Friday night viewing of the Pitt and Penn State games truly was a Twilight Zone experience.
Pitt survived, 35-33, against Virginia Tech and Penn State got trounced, 34-13, by Northwestern. But, oh, the details of each game had to be seen to be believed.
Some random thoughts:
Regarding the controversial late field-goal miss by Virginia Tech, the highly touted kicker didn’t make it. The official standing directly beneath the left upright had the best view and got it correct. The best video I’ve seen, taken from behind the kicker and to his right, shows it clearly. Why so many people saw it differently has a scientific explanation, the parallax effect, which details why something appears to shift position against a background when viewing angles change. For a simple experiment, hold your thumb out against a background. View it with one eye closed, then switch eyes and the thumb appears to have moved. Substitute a football for your thumb and the goalpost for the background and you understand the reason for the field-goal debate.
The on-field, post-game rant by Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi had to be seen to be believed. His team had just surrendered 499 yards of total offense, failed miserably in terms of producing consistent offense, and needed four turnovers and that late field-goal miss to survive. Yet, Narduzzi was unhinged, challenging poll voters to “wake their ass up” and put Pitt in the Top 25. That will happen this week. Staying there becomes the challenge.
We picked Pitt to win this one, but didn’t feel good about it when Virginia Tech jumped to a 14-0 lead. In the end, former Penn State coach Big Game James Franklin appears to have taken his formula for losing showdown contests with him when he was exiled from Penn State and caught on at Tech.
Among the most oft-used sporting cliches is “it’s a shame someone had to lose this game.” In the case of this Pitt-Virginia Tech outing, it’s a shame one of these teams had to win. Pitt receivers dropped passes like the ball was radioactive, the Panthers offensive line spent much of the night struggling to pass protect or run block, and the Pitt defense offered slight resistance more often than not. Virginia Tech countered with gratuitous penalties, inability to hold on to the football, and a lot of premature celebration, including by the coach. For a time, Pitt’s star performer was its punter, which is not a good thing.
At the risk of sounding punny, Penn State hierarchy has to be stewing over first-year coach Matt Campbell after that humiliating loss to Northwestern Friday night in which the winners punished the Nittany Lions defense physically, rolling up 413 rushing yards and averaging 7.5 yards a crack. Considering Campbell’s salary, reportedly $70.5 million guaranteed over eight years, Penn State has bought itself one expensive can of soup.
Campbell panned his players in his postgame interview session, noting they had lacked attitude, toughness and effort in the game. Campbell did add a gratuitous mention that he put a lot of that on himself. No kidding. As Johnstown native and long-time Penn State assistant coach Tom Bradley was fond of saying, when you point the finger at someone else, the thumb points back a you.
I thought Penn State, which had risen as high as No. 13 in national rankings based on wins over hapless Marshall, Temple and Buffalo, would rally with a strong effort on the heels of that home meltdown loss to Wisconsin. Boy, was I wrong. The Nittany types awoke Saturday morning to find themselves alone at the bottom of the Big Ten.
Despite the current stench of a 3-2 record and a two-game losing streak vs. Big Ten Conference foes, the schedule fairies have gifted Penn State with many likely wins on their remaining slate. After playing USC this weekend at Beaver Stadium, a California team that tends not to travel well to the East, and playing on the road vs. a pedestrian Michigan team the following week (just watch the game clock closely there), Penn State faces a weak-sister schedule of Purdue, Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers and Maryland to finish the regular season. Note the absence of Ohio State, Iowa, Oregon. It’s not over for Penn State, it just feels that way to the fans.
