Pittsburgh

A normal sandwich or salad is not good enough in Pittsburgh. No, they have to put fries and slaw in the sandwich - not next to it - in it. Six inch thick widowmakers between huge slabs of white bread... and for the "health-conscious", you get salads with steak and fries strewn all over the green crunchy background noise. We went to a church that was wonderfully converted into a Brewpub, and because taking stairs to work in this city was deemed too difficult, the gentry of Western Pennsylvania made ginormous human outdoor lifts for the poor to travel to their job every day. I would guess the average lifespan of a Pittsburgh native is about 36. The steel city denizens are generally fat, drunk and happy. Count the garnet & gold visitors as part of the honorary club on Monday night...

It certainly did not start off as a party.  Our new DC was as perplexed as a lifeguard in the Sahara. We expected some initial confusion, and we got it. The front seven were clearly thinking and not playing and coincidentally very few of these young men are at FSU on academic scholarships. Pitt's only talented wideout was left all alone on consecutive 3rd down conversions and our safeties were caught so far inside that we had no one to stop the reverses. Given all this mental midgetry, I only saw only one item of real concern going forward. We could not hold the edge.

This defense is not like anything we have seen at FSU. It is a base 5-2 and our interior is tremendous. When Timmy Jernigan was not double-teamed, he made the play. He is a crazed dog and the football is smothered in gravy. The edge guys in this D are hybrid ends like Hicks, Jones and Edwards, and they simply did not get the job done. Teams are going to run so many sweeps at us, we will have broom marks until we figure out how to shed blocks and force these guys back inside. Good gawd, how about Sammy Watkins flying around the corner in Death Valley a dozen times. I shudder...And, we have to do this without safety help. Speaking of safeties, it is a shame that Terrence Brooks had so many Primanti Bros. sandwiches pregame, because he could not get the grease off his hands. I think he dropped at least 2 interceptions in addition to the one he did corral, thanks to the ground for shoving it into his well lubricated gut. Obama needs to call Pruitt to see if he can get congressional approval on using Joyner as a missile to Syria. Pitt never saw him coming, and after he was done, natives were leaving their Heinz homeland in droves like refugees. I also loved the confident play of true freshman Jalen Ramsey. He is a really big kid at corner and tackles like a LB.  If we can teach him to be physical on the line to wideouts as they break, he could be yet another incredible weapon in a loaded secondary.

Well, I guess our quarterback played ok. I forgot his name, but wait ESPN is on and since they mention him every 39 seconds, it should come across the ticker soon. There it is...Winston, I remember now. His feet blew me away. Pocket collapsing, and he calmly stepped into throws across the middle. Runs into one of our backs (and that happened at least three times), and he gently floats to the side - head downfield - and his feet let his shoulders square into an accurate throw. Composure and poise define great quarterbacks. It is why we stuck with that #17 character in the early 90's when he was giving away gifts to the enemy like the apple stand at the Devil's Fair. However, since there are roughly a gillion articles out there today on young Jameis, I will focus on the other spokes in the wheel. KB looked and played great. He is obviously thinner and his route running was terrific. Congrats to Lawrence Dawsey for having a game with zero drops from his troops. Rashad saved our QB's only real risky toss by ripping it out of the defenders hands and making it a 30 yard gain. On the next play, the demoralized DB just lagged after him like a Geisha and let #80 walk into the end zone.
If you were at home playing the "Drink when they mention Jack Nicklaus" game, you were hurting on Tuesday morning. Young NOL had himself a time in Arnold Palmers backyard.

Our OL depth was proven as a valid concern when Tre Jackson went out early. If poor Reuben Carter was asked by the police to identify his opponent in a lineup, he would ask him to turn around so he could see his back. Love the Duck Dynasty beard that our center was sporting...may have inspired what I thought was his best game as a Nole. Pitt has a good run defense and I am hoping that we continue to run right downhill in the next few weeks, because I loved what I saw from our backs. Devonte hits the hole with purpose and JWJ is just a load. I was also very impressed with Chad Abram at fullback. In addition to his lovely Mike Alstott neck gear that makes him look like he is 320 pounds, he showed some nifty feet and a good set of hands.

Fortunately, we did not have a huge sample size from our punt team, but when asked to pin the other boys inside the 20, he did so. Our new young placekicker did a marvelous job on his kickoffs, which we did have a Scarborough size sample of. Excited to see how much Kenny Shaw improves our punt return in the next 5 weeks as we maneuver through the ice cream social part of our schedule.

See you in Tally for the opener in two weeks!