lowery’s hurt. He’s laying flaton his back at the 15, pounding his legs into the ground. Okay, the trainers have him up, walking off the field. I can’t find Antonio’s brother Antwan.
4:00 left in the 1st Quarter: Lewis gets around the corner FAST. Scott Vallone, meanwhile, is having a good game for Rutgers. He’s in the middle of everything it seems.
Rutgersguy, thanks. If you look back at the old open posts, I was begging for you to come back!
End of 1st Quarter: Rutgers just sent six or seven guys at Bill Stull on a third down, Freeny was all over him… and he completed a 17-yard pass to Dorin Dickerson. He leads the league in pass efficiency, but he’s also got to lead in getting the ball out. He’s 7-for-7 so far and Pitt’s completed all four of their third downs, including the one just now, where Stull ran for 16 yards. Rutgers needs to clean that up.
Squire 2-0 still?
14:08 left in the 2nd Quarter: That’s Hutchins’ first-ever miss. He’d made his first seven attempts and the 42 yards he just tried from would’ve matched his career high, which he hit last week at UConn.
Oh man. Did I not just say Savage has looked close to being picked? I suppose DeCicco redeems himself with that one. Well, maybe not if Pitt doesn’t convert.
So we haven’t seen Jonathan Baldwin thrown to yet. He’s 6-5, runs a sub 4.4 40, has a 42 inch vertical and Pitt hasn’t even thrown to him. I have to be honest: I don’t know if he’s being blanketed. I need to pay attention.
11:29 left in the 2nd Quarter: Hutchins just nailed one from 45. Smart call by Wannstedt to throw him right back before he can lose any of his confidence. Spanky, I’d guess the stadium’s about 75 percent full. At least that’s what the four of us on this end here in the box are guessing. But it’s hard to tell because there are some people under the overhang. The Yankees are on one of the four TVs in the press box. I don’t remember Rutgers EVER showing something besides the Rutgers game during a game. And Rutgers’ sports information director, Jason Baum, is an Orioles fan.
10:00 left in the 2nd Quarter: They’re playing Bruce out on the field and someone in the press box asked if it was Elvis Costello. Someone from Pittsburgh. (Obviously.) Are they really talking about Texas-Oklahoma? Nothing about Cincy-USF even?
8:30 left in the 2nd Quarter: The officials are having all sorts of problems tonight. They were just looking for a spot on the Pitt punt and no one knew where it went out of bounds. I’m not sure, but I think this crowd just booed the dance team. Maybe because they’re wearing pants and fleeces? I have to say, the crowd is not impressing me. The students have done a great job and that section is definitely packed. But the rest… I see a lot of bleacher.
7:27 left in the 2nd Quarter: Welcome back to the Rutgers offense of old. Three-and-out, three-and-out before that, one-and-out before that. Rutgers still hasn’t converted a third down. Meanwhile, Kordell Young takes an opening dump-off 16 yards and we haven’t seen him since.
How do you feel about Greg Schiano’s big red sweatshirt? Remember when he used to wear the sweater vest?
3:41 left in the 2nd Quarter: The officials are reviewing that previous run by Lewis. Rutgers thought there was a fumble. I have to say, George Johnson’s unnecessary roughness was disappointing. Just like that opening chop block call on Ryan Blaszczyk. Unacceptable to have penalties like that on seniors in a game like this. The ruling on the field stands, Pitt has a second-and-goal from the one.
3:24 left in the 2nd Quarter: Lewis is making it look very easy. Pitt, 17-7.
Rutgersguy, interesting you mention the punt returns. I asked Greg Schiano this week about that (I think Sanu’s 2.5 yards per return is one of the worst in the country) and he said the one thing he never does is question a punt returner. He said it’s the hardest thing to do in football and he has to trust his returners’ judgement.
3:10 left in the 2nd Quarter: That’s Rutgers’ first first down since something like the 7-minute mark of the 1st Quarter. Nice to see Shamar Graves wasn’t entirely buried. Did Sanu just try to leap someone? At least he made something of a clearly busted play.
