I have to insert a personal apology here – in my podcast yesterday I called Pat Narduzzi a “liar”. That is something I should not have said as it infers he lies continually – that is not the case. I not only retract that statement but also publicly apologize for it as it wasn’t a gentlemanly thing at all on my part.
Here we are two days removed from our game with Penn State and with the dust settled now lets take a look at what transpired. As always what we do on here is single out three issues for each category; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
This game certainly had its share of all three adjectives that apply…
THE GOOD
I have to say that the first positive thing that comes to mind for this is the all-around play of RB rsJR Quadree Ollison who shone again on Saturday. His stats show a productive game again (15 for 96 @ 6.4 ypc), he played well in the YSU match also, but it was the way he ran Saturday that is heartening. He shifted shoulders and followed his blocks better than before and so got those extra yards that he seemed to miss last season.
He’s clearly the bell-ringer of the RB unit… well, Quasimodo was a bell-ringer also, but Ollison is handsomer… and as such he’ll get more and more carries as the season plays on.
rsJR Ben Dinucci’s play in relief of starter rsSR Max Browne. If you look at the stats you wouldn’t jump up and take notice of DiNucci’s play on Saturday – but that misses the intangibles he brought to the offense as soon as he walked into the huddle Bronwe had played poorly all day (more on that) and was required to sit out a play due to the loss of helmet rule.
Instant points on the board as DiNucci scored a TD the first time he touched the ball and accounted for all eight points.
3rd and Goal at PSU 3
(10:09 – 4th) Ben Dinucci run for 3 yds for a TD, (Ben Dinucci pass to Qadree Ollison for Two-Point Conversion)
That bit of work cut the lead down to two TDs at 28-14 with 10 minutes left to play. His next full series showed him with 5 of 9 for 49 yards along with 15 yards on the ground – 64 of the 65 yards we needed to score a TD. That didn’t happen and DiNucci fumbled the ball to end the game – but even his fumble was the result of desperately trying to score points.
He did a good job on Saturday.
Our last “good’ award goes to rsFR PK Alex Kessler who shook of the rust from his 0-2 attempts against YSU to hit two important field goals. Those two FGs were the only scoring we had over the first three-quarters and the first one kept the score at a reasonable 14-3 going into halftime.
His second kept us within two TDs… every little bit helped at that point.
Look – on Saturday Pitt’s players needed every bright spot it could get to keep their morale up and their heads in the game and Kessler really helped with that.
pittpov.com 