I was thinking last night after the game. There were so many times after plays and certain calls where I just face palmed and said to myself, "What the hell?" Thinking about it some more, that's happened a lot to me over the course of the season. I know our guys are trying their hardest, but you can't help but wonder what the heck is going on out there sometimes. I'm absolutely sure I'm not alone in this and I was wondering what everyone else's top WTF moments from last night's Pitt game were. Mine was definitely Kyshoen's Magellan-esque route he took towards Boyd on his long TD play. I was so sure he was going to have a big game considering his comments throughout the week. Thoughts?
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he took a terrible angle towards the ball. if he had come straight at the wr/kendall there would have been a huge collision. IMO I think he was worried he would lay the bang on both Kendall and the wr so he tried to round his angle to only hit the wr..
Not going to lie that was a great throw in space...
I see where you're coming from, but he has never hesitated to lay the boom with other players in proximity before right? I dunno it just really confused me considering the big game we needed the D to have against Boyd
It looked to me like he played the INT and not the player. He thought the pass was going to sail on Boyd or that Kendall would have enough presence to keep Boyd from getting to it so he tried to play the INT instead of playing the man and letting it be an incompletion if Boyd didn't get it.
It's exactly what happens to me when I switch to the wrong DB on XBOX and jump for no reason. Those games are more realistic than they get credit for sometimes.
Had to log in, just to turkey leg this.
SPOT ON.
He pulled off the Kam Chancellor/Eddie Whitley combo- he was not only just a step late to prevent a big play from happening, he took a terrible angle that caused him to whiff on the tackle and kept his teammate from making the play. Impressive.
i was puzzled we took a time out with 21 seconds in the third quarter!
It was a big 3rd down for us and the play clock had less than 21 seconds left.
Our timeout usage has never been great....never. yet this week finally caught us good, again. with 3 timeouts the game at the end could have been played out so differently. whether or not it was a 3rd down isnt it time brewer is able to roll with it and make a play. change the play and roll. Heinz Field Seating Capacity 65050, if there were 40,000 people at that game it would be lucky and no way you can't make a change to the play at the line. It wasn't that loud
I'd have to rewatch it. I thought the play clock had 28 and the game clock 21. Thus the quarter would have ended.
I may not remember that correctly.
Or it could be the confusion of two play clocks like Beamer and co complained about.
I was puzzled when we didn't call timeout at the end of the first half during the 16 pre-snap penalties in a row. After that grease fire I would've had to get my guys to the bench just to give them a hug and tell them I still love them.
The big run from Voytik late in the game that signaled that it was probably over. It was visions of BC all over again.
Biggest WTF moment:
Giving Kyshon Jarrett a chance at returning a punt (and losing yards to give us bad field position) after Stroman has consistently done well for us in that department.
Second Biggest:
Throwing 5 yards short of the 1st down marker on 3rd down almost every time.
Stroman and Jarrett were both back there. They kicked away from Stroman.
This. I'm unsure if this is due to some of the youth, lack of huddle leadership to tell the guys get past the sticks on the route, or the play calling.. but this was horrible.
Definitely agree with the pass plays on 3rd and whatever. Gotta go for the sticks!!
This. I wanted to chuck my iPhone at the TV every single time we threw short of the marker. I mean for goodness sake Pollack and Palmer were both going on and on about it. I'm not a fan of either of those two but I really wish Scot could have heard them just once.
Yeah, if Pollack says something I agree with, it means it's bad.
Not really a WTF moment, but why didn't we ever isolate Bucky in the red zone and throw a jump ball to him.
Because we did it with Isaiah Ford instead...
True that. I don't know the exact numbers but I feel like the 3 or 4 times we've just lobbed it up to Bucky in the endzone it's been 2 TD's and a pass interference. Something along those lines. Something overwhelmingly in our favor. The dude can jump through the ceiling, who cares if they're expecting it?
I've been saying this the entire season. He's going to be in a mismatch EVERY time because of his speed/size/jumping ability. When in the redzone, why not just throw jump balls to him EVERY SINGLE TIME?! Our running game was horrible and Brewer was inaccurate all night. Just throw it up for him. So frustrating watching this team. Horrible play calling.
