Has it come to that point?

Not to the point of being pissed or dejected, but rather to the fact that I try to find any positives I can from a game that I felt in my heart that we would lose? I used to get pretty depressed anytime Pitt lost, and I still do for basketball, but the football team is just taking it out of me. I feel terrible for the guys on the team. They all tried their hardest and did what they were assigned to do, but I feel that we are being held back by the coaches. Matt Cavanaugh pulled some tricks out of his sleeve and the offense looked pretty good. Granted, Navy's defense isn't superb by any means, but he gave an opportunity for our two key players (Bostick and Shady) to win the game. Shady and Bostick played nearly perfect games. Bostick had an under thrown pass, an int, and floated the ball on the last play of the game (EDIT: after review, he was being hit), but all night long he was hitting receivers in stride, moving around in the pocket, and doing everything required to win. I think tonight may be the night we look at as when Pat took over as the full time starter in his career at Pitt. As far as Shady goes, the kid is incredible. It was great to see his great effort rewarded by about 150 yards rushing and 3 td's. He came over and talked to us about our SuperShady sign during pregame, and he was so "Super" that ESPN put the sign on air and even referenced my bald self and the Cat Basket.

While the offense finally came around, the defense and special teams were awful. Dave Brytus had a few sail out of bounds on kickoffs which hurt. I can also say maybe kicking the ball out of bounds was a good idea because Navy seemed to have decent returns all night long.

I think this game was the icing on the cake for Rhoads. He had 10 days to prepare for this option offense and looked completely confused out there. From this point on, I will not be surprised to hear that Rhoads has either stepped down or has been relieved of his duties. Dorin played well at linebacker and we were able to see Chappell and Brown get some playing time later on in the secondary. It's amazing to think that after the MSU game, we were talking about how solid the defense was and how the offense needed just a spark to make us a very good team. Now with the offensive playbook changed, the defensive game planning is what is costing us.

I'm going to end this right now because I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow, Jones will give you a couple posts recapping the game, coaches, players, and etc, and I'll write some more tomorrow. As the great Dave Chappelle once said "We've looked at the area and have determined it is ripe for regime change". I'm not calling for Wanny, only Rhoads.

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~ The One and Only ~