1:06 left in the 2nd Quarter: Tim Brown’s 39-yard catch-and-run is now under review. Apparently the officials aren’t sure if he actually stepped out three yards before the 15 the ball’s spotted on right now. These officials are not inspiring much confidence. I don’t think in the crowd either. That was a decent boo for the head official who announced the review. The thing he’s looking at looks like an iPod. Is he really looking at anything or is he just listening to the booth guys? Or downloading music? Ooh, Tim stepped out at the 23-yard line, he says, so take away eight yards and a few seconds.
1:01 left in the 2nd Quarter: Greg is LIVID. He’s out to the hashmarks and stomping his foot. There were three flags on that one. A face mask of (on?) Savage, a late hit after Savage got rid of the ball. Rutgers accepts the second one. And Greg’s still stomping.
Now Pitt’s Andrew Taglianetti’s offsides puts Rutgers on the 3. First and goal from the three, Rutgers HAS to convert.
Oh, the crowd is NOT happy. NOT happy at the way Rutgers runs the play clock down, not happy with how Joe Martinek couldn’t turn the corner (loss of a yard) and not happy with that little shot in the flat to Kordell (loss of two yards).
Halftime: Cappie and Gary are out at midfield with Tim Pernetti right now. Tim’s giving them both their old jerseys. I don’t get it. Don’t they have versions of their jerseys? They’re walking by the student section right now and the kids are cheering. That’s nice.
Alright, so I kind of can’t believe Rutgers is only down a touchdown. The Scarlet Knights have rushed for only 31 yards, they haven’t converted a single third down (0 for 5) and they couldn’t score a touchdown with a first-and-goal from the 3. Pitt, meanwhile, has had the ball for 17:39 (to Rutgers’ 12:21), is 6-of-9 on third downs and has Stull and Lewis. But Pitt missed a field goal and the Panthers gave Rutgers its first touchdown, on that awful bumble by DeCicco (letting that first punt hit him). The score could just as easily be 20-3.
12:14 left in the 3rd Quarter: We finally saw it. Khaseem Greene tackled his younger half-brother Ray Graham. Of course, it was only after Graham broke through two or three other hand-tackles. I talked to Graham this week and he was an incredibly sweet, well-spoken young man. He said his big brother is “the best big brother” and he said they talk every day before their games. I wonder what they said to each other today.
10:40 left in the 3rd Quarter: Rutgers finally converts a third down! 34:20 into the game! And then Savage is sacked… beautiful.
6:35 left in the 3rd Quarter: Kevin Haslam is hurt and being tended to. Anthony Davis hovered the whole time the trainers worked on Haslam and then sent him off the field with some encouragement. People in the press box are starting to complain about how slow things seems to be moving.
The hold on Art Forst was awful, especially because it called back a great catch up the middle by Shamar Graves. It killed momentum a bit too. And yep, 4th and 1 from the Pitt 42, Rutgers appears to be going for it and Blaszczyk is called for a false start. These penalties are just awful penalties. Oh man – Antonio Lowery a face mask going the other way, after the punt. What is the matter with Rutgers? This team is usually much more disciplined.
5:19 left in the 3rd Quarter: Ooh, the Pitt fans are chanting “Let’s go Pitt” and they are LOUD. Of course, they had a 58-yard touchdown run from Dion Lewis to fire them up. I’m not quite sure what Rutgers fans have to fire them up. PAT good, Pitt 24, Rutgers 10.
Spanky, I’d wager the O-line looks WORSE from where I’m sitting.
3:18 left in the 3rd Quarter: San San Te misses the 53-yard field goal. It’s cold, the ball is heavy, I think Rutgers should’ve just gone for it. Or punted.
Rutgers just announced attendance at 50,296. A writer sitting next to me just asked, “Is that counting split personalities.” No way is this crowd just a couple thousand shy of capacity.
:17 left in the 3rd Quarter: This is what’s so maddening about Rutgers. Khaseem Greene gets a big 3rd down sack, Devin McCourty blocks the ensuing Pitt punt, Rutgers takes over on the Pitt 39 and… 13 yard sack of Savage. Two incompletions later, Rutgers is punting. How do you waste a drive start at the Pitt 39?