Works every freaking time and I still stand by these words: we don't get Bucky the ball enough. He's the biggest guy on the field, he might have the best hands of anyone on the field and he's more of a WR than a TE anyways. I'd look his way every time. If I were a QB on this team, it would be my goal to make sure he makes the All-American team. He's good enough to make an impact in the NFL right now and we simply don't use weapons like him well enough. Similar to Eddie Royal; I feel like Bucky is going to be better at the next level than he was in college. I could preach on this for days but we don't give Bucky the ball nearly enough. I've said it many times and I'll say it plenty more times
I'm going to hold you to that. I'll be listening.
Hard to get the ball to someone who isn't open that much. He may have great talent and potential, but as a tight end he doesn't run very good routes yet in tight end spaces.
i was yelling that at the TV for 4 presnap penalities and 4 more plays in a ROW! before halftime. jeeeezjust throw the jumpball where only bucky can get it., its a pretty easy fix to redzone scoring.
Unfortunately camera angles only show us so much, but don't you think that if we are calling for that play, other teams are probably looking for that play? Don't you expect other teams to double team our tallest guy in that situation? If I was the coach, I know I would be all over him like white on rice.
Who cares? They don't have anyone who could defend him. If anything it's a pass interference.
didnt you think pitt fans were calling for boyd?? didnt you think we game plan for boyd?? didnt you see boyd go for a 50yrd TD on the openning drive? you can game plan all you want for people but sometimes it just doesnt matter. buckys size cant be game planned for. if that was the case we wouldnt ever care anything about 5* we would only care about game planning.
If Bucky is on the wide side of the field and double teamed then this is one less defender on the other side. Either way it works out for us. Bucky should get a good 10 passes thrown his way each game at a minimum.
My wtf moment started on the first offensive snap for us. Why are we running JC and not Caleb to set the stage for our running game?
What is this "running game" you speak of? It must be up there with the last unicorn and twinkies in a Zombie apocalypse.
Oh I agree with you. Just was expecting Caleb to get the rock. Who knows, maybe he will fumble less in the process as well.
Every offensive series?
This post.
Biggest surprise for me is that we lost despite Ryan Malleck playing. Loeffler said he was the key to the offense last year and I kept hearing that last year's offensive debacle was mainly the result of his injury. With Malleck back on the field, I thought for sure we'd be marching up and down the field racking up points.
Not that Brewer had a ton of time in the pocket last game, but the last couple weeks since Malleck has been healthy it seems that Brewer has not looked his way too much. Rightfully so at times with Ford, Bucky, and Phillips are having played well this year and as of recent, but maybe him and Malleck are a little out of sync right now. This offense looked its best this year with Malleck being relied on in stick routes and on 3rd downs, but then again, that was with a healthy Marshawn and Shai. Need to get Marshawn and Malleck both healthy, and I think we will see Brewer become more of a game manager.
Someone else mentioned in another threat I believe that it might be in our best interest to really go with a Stanford heavy formation more often. If, and its a big if, if Cline can get back healthy this year, go with more 3 TE sets. We can power run out of this and go to some play action. Put Brewer in a position to be successful and tell the OL that we are going to run it behind you. Of course mix in some other sets to get Cam and Ford involved, but I think when Marshawn comes back healthy, we will see a better utilized Malleck like we saw in the first few weeks.
At least this is what I am hoping for!
Biggest moment(s) for me were Jesse Palmer's comments, from "3rd and California" to comparing Brewer to Manziel after throwing his only touchdown pass. That was some ACC Network type of stuff right there. Pollack does a nice job and Rece just states the obvious, but seriously Palmer said some head-scratching crap a lot last night.
At least I didn't have to listen to Craig James. Oof he was bad. Pairing him with Palmer was nightmarish.
Listening to Mark May at halftime made up for that. Gosh, I just don't get why ESPN hasn't told him to slow down when he talks. It's like a tornado of stats you don't care about swirling about in front of you
He is used to scrambling for his air time because Sputtering Lou Holtz is always cutting him off from making a point, so Lou can tell some irrelevant folk tale.
SVP had the line of the night when he opened up halftime with, "well we were all taught if we can't say anything nice to not say anything at all, but it would be pretty awkward to sit here in silence for the next twenty minutes"
SVP is the G.O.A.T. Also loved the opening to that segment: "choppy".
The point when we lost to Pitt
All kidding aside, it has to be Jarrett's HORRENDOUS angle to the first touchdown pass. It set the tone for Pitt, and when they scored, I knew this was going to be one of those games.
