205 thoughts on “Pitt vs Rhode Island Game Thread”

  10. Which o-lineman had the false start on the first Pitt offensive series?

    I received a call and missed the play.

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    1. Don’t remember who actually got called for it but it was a team effort. They weren’t really set overall and there was a lot of motion (pre-snap and during the snap!).

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  21. They have shown the student section a few times in TV. Nice showing by the kids. Bottom section is full. Impressive for a Nooner against a subpar opponent.

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  26. Is Slovis any good? Guy next to me asked. So we’ve been watching the receivers and they are open and he doesn’t see them (bad) or can’t make fast enough decisions (bad). Against a team that may struggle against North Allegheny. So…….I don’t know if Slovis is any good.

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  43. Slovis took a big hit in a meaningless game.

    O-line is bad, maybe worse than we thought.

    Prepare for an untangled Pitt Panther football team.

    The D gave up way more than I thought they would for 4 qtrs.

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  46. There’s something about this team this year that gets me scratching my head a lot. Too much.

    They just seem uncoordinated. 🤷🏻

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      1. Yeah. Coaching. But then the players, too. (Some of the injured are being missed on field of play.)

        The penalties are still really bad and it’s Game 4.

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  49. If nothing else Pitt has kept RI in this game. Anything can happen in the 2nd half with the lack of consistency on both the O and the D. Has Slovis thrown one deep pass today? All sideline throws and a few 8 to 10 yard pass plays over the middle. And on defense I think RI can break another couple of long runs against in the 2nd half.—-I guess we won’t see Yarnell absent Slovis getting carried off the field. And I’m not so sure the odds of Slovis not getting steam rolled are very good on that count.

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  50. Cig’s offense is leading D2 RI by a FG.

    Our 4th down conversion rate on the year is the same as our FG percentage (4 of 6 vs 6 of 9). 67%

    If I were the coach, I’d go for the 1st down instead of the FG until we don’t get one.

    We missed 3 FG’s vs only two 4th downs.

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  51. I don’t know if Slovis is “average” but I do know AJ Woods is below average. Maybe he’s great in practice but he is below average in games.

    And now that the team has played so poorly the first half, do they play Slovis in the second half. If they don’t, do they play Izzy in the 2nd half or do let Yarnell play without Narduzzi.

    Low IQ coaching makes me really concerned about the rest of the season.

    Frankly, the entire team and coaching staff should be ashamed of themselves.

    One more thing. if Jaden Bradley is auditioning for more playing time, his grade F performance so far today bodes poorly for his audition’s success.

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  52. Next question is whether the defense is any good? Can’t tell against this team. Have to say it’s clear the D line sucks so far this year – and todays no different. Don’t want to hear about injuries. Not one starter on Rhode Island would even make third string at Pitt!

    Also don’t want the “vanilla” excuse either. Vanilla should taste just fine against this team.

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  53. I tried to “like” some comments above. WordPress rejects when I’m on my iPhone…

    I also have to login multiple times to post a comment.

    Not a big deal today, but admittedly frustrating in the bigger games.

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  54. Forgot to mention Woods. I picked him out in here in the first two games. He sucks and has sucked. Slow and weak. Is that the best we have?

    Chris Peak listed teams in the ACC that Pitt is “better” then and included Syracuse. Dead wrong Chris – they are better-coached, faster, more aggressive and athletic and mentally tough. Pitt is NOT better than Syracuse based in the two Cuse games I watched – principally because their coaches do not let their kids sleep walk through games.

    Winning this game by 30 changes nothing any of us have said today. This is a bad and poorly coached team with a lot less talent than we thought.

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  56. I mean now?

    If they’d started the game with backups and Yarnell, no one would say a word.

    Now starters remain — aren’t leaving in a meaningless FCS exhibition game.

    IA IS STILL RUNNING. SLOVIS IS IN LIKE HIS LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.

    Situation ALL FKED UP

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  60. PGHSN:

    PITT FOOTBALLPitt TE Gavin Bartholomew Heads to the Locker Room with Shoulder Injury

    Time to reevaluate the strength & conditioning coach.

    But then, I’ve said this e v e r y game.

    I have never seen so many injuries to start a season. Never

    Liked by 2 people

  63. OK, refrained from knee jerk reactions. Lots of teams starting slow and sloppy in first half. PSU, Georgia, Michigan. Now, that said, this is typical Duzz. Kinda like, ya, we bad. That’s how you get guys hurt.
    You play games like this to open the year, work some stuff out. Now, why Cignetti has starters in there to run,run and run is beyond me.
    This d is just not that good. Banged up, sure, but vs Littl Rhodi, wellllllllll.

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  64. Starting line and secondary just don’t seem into it. They shouldn’t be into it.

    Put in the young guys who are hungry!

    This game plan from the start was ass backwards.