12:40 left in the Game: Okay, just let the defense stay in and see if it can score. That fumble cause and recovery puts the offense on the Pitt 49. And here comes Jabu Lovelace.
10:13 left in the Game: It’s Bon Jovi time and that means the kid who does the air guitar gets on the big screen. And the crowd is getting really POed every time the scoreboard camera moves off the kid. Some girls got booed, the dance team got booed, there were huge cheers when the kid came back – even the Pitt players are standing around watching the scoreboard. Okay, fourth-and-three.
10:06 left in the Game: It looks like a Pitt defender accidentally walloped Sanu in the head with his knee, when Sany was down. He’s laying on the 20 and not moving. Oh wait, he just sat up. Big catch on fourth down by the freshman. And really boisterous boos by the crowd before that, as the play clock whittled to five and the offense kept staring at the sideline. I think the fans have had it with this playcalls-from-the-sideline thing.
9:37 left in the Game: Oooh, we have a game. The call was reviewed, and the 19-yard touchdown pass to Tim Brown stands. Kick is good, and it’s 24-17.
The crowd’s back into it. We have an R-U chant.
2:31 left in the Game: Yeah, and Spanky can you believe he had offers only from Miami of Ohio and Tulane? Rutgers didn’t even officially show interest.
1:30 left in the Game: Can Rutgers move with some urgency? The clock is running and these kids are sauntering back to their spots. Run!
That was a catch and fumble by Sanu and Pitt’s just going to knee this game out. Ick, what an ugly game. Rutgers rushed for 38 yards. Deion Lewis rushed for 180, on 31 carries. Ray Graham just went and hugged Tim Brown. I didn’t see if he and Khaseem did anything special. Tim and Andrew DePaola are the last Rutgers players off the field. Pitt’s gathering by its fans, waving and raising their helmets. The fans are chanting, Let’s go Pitt. Alright, down to the locker room…
Oh my god, he’s thrown to someone not named Brown or Sanu!
I like the screen call to Kordell, wish he still had to burst he used to. Oh finally another WR gets into the mix. Good job by Savage. We need more WRs to get involved. Damn holding, geez just like the last game, nice big play and it comes back.
Can we please see some of D. Williams? I’d like to see what he can do agains this caliber team.
Holy crap, their front four is pushing our offensive line all over the place!
Aditi, does the O line look as bad up where you are? Am I missing something?
Go for it, I prefer not an up the gut play if we do. Maybe a 4 wide spread up the gut or the wildcat with Jabu/Sanu. I think Pitt’s D will be too tough up the middle if we try a bunch formation and try to overpower them. It could work but I like the odds of something else better. Also try and draw them offsides.
WHat a crappy punt! Oh, and we’re now hearing about the Oklahoma/Texas game – I didn’t realize they were playing tomorrow.
Oh god, again undisciplined. These penalties especially the mental ones are becoming tiresome, some from upperclassmen. Whether we were going for it or trying to draw them off, it ruined both.
Nice job lots follow that false start with a face mask, what’s next up.
That’s exactly the kind of thing I worry about with those 2 runners you can stop them for a majority of the time and a couple plays they’ll break out for big gains because of their speed. It’s also the reason I’d like to see more of D Williams. He may be the same but we don’t know.
I think this drive should be 4 down territory now. We need a TD badly. Call the plays as if it’s 4 downs.
We really look bad. Failing in almost every aspect of the game. Just not pretty at all.
What was that a 53 yarder, Schiano at it again. A fg doesn’t help much, there’s a lot of time left in the game but our O has been spotty at best. We needed the shot at a TD. And I didn’t like the gimmick play with Martinek, wasted down. The hand off to Brown I didn’t mind needed better execution. Too many wasted downs tonight.
Well I talked about the punts and nice job with the block. This was a good time to go for it in the sense that we are desperate to get anything to gain momentum. But of course now we get sacked and lose it right back right away again. Over and over get some mo’ and give it right back. Sigh.
