Albany vs. Pittsburgh @ Heinz Field

[Dane96]

Holmes was SEVERLY underrecruited in my opinion, and that's on the Troy High staff.  That said, glad we have him.  Will put fannies in the seats and is a stud. 

[HOF2013]

U Albany 7 Pitt 33.  I think this game bodes VERY well for the regular season.   O Line STILL needs lots of work, very slow on their feet.  Speed keeps beating them Kickoff return, interception returns 76 yards, and one touchdown a NON-TOUCHDOWN.  Got inside the 15 twice with no points too.  Several true freshman played as well and did well.

Someone said the LB's did not done well.  I think they did a very good job, Pitt O line averages over 300 lbs.

Edited September 1, 2018 by HOF2013

[Clickclack]

They really settled down in the second half... Defense started to play a bit better. Not sure if Pitt went 2nd and 3rd string. 

 

Defense and special teams though needs a good deal of work. 

[HOF2013]

6 minutes ago, Clickclack said:

They really settled down in the second half... Defense started to play a bit better. Not sure if Pitt went 2nd and 3rd string. 

Defense and special teams though needs a good deal of work. 

Remember ACC.  That step up with 21 more scholarships and history means bigger and faster guys.  O LINE needs work, Def was fine.  Remember KO return and Interception return 13 pts and a NON-TOUCHDOWN touchdown, accounted for 20 pts!

[Dane96]

11 minutes ago, Clickclack said:

They really settled down in the second half... Defense started to play a bit better. Not sure if Pitt went 2nd and 3rd string. 

 

Defense and special teams though needs a good deal of work. 

Pitt played their first  and second string all the way until the very end.

[Clickclack]

3 minutes ago, Dane96 said:

Pitt played their first  and second string all the way until the very end.

Then that bodes pretty well... 

[HOF2013]

Yep - I think us being picked 9th will give the team a boast!

 

 Penn state ALMOST lost to Appalachian State - won in overtime!!!!!!

[UAalum72]

Also in the CAA, contender Elon down to South Florida 31-7 in the 3rd, Richmond down 28-10 to UVa at the half. Villanova did beat Temple.

Crowd at Pitt was almost 35,000, still the largest for any UA event ever. Lower level in the shade (behind Pitt) was mostly full, and the student endzone was impressively full and loud. The sun side not so much. The Rib Fest outside the stadium helped the atmosphere too

Odd hearing the first seven notes of the Pitt alma mater, and realizing they're using the tune for Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles.

Agree with earlier, I HATE deferring the kickoff when you're up against a superior team. Too many times I've seen either a runback or a bomb on the first series, and then you're demoralized and back on your heels right at the start.

I also still hate the deep handoff in short yardage. Your only advantage is that you know when the snap's coming. A deep handoff gives that away.

Several Pitt fans came up to us to say they were impressed with VT and his wide receivers.

I'll have to get home and watch the replays, but from the video board in the stadium I thought it looked like a good catch for them in the end zone. OTOH I couldn't see how they called a no-catch on the one bomb over the middle.

I really wanted them to kick the field goal at the end so we could "win" the second half. Still, keeping an ACC team scoreless for the half is an accomplishment. They kept Pickett in at QB until the last series. They may say they ran a vanilla offense, but did try some endarounds. Difference was Pickett was 11-11 (?) in the first half and I don't think any turnovers, in the second half he missed some passes, fumbled and threw INTs.

 

[HOF2013]

13 minutes ago, UAalum72 said:

Also in the CAA, contender Elon down to South Florida 31-7 in the 3rd, Richmond down 28-10 to UVa at the half. Villanova did beat Temple.

Crowd at Pitt was almost 35,000, still the largest for any UA event ever. Lower level in the shade (behind Pitt) was mostly full, and the student endzone was impressively full and loud. The sun side not so much. The Rib Fest outside the stadium helped the atmosphere too

Odd hearing the first seven notes of the Pitt alma mater, and realizing they're using the tune for Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles.

Agree with earlier, I HATE deferring the kickoff when you're up against a superior team. Too many times I've seen either a runback or a bomb on the first series, and then you're demoralized and back on your heels right at the start.

I also still hate the deep handoff in short yardage. Your only advantage is that you know when the snap's coming. A deep handoff gives that away.

Several Pitt fans came up to us to say they were impressed with VT and his wide receivers.