    I’m taking a timeout here and now

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  79. So disgusted I decided not to post. Why was Slovis starting 2nd half. Woods plays like his name. Line play belongs in the Ivy League. Izzy should not be on the field. Coaching???
    When you see a game like this you realize how weak the ACC really is. I think if we were a Big 10 team we would be no better than 5th or 6th and have tough time against Indiana.
    Top 25 nonsense!

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  83. Need another TD while holding them scoreless…to make the Final Score look somewhat respectable of a Top 25 team playing a scrub. Delaware scored 42 on R. I.

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      1. Other than #22, these guys stink. Slovis is terrible, both lines stink and the defense looks like it practices it’s ridiculous celebrations more than tackling.

        Pat and Heather will ask you to look the other way…. “Nothing to see here folks”

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  89. Pathetic OLine play ….. not over reacting we much weaker than I thought we would be against URI. We have some games coming up that will be embarrassing to say the least.

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  90. Pat Bostic very critical of Slovis – Cig put in an RPO set of plays, but the problem is Slovis continually make the wrong reads.

    Bostic said it happened over and over again in the WVU and TN games.

    Liked by 1 person

  95. We are going to need Nate Yarnell at some point this season. What does this game say to him after he saved our ass last week? I do not understand pretty much everything this “coaching?” Staff does. Horrible performance by Pitt. GA Tech and VA Tech are not gimmes with these Pitt lines? And today we lose Bart maybe for the season.

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  97. Two sacks by the D today and what did we give up in yardage, like 300 yards.

    I’m betting RI has more passing yards than Slovis’ “rusty” return.

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  98. The score tells the story….this team is OVER. CONFIDENT and UNDER COACHED … but wait speaking of coaching basketball is around the corner.

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  100. Rather depressing game as we probably expected a 55-6 win.

    I do not understand the rationale for having Slovis and Izzy playing the entire game. An injury to either in a a game such as this is incredibly foolish. Fine if they play a half at most.

    Plenty of people wanted to see more of the backups. Well, I guess we are seeing the backups on the defense.

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  103. I looks like to me that our defense doesn’t show up for “cupcake” games….just like last year against W. Michigan.

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  104. I wish I could figure out why SLOVIS always has that look on his face.

    Maybe it’s permanent?

    Post game with Narduzzi?
    Don’t bother tuning in for this. Coach speak. Period.

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  105. So what exactly does proving you can run the ball against a D2 team PROVE ?

    If you were just going to run the ball and throw 5 yd passes they could have given Slovis
    the day off !

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  110. You’d think it be more important to get some of these young WR’s(Barden & Bradley, etc.) some experience, some catches, some yards….some confidence. Also the transfer WR’s need some too, they haven’t exactly ‘lit it up’. Izzy playing most of the game…..and also returning kicks all game….only gets him more banged up. We know what he can do !

    A wasted opportunity imo….on working on what needs worked on
    The Downfield Passing Game !

    Liked by 1 person

    1. They better be. Not too impressive so far. I hope they are, as HCPN says “holding back plays” for ACC play. Because they are sloppy and playing poorly.

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  114. This is the last game before conference start for many. #1 Georgia beat Kent State 39-22. Last week, Wake beat Liberty by a point, and have easily beat Clemson. #4 Michigan had all it could handle against Maryland

    And then there is Miami. Currently losing to Middle Tenn St 24-3. SOP … I mean SOM

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    Liked by 2 people

  115. Slovis played the whole game because he needs the work. They have to risk injury to get him ready for ACC play. He doesn’t throw the long ball much because the M and M boys, and their B and B backups can’t get separation or win 50/50 balls. Don’t expect any George Pickens type receptions with this group..

    Liked by 3 people

    1. POVers who go to games, does Mumpfield get open often? I’ve seen some of his routes and I can’t imagine this level of CB competition being able to cover him.

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  116. Yarnell wasn’t benched. Narduzzi and Cignetti never really felt Pitt had this game in the bag with how poorly our D was playing and as such was never confident he could pull Slovis or Izzy. —-Freshman giving up their redshirts were spotted on the field today those being FitzSimmons at DT and Gandy at CB. No reason to not play are most talented defensive players after witnessing some of our least talented 2nd and 3rd stringers today.

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  117. Pitt’s D is disappointing to say the least. The LB’s should be George in the middle, SirVocea at the wide side of the field and a rotation of the 2 transfers on the short side.

    The two with # 11 and 23 should be designated to special teams. # 11 actually starts – Bostick & Dickerson railed on him today – attributed it to lack of film study or unable to retain key reads from the tape.

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    1. I respectfully disagree Rick. George is not any type of positive answer. He’s regularly out of position, and he is slow, thus a huge liability in pass coverage.

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      1. The LB group as a whole is weak – I was cobbling together what I feel is the best of a really bad group besides SirV.