I will say, a close 2nd is probably after we score our only TD and thinking to myself where this offense/passing game was for the whole game? Run game was non-existant, like there hasnt been in previous games, so throw it to the playmakers on the outside. They may be young, but they have proven they can make the big catches.
Lastly, no fades to Bucky in all our redzone possession. Just horrible playcalling.
Reece Davis calling us "West Virginia" during the intro - that set the tone for the night.
One that I haven't seen mentioned was an early run by Joel Caleb where it looked like he had a hole a yard or two to the left, but instead he plowed right into the back of the left tackle (or possibly a tight end on the left side) for no gain.
I know exactly what you're talking about. it looked like allllll open field if he just glances left and sees there is no one there. I guess you can probably blame that on lack of reps though. Tough to make all the plays when you never play.
I found the play on the Watch ESPN replay, it's at 14:04 in the second quarter. There was a receiver that appeared to be crack blocking so Caleb would have been one on one with a DB a few yards down the field if he had bounced the ball outside.
Oh man I just looked at the play and its irritating to think how Shai would have busted it wide open or Juice going beast mode.
WTF Moment: why is JCC getting ANY playing time at all?
Shai McKenzie: ACL injury
Marshawn Williams: ankle injury
Trey Edmunds: broken clavicle
Unless you're willing to start burning redshirts, you play who you've got. JC may not be the best back on our roster, and he may not even be the best back who is currently not injured, but he knows the system and he works his ass off, so the coaches gave him some time. He screwed up with the fumble, but he was damn near getting decapitated at that point.
yeah i know. you know what i mean. i guess ill modify my WTF moment to: WHY do we have knowles and Coleman returning kicks.....that is inexplicable
Why? Kickoff returns require straight-line speed. Knowles is a burner. JC has pretty good top-end speed, though maybe he's not the fastest guy on the team. The only other one I'd put back there is Newsome, who sometimes does returns. Who would you put there in their place?
On a related note, I was happier to see more touchbacks being taken last night. One kick came out that shouldn't have, but seeing our guys know they should take their 25 was an improvement.
Newsome and Stroman
Frank was asked about putting Stroman on kickoffs, and it's basically a nonstarter. Stroman is shifty, and he has great quickness, but he's not suited for kickoffs, from what Beamer said. Moreover, it's enough of a risk to have Stroman taking shots on punt returns (though well worth it thus far) given the depth concerns at CB with Facyson out (likely for the year).
Newsome I agree with 100%, but to me there hasn't been any one of JCC, Newsome, and Knowles that really stands out on kickoff returns, anyway.
Was Newsome the one who returned a kickoff to the 9 yard line last night?
That play pissed me off so much. Time is running out in the fourth quarter take the knee and move the ball to the 25. We started with horrible field position almost every possession.
There's more to returning kick-offs than being a burner. And there's more to football speed than being a burner. I'm sorry to say that Knowles doesn't have football speed or KR speed.
deon newsome was the one with the 9 yrd return so......
also, that drive when we kept throwing it to and running sam rogers...WHY did we stop doing that? If it aint broke, dont fix it. sam was killing it on that drive.
WTF moment was when Brewer passed to himself. Why did he call that play anyway? It could have been picked off. More like an OMG moment, I know. Just kidding.
Hodges open for the TD...overthrow
Hodges open for the TD...miracle diving catch on the overthrow
Phillips open in the EZ on the free play...overthrow near catch
Ford on the fade in the EZ...out of bounds overthrow
Ford running alone on the sideline...underthrow
Ford blanketed in the corner of the EZ...int (negated by penalty)
ball on the 2...penalty
ball on the 2...another penalty
second and 1...penalty
Ford open in the EZ...touchdown! to which i thought, WTF!
Two WTF moments for me. I've been generally been a fan of Loeffler's playcalling from a big picture perspective. But IMO two of his play calls last night when the O was showing signs of life just took the steam out of VT's offensive sails and probably turned 10-14 VT points into only 3 VT points (and partly into 7 Pitt points).
1) Running the Wild Turkey on 2nd & goal from the Pitt 5. The Wild Turkey is IMO an largely ineffective formation to begin with, but it is particularly ineffective in a short field situation and the downfield pass threat is minimized. Any advantage you have with the extra blocking hat is mostly negated. Then pair it with the fact that it's the opening drive of the 2nd half and 5 of the previous 6 plays had gone for 4 or more yards and the offense/running game were starting to establish a rhythm. Why get cute there?