Oh my god, we can’t keep out their front four. We’re horrible.
Can we get some nice easy short pass plays to get him going. The plays they call for him take too long to develop. And guess what anohter penalty. So what good did that punt block get us, looks like it’ll be nothing barring some big play.
Unless the D keeps their streak of scoring a TD alive in this game I don’t think we’ll come back. Hope I’m wrong.
They left the run and this is what they get, was just about to say we should look to stop the run and Pitt stupidly passes and they turn it over. We’ll see if we can keep the moemntum this time
I’d like to see Sanu/Jabu or maybe Sanu/Martinek combo basically I’d like to see Sanu in there for the wildcat.
Again 4 down territory playcall like it, please.
Oh man no, Sanu can’t be hurt, no no no. This isn’t good, oh geez.
Nice job there, now please let’s keep the momentum on the kickoff return don’t let up. Timmy B needs to be more sure handed, he’s a senior. Great speed and makes some great catches sometimes, but needs more consistency.
Another turnover here would be nice. :-)
Again another 3rd down. Stull’s just throwing it up, my god the WRs just made a great play. D is actually doing well stopping them I’d say for more than 50% of the time but it’s falling short. Need to get out on third down.
Need a turnover now, if they score a fg it’s over. That fg instead of TD at the end of the first 1/2 will come back and haunt us now.
Lewis reminds me a lot of Rice.
We’re still alive but don’t blow it. We’ve got an opportunity, let’s not get so amped up we blow it.
Let’s atleast make it interesting. Plenty of time and timeouts.
OMG, that’s exactly what I mean don’t get so hyped and make dumb plays. Just take it easy, Tom.
We should just dink and dunk it down so much time left and timeouts.
Why are we always looking way down field. Espn guys are right he should’ve just run it.
Put a fork in it, we’re done.
Sanu had it man, aww geez. He had the first down too. Oh darn.
That wasn’t interesting enough. I’m obviously not happy with the lost but I would’ve felt a little better if we got it down to around their 20. We just got near midfield. Why were we looking for the long bombs with so much time and time outs. I think we could’ve dink and dunked’em down they looked like they were playing my favorite “prevent” you from winning defense.
Wow, very disappointed in what I saw. I think I’ll call it a night.
I know a lot of fans will be blaming the coaching and playcalls etc.. but actually I thought it has improved. Still too many wasted plays on bad calls for my liking but much better than I’ve seen in the first 5 games. Similar to last years WVU game which we lost but I still saw things and new wrinkles I thought were creative for a change. I’d say the same thing tonight. Hopefully, we can build on that for the rest of the season. Defensively, I thought we played fine except for the 3rd down conversions. And not just 3rd down but 3rd and longs, way too many of those were converted to keep drives alive. My other problem is the amount of penalties and mental errors. Are we USF or something? Way too many mental breakdowns and coming from upperclassmen makes it more disconcerting. Also not the first time this season. Penalties have to be cut down a lot. Savage looks good and I think he’s progressing but we’re still gonna see the expected freshman mistakes. I wish we’d see more of D. Williams. If Wanny can replace McCoy with 2 freshman what’s stopping us to see what D. Williams has got. Is it pass protection? I don’t know because I saw some of our RBs get blown up in protection tonight. I don’t know what we’re waiting for with regards to him, we have no running game what could it hurt. Sucks to be 0-2 in the Big East but I think we’ve played the 2 of the 3 top teams with WVU being the third. My guess is we can be anywhere from 2-5 to 4-3 in conference. For now it still sucks to be 0-2.
A lot more penalties than there should have been.
Offensive Line play was atrocious. They rushed four and pushed back into our backfield on almost every play. If Savage wasn’t so strong they would have had 3-5 more sacks tonight.
D played well, not great, but well enough to win the game with a little more offensive output.
Running game……..why the hell wasn’t Williams put in at some point? We burned his redshirt for what???
The wildcat with Sanu worked – why didn’t we use it more? Again, we just seem to refuse to stick with the hot hand.