I'll have to get home and watch the replays, but from the video board in the stadium I thought it looked like a good catch for them in the end zone. OTOH I couldn't see how they called a no-catch on the one bomb over the middle.

I really wanted them to kick the field goal at the end so we could "win" the second half. Still, keeping an ACC team scoreless for the half is an accomplishment. They kept Pickett in at QB until the last series. They may say they ran a vanilla offense, but did try some endarounds. Difference was Pickett was 11-11 (?) in the first half and I don't think any turnovers, in the second half he missed some passes, fumbled and threw INTs.

 

The deep handoff gives a good back a better view of the gaps and options on where to actually hit a hole as it opens.  A set play with a  close handoff does not allow for that.  Pretty simple with a guy like EB back there BUT the O line has to move their feet and move the Def Lineman.

 

[UAalum72]

40 minutes ago, HOF2013 said:

The deep handoff gives a good back a better view of the gaps and options on where to actually hit a hole as it opens.  A set play with a  close handoff does not allow for that.  Pretty simple with a guy like EB back there BUT the O line has to move their feet and move the Def Lineman.

 

That's fine on first or second down in the middle of the field, against a peer opponent when your linemen are expected to move the defense around. On third and one at the three they'll stack the middle and there won't be a hole. And against a superior opponent like Pitt any hole closes a lot quicker.

[HOF2013]

17 minutes ago, UAalum72 said:

That's fine on first or second down in the middle of the field, against a peer opponent when your linemen are expected to move the defense around. On third and one at the three they'll stack the middle and there won't be a hole. And against a superior opponent like Pitt any hole closes a lot quicker.

You do NOT change your offense for one opponent or situation, ESPECIALLY when playing up.  I think you are nit picking.  The Pitt Def is a top 41 FBS rushing Def. giving up less than 142 yds per game rushing last year.  And that standing includes ALL FSB schools, all conferences [even the Buffalos and Old Dominions who play weaker opponents week in and week out than the ACC Schools do].  Pitt plays in the ACC. Some real powerhouse programs.   We were able to pass against them fairly easily.  When competing against our league we will LOOK much better and be better.   Let's see how they do this year AND how we do before making such judgements.

[HOF2013]

                               Albany      7        Pitt  33

1st Downs                               16        21

3rd down efficiency               5-13     6-9

4th down efficiency               0-1       0-0

Total Yards                             323      407

Passing                                   263      169

Comp-Att                                18-29   17-23

Yards per pass                       9.1       7.3

Interceptions thrown              2          1

Rushing                                   60        238

Rushing Attempts                  28        37

Yards per rush                       2.1       6.4

Penalties                                 7-40     6-55

Turnovers                                2          2

Fumbles lost                           0          1

Interceptions thrown              2          1

Possession                              30:26   27:25

[reeder]

They’ll do fine in conference.  The tackling is a big concern but Pitt is bigger and faster than CAA teams.

[Eli]

I didn't read all the pages because 5-8 was just people over-reacting but I think this went well considering how badly we started.

• VT is a bit erratic with his accuracy. Most of the deep bombs required the WR to make some serious adjustments.
• Our offensive line was garbage for 98% of the game. Hopefully that's just a byproduct of playing an ACC team and not something else. They had WAY too many penalties.
• HOLMES IS LEGIT! Zee Roberson who? Dude is gonna have a helluva year in the CAA.
• EIH looks good. He's gonna have another great year in the CAA.
• Our defense was stout in the 2nd half and tightened up, I think we'll be a top 10 FCS defense again.
• OFFENSIVE PLAY CALLING WAS VASTLY IMPROVED. Throws to the middle, etc. See what happens when you have an offensive coach calling the offensive plays? Can't believe GG had a defensive guy calling the plays for 4 years and that it took him 4 years to make the change. Previous systems were so unimaginative.

This team has a good chance to win 7 games this year. Better O-Line play and some more accuracy from VT and we'll be golden. Can't wait to go to the first game at Casey this year. Hopefully it's a beautiful evening.

[jimbo]

I honestly didn’t think the O line had too many penalties. False starts, yes. I only remember one hold when Dudzinski got beaten badly and tackled his guy. VT probably appreciated it. EB is back. No one appeared to get dinged up too much. Take away the sacks and they ran for almost 100 against a top FBS defense. I thought the pass to McDonald was incomplete, but the TD for Pitt was BS. Bobbled the ball. Why don’t they review?