| 12 September 2011
Another week, another escape from an inferior opponent late.
Pitt's first drive was a highlight reel of issues that were pointed out during the Buffalo game. On the first play of the game, Sunseri took a sack after Jordan Gibbs missed his assignment. Pitt was able to recover and after a 4th and 6 penalty on Maine, went for it on 4th and short and ended with a Ray Graham touchdown.The celebration was short-lived, however, as Kevin Harper missed the extra point. Harper clearly has a good leg (he hit a 44 yarder later in the half), but he has to get this mental/accuracy issue down. As was pointed out to me on Twitter, there really aren't any other options at the position right now.
Defensively, Pitt shuffled personnel a bit. After a strong game last week at the Panther, Brandon Lindsey was inexplicably moved to defensive end. The new Panther linebacker was freshman EJuan Price. The end result was removing Myles Caragein from the majority of the defensive snaps. I understand getting the best front seven on the field together, but with talk last week of moving Price inside, I'm not sure I understand why the more glaring weakness wasn't addressed. The defensive was able to start with three straight 3-and-outs before giving up a touchdown on Buffalo's forth possession.
When Pitt got back on offense, the line apparently didn't get the memo. The three-and-out featured terrible blocking by the entire offensive line, resulting in a rushed, bad throw by Sunseri and ended with a jail-break through the middle of the line for a sack. For Buffalo, taking advantage of Pitt's offensive line was something they had planned for all week:
The line also had trouble with Maine's delayed blitz and a defensive stunt called "Steeler," in honor of Black Bears defensive coordinator Joe Rossi, a Pittsburgh Central Catholic graduate.
"We studied a lot of film and saw their (Pitt's) feet weren't the greatest," said sophomore defensive end Michael Cole, who had 2.5 sacks. "We were told to fly off the ball."
Graham said Pitt wasn't surprised by any of Maine's blitzes. He said they had practiced for them, and there was no excuse for the steady pressure.
"It was absolutely nothing they (Maine) were doing," Graham said. "We just didn't play good."
So that's where Pitt is right now - the defensive coordinator of an FCS school is licking his chops at the prospects of going against Pitt's line. And he was absolutely correct. Pitt gave up seven (7!!!) sacks, ONLY six of which can be attributable to the offensive line since one time Sunseri inexplicably sacked himself by running out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage.
Pitt was able to put eight more points on the board in the first half after a Ray Graham touchdown and Sunseri two point conversion, but even then, Pitt was only successful after being forced to go for it on 4th and 5.
In the third quarter, the defense played well, although they again failed to protect the underneath route. Freshman LaQuinten Smith got some time at middle linebacker, which I think will be positive thing. Sunseri threw his first (but not last) interception of the day, this time in the end-zone.
Sunseri threw his second pick of the day to start the fourth quarter. And that's when things got interesting. Former walk-on freshman Trey Anderson then came in the game and performed well, completing 5/7 passes leading to a Zack Brown touchdown run. The defense promptly gave the touchdown back and Anderson once again led Pitt on a potential scoring drive, only to see his efforts wasted by another missed Harper kick, this time from 39 yards.
Sunseri returned to the game and Pitt was eventually able to hang on, despite the sacks, near fumbles and interceptions.
Third Star: Aaron Donald, just a beast on the line
Second Star: Devin Street, 6 receptions for 74 yards
First Star: Ray Graham, 121 yards and 3 touchdowns
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