Category: Heinz Field

POV Gameday Thread: Duke

It’s Saturday morning and I’m getting ready for the drive up to Heinz.  We are favored by seven or eight points this afternoon depending on who you are giving your money to. I think we’ll be under that but not by much.  I predicted a 41-35 Pitt win.

I just received an email from our friend Bernie (BigB) who was the guy I quoted back in July when he told me he had some Outer Banks’ bar face time with our OC and who shared with us that Matt Canada was 100% firm in his belief that ‘We’ll score a ton of points this season‘ . Hey, that happened!!

Our body surfing DC was being carried out to the middle of the Atlantic ocean in a riptide as that shore-side conversation was happening because the exact opposite has transpired under Conklin’s watch.

Bernie and I think alike – if we had even an average pass defense as we did last season we may well be 10-0 at this point.

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Know Your Enemy: North Carolina

(First off here are the Pitt Media Dept.’s Pitt-NC Game Notes for reference.)

Pitt is sitting pretty at a 2-1 mark three games into the season.  One of those wins was GGGGGreat! One was a good start to the year and the loss, last week to Oklahoma State in their hometown, raised a lot of questions.  It wasn’t so much that we lost the game – it was how we lost the game.  After all most Pitt fans figured we’d lose that away game to a good, strong offense

We fans have each season’s games ‘circled’ for various reasons be it for payback, rivalry or championship competition.  Penn State was probably the most circled game by Pitt fans for obvious reasons.  That was the GGGGGreat! win.

I wrote earlier during fall camp what I felt about the importance of that game and while it is fantastic we won I have had this upcoming North Carolina Tarheels game circled as I believe a win this Saturday will set the stage for a run to the ACC Coastal Division winner’s spot and then to a full ACC Championship.

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Monday Morning QB: Pitt Wins!

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Can’t beat this feeling… Honest to God.  Even with all the pragmatism I try to maintain on here and with all the neutral feelings I try to inject into my score predictions, my Pitt roots, all 110 years of them,  show through both internally and externally.

This 42-39 win over Penn State is one for the fans – we guys and gals who have stood by and watched the vagaries of the Fates spin the Pitt football program around and blow it down Forbes Avenue like a tumbleweed.  That might still happen for time to time but it will be minor slings and arrows – not the heart-numbing drama we went through in the recent past.  I’ve a feeling we’ve left that behind.

Pitt deserved this win and the Administration, Athletic Dept and the coaches and players gave it to us.  A true team effort in many ways and not only on the field of play.  I’m not forgetting the fan’s part in the win either – Saturday’s was the most excited and loud Pitt crowd I have ever heard – and I’ll remind you I was at Pitt during our championship run.

Here – watch some again:

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POV’s Penn State Game Thread

“The thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.”   (Terry Pratchett)

That  sure applies to this game today doesn’t it?  With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the match this afternoon and all the emotions; good, bad and indifferent, it all revolves around a set of numbers up on a scoreboard at the end of the game. Those numbers are going to make some people ecstatic and will make others want to kick their dog.

Don’t do that.  Instead I invite you to my house to kick our two cats -” Joe” and “Pa”.

The final score will award bragging rights for one school and “Wait til next year you SOBs!” for the other. It’s going to be a good game to watch and let’s hope it is well-played, at least by Pitt, but everyone likes to see good solid competition by two teams battling each other out there.

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