2) Early 4th qtr Sam Rogers reverse pass call on 2 & 10 for similar reasons. The offense had overcome 2 consecutive dead ball penalties to still move the ball from the VT 7 into Pitt territory. The offense is finding a rhythm with passing game, the Pitt defense is starting to show holes...and Loeffler gets cute again. Why not just continue with what is starting to work (runs and passing) and build on that for the remainder of the game? Instead the play is a CF from the get-go, Brewer is in a 3rd and ridiculous again, and a chance for even a FG is thrown away (and ultimately results in a turnover on downs, a huge momentum shift and a 2 play Pitt TD drive).
I'm pretty sure the wild turkey run was after a timeout. Definite WTF moment.
You are 100% correct. Meant to add that and forgot.
Going for it n 4th and 3 and attempting a 1 yard pass
Do you really think that was intended to be a 1 yard pass?
I am going to point out somewhere in some thread on this site every single time Beamer goes for it on 4th down in the opponent territory and doesn't get it.
He's said in the past that getting it on 4th down really motivates the game and can swing or establish momentum. But the times he's done this and lost on the decision far outnumbers the times we've won on the decision.
Usually after he tries this and we don't convert, the next series is a scoring drive that contains a big play for our opponent. I think yesterday's 49 yd QB run counts. Here is what you're going to get the rest of the year when this happens.
FRANK STOP DOING THIS. STOP GOING FOR IT.
Having said that, I've only heard about yesterday's 4th and No second hand, so I don't know if we were in field goal range or not.
We were pretty close to the 50.
There was no reason NOT to go for it there. Good decision, questionable play call.
what killed me about this is A) Pitt scored on the following drive and B) doing so put us in desperation mode and newsome tried to run it out of the end zone and made it to the 9 instead taking a knee and getting us out to the 25.
Good WTFs:
1.) Brewer's pass to ... Brewer?
2.) The interception that seem like it just fell into our guy's hands. (sorry, I know I should know the name, but I'm blanking).
Not so good WTFs:
1.) Lined up at the goal line, and two guys from the left start running to the right, and one guy from the right starts running to the left. That just seems like entirely too much presnap motion.
2.) Any time we run the ball out of the end zone on a kickoff or punt. How many times of getting stuffed at the 10 before we realize that we're giving up 25 free yards?
And the weird broadcast WTF:
ESPN's graphic about VT's true freshmen. Rece admitted they screwed up and put Edmunds on instead of Shai. Then they list Bucky as a true freshman, but he position is TD. Bucky Hodges is a touchdown?
Corey Marshall was the intercepter of the pass. If you want to take away one major positive from that game, it was him. Kid played his nuts off all game, along with Ekanem. In the first half, it looked like our d line were the only ones on the team who felt like showing up to play this week. Love how resilient that whole unit is. You wanna talk about not making excuses, it's those guys. We've lost major factors from last year and this year due to a number of circumstances, but that d line brings the heat every week. It would be even spicier next year if Mr. Sweat decides to hop along for the ride
Yeah Bucky Hodges is a TD, what of it?
I'd love to get a screen capture of this.
I've been frustrated by the kids not taking a knee in the end zone for the past couple years. As for why, I've got nothin.
Yes.
Actually...biggest WTF after the fact...
I don't think I ever saw (or felt) angry Bud Foster. But angry Beamer....I'm pretty sure I saw him spit out every four letter word possible during the game.
Let's be honest, we should have known the entire game was gonna be a WTF game when we didn't capitalize off that opening drive turnover.
Actually, we knew it as soon as it was put on the schedule.
yeah, I guess we're just snakepitt when it comes to these clowns. Now watch them lose the rest of their conference games...
1. How Pitt's play-by-play guy is employed. He's horrible.
2. Why Pitt has their own sideline reporter to do in-game interviews.
3. Why people choose to attend the University of Pittsburgh (probably a third of my high school class went there).
4. Who decided to let Pitt follow us to the ACC.
5. Why I could get cheese fries and bendy straws at Heinz Field but no Lane Stadium.
Why didn't Brewer take off running when no one was open? Several times he could have run for a first down or at least made the 3rd down attempt shorter. Instead, he ended up throwing the ball away.
Pitt LBs could drop into coverage without having to worry about Brewer running. The running threat keeps the LBs honest and opens up more routes.