My Post Game Recap - Pitt

Memnon

Dejazmach
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Offense:

D'Eriq King - 16/31 222yds 4TD's & 2INT's 11att & 32yds rushing
Cam'ron Harris - 12att 24yds rushing & 1rec 35yds 1TD
Jaylan Knighton - 7att 25yds rushing & 5rec 27yds
Don Chaney Jr - 5att 18yds
Mark Pope - 5rec 46yds
Will Mallory - 2rec 51yds 2TD's
Mike Harely - 2rec 47yds 1TD

Gained 331yds of total offense, ran 73 plays with 21 first downs, 4-13 on 3rd down at 4.5 yards per play with 29:27 in time of possession.

Great play call to bring Harris out of the backfield on that first TD, it was something that I highlighted in my preview for the game that would line up perfect playing against Pitt's Defense based on how they use their LB's.



King dropped a dime to Dee Wiggins on the Fade route to the sideline, but of course he dropped it & then dropped an easy WR screen at the start of the 2nd half because he's weak AF. Had one of his worst performances today, has completely come up short in every game we've played except for FSU.

Good job by King finding Harley on the busted coverage for a TD, it was a great play call by Lashlee, we have our most success in the passing game from Wide Trips formation.



King made a bad read throwing to Harley on that INT by Marquis Williams, in fact both of his INT's were intended passes to Harley. One thing King does is he locks in on his first read pre-snap & doesn't come off that read, he will stare down the WR & throw it to him no matter what & what DB's are starting to do is read his eyes & bait him. He needs to be more efficient with the ball & go through his progressions a lot quicker.

Pope played well, he caught 5 passes out of 6 targets & helped us move the chains on multiple drives, obviously the board is extremely down on him but he can play we just have to get him the ball more in similar situations like Bubble screens & quick routes. But I think it it's time to go with the Youth movement at WR, bench Wiggs & go with Pope, Harley, Redding & Smith as the top 4.

Good play call on the TD to Mallory on the TE slip out of the backfield from wide stacked formation, it was the exact same play as the Cam Harris TD.



The biggest issue with this offense remains the lack of a vertical threat from WR's in the passing game & the OL. Until we can find a WR that can attack the secondary & stretch the field we're going to run into the same problem on a weekly basis.

Keyshawn Smith has shown multiple times this year that he can create separation in one on one coverage & has really really good speed, just need to build up that continuity in practice & start connecting on those Deep balls, because literally every time one has been thrown to him he's had his man beat by a step & a half.

We also have got to get the run game fixed, would love to see us try to create some cutback lanes upfront as opposed to constantly just running guys off inside zone into a wall of 8-9 man box defenders.

Offense played well enough to win obviously, but too many stalled drives, we did a good job on capitalizing off short fields with explosive plays which is our bread & butter, but there's a lot we need to cleanup as a whole, need a lot more consistency with the OL & WR play has to drastically improve down the line.

Defense:

Gurvan Hall - 8tcks
Bubba Bolden - 6tcks 1TFL & 1PBU
Quincy Roche - 7ckts 4TFL's 1 sack & 1FR
Jaelan Phillips - 3tcks 1TFL 1 sack & 1FF
Jared Harrison-Hunte - 4tcks 2TFL's 1 sack & 1FF
Amari Carter - 6tcks
DJ Ivey - 4tcks
Sam Brooks - 3tcks
Bradley Jennings Jr - 3tcks
Gilbert Frierson - 2tcks
Jahfari Harvey - 2tcks 1TFL 1 sack
Jordan Miller - 2tcks 1TFL 1 sack
Corey Flagg Jr - 2tcks
Jason Blissett Jr - 1tck 1TFL
Al Blades Jr - 1tck 2PBU's
Isaiah Dunson - 1tck
Te'Cory Couch - 1tck & 3PBU's
Zach McCloud - 1tck 1TFL

Gave up to 300yds total offense, had 9TFL's, 3 sacks, forced a turnover & held Pitt to just 22yds rushing.



The Run Defense was absolutely STOUT! Now obviously, Pitt doesn't have a great rushing offense to begin with lol but 22 yards rushing is **** good by this Defense considering how we usually perform against the run.

Great job getting in the backfield on the sack by Miller, Phillips, JHH & Nesta were in the backfield all day as well.
DLine was disruptive & great job by Roche recognizing the quick misdirection in the red zone & sniffing it out & getting the TFL.

Defense did a great job stopping the run & keeping them contained. Red zone Defense was good, (aside from the TD on the 1 yard line that came off the INT by Williams) we kept them from scoring TD's on most of their Red zone trips. 3rd down Defense was very good too holding them to just 3-17 on 3rd downs.

Two dumb penalties by the Defense that kept a drive extended, BJJ roughing the passer & lining up offsides on a 4th down Punt. Another dumb roughing the passer penalty by Phillips that extended a drive.

Terrific tackle by Isaiah Dunson on the fake punt, that was great field awareness.

The Defense completely fell asleep on the drive in the 2nd quarter that lead to a FG, leaving the Slot uncovered & putting Amari Carter one on one with Addison, dumb coverage call, but the DLine saved us with JHH getting the sack.

Great open field tackling by Bolden in the Red zone before the half, he saved a TD on that 2nd down pass to the RB out of the backfield. But in down field coverage open his hips too much on that 3rd down pass.

Very good coverage by Al Jr vs Wayne, he did a good job with his eyes & played through the hands to get the PBU.