        The two starters next to SirV had 1 tackle between them – 0 for Simon (ND transfer) and 1 tackle for Bangally who is usually out of position on every play.

        I’m disappointed we don’t have better LB-ers.

        Note: SirV was chasing and making tackles ten yards down field – not sure if he is covering for the others or if he is out of position as well vs a D2 school.

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  118. MTSU 31. Miami 10. 1/2 way through 3rd quarter. The U can still win, however, they are making today’s Pitt team look like Alabama.

    Pitt played deep into the roster on defense, but did not drill into the bench on offense…….why?

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  119. … and this is why I don’t read the game day threads haha. Pitt, again, had a game never in question and just played it safe. Pitt’s defense will give up big plays, occasionally. It is what it is. Lot’s of starters out. Vanilla game plan on offense and defense. A very convincing victory. Pitt had enough starters already out. Slovis was always going to play most of the game. Yarnell was as low as 4th on the depth chart as recently as last week. He had a good game but did you see the extremes Pitt went to avoid having him having to carry the team? They don’t have trust in him yet even after that last game. And probably for good reasons. Duzz has alluded to the struggles he’s had picking up the offense. It was a good safe win. Victory was never in doubt. If Pitt had plans for Yarnell to play, he would have started.

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      1. He mentioned it several times before the season started. There was a reason he started last week 4th on the depth chart.

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    1. Louisville and cuse could be our toughest games until miami.

      The coastal IS weak this year, more so than prior years.

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        2. Completely new offensive systems for both. Culture shock. Armstrong was always overrated. Bronco was good at scheming for him. Tyler is a pro-style QB playing in an RPO offense.

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  127. Hendon Hooker for Heisman. Last year, he threw 3 Ints. So far this year, he has 0. He had 460 total yards today

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  128. Mumpfield makes the catches he is supposed to make, but nothing really exceptional so far. In today’s game he was running shoulder to shoulder with a defender on a rare long ball, but couldn’t pull it in though Slovis placed it well. Clearly a ball a great receiver catches. He’s an above average receiver who appears to be slightly overrated. Perhaps he will be a late bloomer like Wayne..

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    1. And there were many dropped passes today, something we rarely saw last season but many times in prior Duzz seasons.

      The common denominator – Marion’s one year at WR coach. Would love to see him as OC at Pitt with Addison as his stud WR. We had that but Duzz said no…

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  130. —Just a note FWIW — when we gave up the long TD run, Duzz said it was the safety O’Brien who made the wrong read, not the LB.

    —The B and B WRs have been really disappointing. The each have only a couple of catches in their whole career. I think we should target Mumpfield more. He’s quick. Once today when we were marching and around the 20, Mumpfield clearly had single coverage and was the only WR to the wide side of the field. It was crying out for a double move by faking a slant and breaking to the corner. I think we ran to the short side of the field. Maddening…

    —I saw Patti on the sideline in sweat pants. He was walking around with a slight limp, I thought. Wayne and Hammond also in sweat pants – no braces or anything…

    —Keep in mine we had former walk-on Maloney and a totally inexperienced Nahki Johnson playing some DE today.

    —Seemed to me that when RI lined up 3 WRs to one side, our coverage was confused. Couple times the WR on the mid-depth route wasn’t covered by anyone…

    —On some of Izzy’s runs, seemed like he was never touched. Someone must have thrown some blocks.

    Go Pitt.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Duzz said in the presser the other day that Patti was “ready to roll”. As soon as he said it, I knew that he was lying. I’ll bet that Duzz really confused the Rhode Island coaches with that one….

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  131. Paulie Potato having a long night.

    Aside from Wayne, our receivers are average.
    Where is Bardon? Always showed speed and the occasional flash?
    Of all the injuries, Blue Mtn Bart worries me the most.

    Liked by 1 person

  132. The ACC is a dumpster fire this year. But Pitt could move up with 3 teams just ahead of them losing today. Texas, Wake, and Florida. Texas A&M could lost too.

    Some teams just out of the Top 25 lost too, like MSU, UNC, Wash. St.,

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  133. 8th ranked Kentucky leads 1-2 NIU by 7 midway thru 3rd quarter. Again, this is the day to stay healthy and win

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  135. Great to meet and talk with everyone at the POV tailgate today. My wife felt very welcome. Thank you all!

    The game was a bit of a disappointment. Not impressed with Cignetti so far. He is the anti-Whipple. All run and hardly any downfield passing. Those sideways passes are just a fancy run play.

    #25 AJ Woods is going to be the undoing of Pitt’s defense. There just has to be a better option than him in the defensive backfield.

