As the Bulls return to practice and prepare for the game against UCONN in two weeks, the Pitt loss is still on our minds.
Everything went wrong for the team on Thursday night (please never schedule games on Thursday again).
The defense was awful. No one made a play, everyone was out of position and couldn't execute the gameplan, and at the end, they were beyond exhausted. Every time Pitt wanted 10 yards or more, they simply handed the ball off to Ray Graham and watched him break ankles and churn up the field.
The defense has to come back next week against UCONN. If the issue was being out of position for most of the game, that is something the coaches can fix. However, breaking arm tackles and being winded after the second series of the game, that is on the players. They will have to find themselves this week at practice and shut down the Huskies on the road if they want to keep Big East titles alive.
The offense put up numbers, but once again failed to get the touchdowns. Receivers ran wrong routes, the Pitt defense confused Daniels, and execution wasn't there. The Bulls need to put it together. They have the weapons (should get Love and T-Rex back too) so there is really no excuse for this team not to figure it out.
The UCONN game could be a breaking point for this team. With two weeks off to let the Pitt loss sink in and plenty of time to prepare for the Huskies, two scenarios could play out. One, the team could come out flat, play down to UCONN's level, and drop a game they should win. Or the team could come out hungry and angry (not yungry like the Bucs like to do) and take care of business and get a key Big East road win.
We have seen the team struggle over the years in Big East play, dropping heart breaking games and winning games they should have never been in. We will see what the team is made of next weekend.
This team plays up and down to opponents too much. There is no excuse to beat teams like Auburn and Kansas yet drop games to Pitt and UConn. It is unacceptable!
ReplyDeleteWell said. Against the big teams, they come out fighting (minus the Oregon game). In lower games, they play down to the competition. With that said, we aren't as good as we all hope they would be and Pitt has talent, but running over 300 yards on us, no excuse for that.
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