Terrific coverage by Te'Cory Couch on the deep ball in the 3rd quarter, won the inside leverage battle & completely got inside the hip pocket of the WR. Had great coverage again on Addison in the 4th quarter on another deep route where he had inside leverage & was able to get his head around to get the PBU, he's really coming on as the season progresses, he was excellent in coverage today. I would put him at Field & move Al Jr to Boundary for the rest of the season. Couch has the speed, feet & hips to lockdown the #1 WR & Blades can cover the big body Wideout, let Frierson cover the slot as a Nickel & just use Ivey close to the line of scrimmage in run support.

The same thing we did vs LVille we did vs Pitt in terms of leaving the slot completely open, Addison got a free release on literally every single route he ran today, we left a Safety on him all day & just like Tutu Atwell did, Addison ate us up. I really really hate that about Baker's play calling. But otherwise, Couch & Blades were good in coverage.

Good kickoff coverage by Corey Flagg Jr, he's an active Backer with really high football IQ. Brooks, Flagg & Jennings are the best LB's, McCloud is horrendous with change of direction & despite being a 5th year Senior has absolutely no awareness at all, he's a straight forward rusher that should only be used as a situational backer on Blitz packages.

The unsung hero of the game was Lou Hedley, he had 6 Punts for 310yds averaging 51.7 yards per punt & even had a 60 yard punt on the day. He flipped the field & put Pitt in bad field position for most of the day, he's been a terrific upgrade from the Punter carousel we had a few years ago.

Overall, it was a good team win, I predicted we would win 37-20 & that's basically the game we played. It wasn't a pretty performance like we had vs FSU, we left lots of plays & yards in the field, but we scored & got the explosive TD plays when we needed to. There's still a lot to improve on offensively particularly in the passing game, there's also corrections that need to made on Defense in pass coverage as well, but overall was a good team win.

One of the best things about today was we cut our penalties in half from 10+ to just 5, if we continue to play smarter & more buttoned up we'll be a much more efficient team.

But next week, we should whoop UVA handily, we have 2 road games coming @ Va Tech & NC St that will define how bad this team wants to win, we are much improved from last year in many aspects & as long as we keep fighting & becoming more cohesive as a unit we'll firmly places ourselves as one of the top 3 teams in the ACC.

Great win, Go Canes! 🙌🏾
 
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Nice review. Agree 100% on that top 4 for wrs. Give pope simple pitch and catch plays in the slot and not overburden him.

Flagg and Brooks have to play more. It’s time and very obvious.

Very happy that Couch is really developing. Could be a stud next year.

I liked Addison for Pitt a lot. He’s really good.
 
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Great recap. I think Lashlee could greatly improve the WR/QB chances for success with more in-breaking routes. We are asking our QB, to hit low-success rate throws to guys with slight frames who aren't winning contested throws. I get wanting to go downfield, but sometimes, you have to put pride aside and take what the defense is giving you. Unless King struggles with posts and square ins, I would expect to start seeing more of these type of routes moving forward.
 
There were certainly lapses in the way our defense performed at times, and while it was against a Pitt team without their starter, I liked how our D played today. JHH is going to be an absolute star and I’m loving what I’ve seen from Flagg, proving a lot of haters wrong. Blades may be our best all-around corner, but TC is starting to show just how special he can be in man coverage, he was excellent at blanketing receivers today.

Offense leaves a lot to be desired, I’ll just say that. Like the idea of pope and Harley sharing time at slot while having Keyshawn and redding play the other receiver spots. Payton needs to show me more. Would love to get more downfield passes to our RBs as opposed to insisting on swing passes. Mallory needs to be targeted more also, end of story.

Agree with the penalties, definitely looked more disciplined today in that regard. A W is a W no matter how you get it, looking forward to cleaning shįt up and smashing UVA next week
 
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It was nice seeing the young WRs getting snaps. add pope and the tes and hopefully we can get something going. I understand to an extent playing older guys but sometimes you have to play the young guys. Especially on D. Brooks and Flagg need to start with TAC being the 3rd linebacker. Our D-line is ridiculous. Nesta, JHH, Jason Blisset, Jordan Miller and the DEs played well. Corners didn't look bad but like you said we have to do something about letting our safety cover the slot. The potential on defense looks to be very good
 
We are still a work in progress. We should be favorited for every game until UNC, and theres no reason why we shouldnt win them all. None.

I know we all want total domination, and critiques are welcome (well not by some wholl just call you a mope), but you just dont magically become elite overnight, folks. Remember when Clemson was up and coming and then got BLITZED by Jamesis and the Noles?

All I've ever asked for these past few years was for us at a minimum to win the games we're supposed to win.

So far, so good.
 
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Was it Wiggins who was interfered with on that long ball? One of our guys got hosed, looked like King put the ball right in the basket but the DB was early and took one of his arms out. Should’ve been a flag, can’t put that on him.
 
We played ugly as ****. Our run game got completely shut down & King looked like he was seeing ghosts. Our defense played mostly solid but our DBs were getting torched at one point & McCloud looked like he had on concrete shoes in coverage.

Thankfully Pitt's QB just isn't very good & their WRs dropped some passes at critical points. And the offense & defensive line made big plays when they needed to. Good game. Can't wait to play UVA.

I want to see more of Keyshawn, Flagg, Blissett, Harvey & Couch.
 
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Was it Wiggins who was interfered with on that long ball? One of our guys got hosed, looked like King put the ball right in the basket but the DB was early and took one of his arms out. Should’ve been a flag, can’t put that on him.
That was Smith. Had it been Wiggins he wouldn’t have caught it, anyways. Smith got great separation.
 
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