Good win.....lots of positives, some negatives.

[PSU Soupy]

Number 1 good win.....for some reason I was nervous this week about this game.....2nd half was as relaxed as I have watched a PSU Game in some time.

First pass play of the game...Trace hits Holland for a nice gain.....JJ was 5 yards past the deepest Pitt DB and would have walked in for a touchdown. Still a good play.

Menet got better as the game went on....he was late recognizing a LB stunt that got QB sacked.

2nd half the interior of our OL was taking care of the DL and getting to the 2nd level as well as any PSU line in past 10 years....not sure if this is due to us being better or Pitt just not being very stout up front.

Nervous about special teams this year but they have looked very solid our return game is excellent with KJ on kickoffs and DeAndre on punt returns......Love watching Thorpe on kickoff returns he is blowing up people and he works getting down field. Punting was excellent yesterday and the FG was not needed but the long FG was close and the kickoffs and extra points were excellent. Not sure that I would have tried the long field goal in those conditions.

PSU had some defenses like this one when Coach Shoop was defensive coordinator.....the DL gets good penetration...but if the RB or QB can avoid the first wave there is a void as the LBers especially in the first half were late or wrong with their pursuit so if the RB can make the DL miss with the there were opportunities for big runs. 2nd half this seemed to be somewhat corrected and should get corrected with more reps.

Shariff Miller, Matos, Shaka, all played well and were getting penetration most of the game.....

 

[Tri-Power65]

First pass play of the game...Trace hits Holland for a nice gain.....JJ was 5 yards past the deepest Pitt DB and would have walked in for a touchdown. Still a good play.

Big assumption that JJ would have actually caught the ball.

 

[novaclassof90]

Biggest 2 issues for me going forward is the LB play vs. the run and the drops by WRs. Weird that the drops are coming from the upperclassmen, Thompkins and Johnson. They dropped 5 combined.

 

[psuro]

I think the area have so far, been serviceable. For the most part they have caught passes their way and seemed to provide reasonable blocking. No superstars but they may not need to be.

 

[psu skp]

Thought your post was about Godwin (Chris), now a Buccaneer's WR.

Touchdown today in a close win. Carl Nassib also picked up by TB..

 

[tboyer]

Pitt was undermanned but it is still good to see PSU mostly dominating the LOS on both sides of the ball. They need big improvement every single week on OL and DL, and this week they got it.

It's great to see PSU running inside -- that has been missing from the offense for a really long time now.

Sharif Miller is playing like an all-B1G player that he is, and Gross-Matos is playing like a legitimate B1G defensive end. There was a lot of progress from the D-tackles this week -- they totally wore down the Pitt OL by the 2nd half and I thought that might have been the biggest factor in the game. Pitt couldn't run the ball, and then they couldn't protect their QB, and that's why they had to punt so much. Their punter's struggles just made things worse, but the fact is the Pitt offense didn't cross the 50 the entire 2nd half.

I really think the schedule lines up well for them. They get a game against what is really a pretty good Kent State team. Looks like they're somewhere between App. State and Pitt so it's not a walkover. Then they have to play on the road in Champaign, and Illinois is looking better this year so that is another challenge. So by the time they play Ohio State they will have played 4 real football games and no joke teams. Which is just what they need to have any chance Sept. 29.