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  136. JMU beat Appalachian St 32-28. App beat Tex A&Mand lost by 1 to UNC

    3-0 is coached by Curt Cignetti and Mike Shanahan is OC

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  138. Was at game today, my kids (2 and 3) first!
    Thoughts:
    Pitt dominated with the exception of the couple chunk plays.
    Was surprised by lack of pass rush yet we still ended up with 4 sacks.
    Passing play calls seemed to have quick, easy throws for Slovis. I was frustrated by lack of downfield passing
    ABanikanda had himself a day

    I’m happy at 3–1

    Liked by 5 people

  141. Just to clarify my post saying FitzSimmons and Gandy losing their red shirts. I din’t mean they lost it today but if Narduzzi is going to burn 1 of their 4 games allowed by bringing them in late against URI suggests they will be playing a great deal more over the next 8 weeks to shore up a less than great defense and thus they will subsequently lose their red shirts.

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  142. I thought the URI QB was better then Slovis yesterday especially in the 2nd half. Some very precise passing from and thru well on the run.—-Pitt Ga Tech game on 8 pm next week on the ACC Network. The ACC Commenting Crew likely to set up shop in Pittsburgh for the game.

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  143. From PSN –

    Caleb Junko trotted out onto the field for the (games final) kickoff.

    Instead of kicking it deep, Junko ran a surprise onside kick attempt — following Rhode Island’s on the prior possession — and recovered the football himself. He even was able to dunk on the Turnover Hoop (I thought that was discontinued).

    There was some wonder as to whether or not Junko went rouge on the onside kick, as Pat Narduzzi and Andre Powell were seen “talking” (yelling) with Junko directly following the attempt, but Narduzzi said it was Pitt’s play design.

    “Yeah, it’s something we called,” Narduzzi said after the game. “Obviously, you got the ball at the 50-yard line, we can kick it deep. The first time we had that earlier in the year, I forget what game it was (look at the tape), Tennessee or whatever, we kicked it deep, but someone has got to be aware of that kick, and you got the ball at the 50-yard line, there’s not much risk after a 15-yarder for roughing our kicker on the one.

    “Junko hadn’t gotten a lot of reps at it, either. So, kudos to not Coach Junko, to Coach Junko’s grandson, for executing that properly.”

    Comment – STC Powell looked like he was losing his mind yelling at Junko. Duzz looked confused on the sideline after the play.

    I point this out because we get so much misinformation as fans – I’m told Sark does similar with the Texas program – doesn’t want to submit a 2-deep nor announce which QB is healthy to start.

    The difference right now is Texas is 2-2 and Pitt is 3-1.

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  144. Had a really nice conversation with your wife, John. Nancy, if my memory is correct? It was interesting to find that we are all transplants from outside of Johnstown. Glad you both made it up for the game and I hope you have a safe trip back to SC.

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    1. Thank you for your hospitality, Farmers. Nancy had a very good time at the tailgate! Next game up we will definitely stop by again.

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  146. Looking though the participation list I see that (2) FR DLinemen from the Pittsburgh area recorded sacks – N.Johnson and FitzSimmons. Elliott Donald also played some meaningful minutes.

    One curious name missing was CB Rashad Battle – the depth was challenged yesterday with injuries and yet he (a 4* 6’3” 200 athlete) was not on the participation list, not even for special teams. Injured or discipline.

    I remember he and LB (captain) Cam Bright got into a sideline tussle at the MSU bowl loss and shortly after, Cam transferred to Washington to become the huskies starting MLB.

    Next man up will be used a lot in the coming weeks.

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  147. Been on a road trip through NY and New England.
    A couple thoughts:
    Still wondering how we get through the season with this number of significant injuries more than I can remember ever. If we do credit to depth.
    Izzy is a beast. When Hammond gets back a two headed monster.

    Addison with three catches and a winning TD, good but not exactly the featured star he would have been at Pitt. USC had 4 interceptions. Otherwise they get blown up.

    Tennessee goes into the top ten, Pitt probably hangs on to the top 25 even though they lot to Tennessee in overtime with an injured second string QB.

    Hoping our guys get healthy, especially linemen. Bart in a sling is a big loss.

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  148. Random thoughts

    Just read where Miami paid MTSU $1.5M plus $40k travel expense for beating them

    Pitt may well fall out of the rankings this week because of Minn, K State, Wash St and Kansas early showings. Pitt just needs to take care of business on the field as any pretender will fall off … like Wisc, Mich St, Miami, Iowa etc already have

    And of course.. should Pitt falter in the next few weeks, it doesn’t deserve a ranking

    In the 2006 national title game, Ohio St was the double digit favorite to win it all. And sure enough, the Buckeyes returned the opening kick-off for a Td. But then, the Gators, behind game MVP QB Chris Leak, dominated

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  149. Thoughts on why Pitt is experiencing all these injuries. Is it a poor strength and conditioning program? Poor tackling technique? Playing with too much abandon?

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