What A Football Weekend It Was

Before Week 7 of the College Football and Week 6 of the NFL seasons kick off tomorrow night, I didn't want to let any additional time pass before commenting on the smorgasbord of football delights we all experienced this past weekend.  I cannot think of a weekend where we were treated to so many terrific games.

• For me, it began with watching undefeated Pitt take on the University of North Carolina Belichicks.  It began with Pitt reeling of a long time consuming drive in the first quarter to take a 7-0 led, and it looked like Pitt was going to control the game.  However, some head scratching clock management and play calling by Pitt at the end of the first half, combined with Coach Bill coming up with some defensive schemes that stymied Pitt in the second half led to Pitt suffering their first loss of the season, 21-17.   Post game quote of the weekend from the loquacious HC Pat Narduzzi was stating that North Carolina "has a pretty good coach over there."  Bill Belichick, a "pretty good coach"?  Keen observation there, Pat.
• There then followed two amazing rivalry games.  Oklahoma defeated #1 ranked Texas, 27-24, and in the prime time game, #2 Georgia defeated #6 Alabama, 20-17.  If you put a gun to my head, I wouldn't know which game I would say was better, and both were highly entertaining.
• There were lots of other significant college games.  Penn State loses to USC on White Out Night, heir third loss in a row, and one would think that the Matt Campbell Honeymoon is over in Happy Valley.  Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Indiana all win, and Kentucky upsets #10 LSU and their highly dislikable head coach, Lan Kiffin.
• One college football observation from The Grandstander.  I haven't seen every game he's played, of course, but when I have seen Arch Manning play for Texas, I am not seeing a reincarnation of his uncles and his grandfather.  Not sure that him being the overall Number One pick in the NFL draft is a sure thing.  Anyone with me on that?

Then the NFL took over on Sunday.

Jaylon Warren up the middle for a 50 yard touchdown run 

The highlight for me, of course, was the Steelers 34-22 win over the Colts.  The game featured two enormous touchdown plays by Jaylon Warren.  One was a check down pass from Aaron Rodgers that Warren broke for 80 yards, and the second was 50 yard burst where Warren ran right up the middle, virtually untouched.  I can't remember the last time a Steelers running back broke off a run like that.

Fun fact about this Steelers game.  Aaron Rodgers threw three TD passes in this one for the third consecutive game.  The only other Steelers QBs to do that were two guys you may know: Terry Bradshaw and Ben Roethlisberger.

The 4:30 game was the 49ers 32-29 win over the Seahawks.  The game was tremendous, and I can't with to see the rematch between these teams later this year.

The Sunday Night game was an 30-23 overtime win by the Ravens over the Falcons, and the week concluded with that unbelievable overtime 37-34 win by the Bills over the Rams that featured a fourth quarter where the two teams combined to score 35 points.  That was great for those who might have wagered (a'hem) on OVER 54.5 points for the game, a wager that seemed very much in doubt at the end of the third quarter.

Amid all of that there were some games that featured boneheaded clock management that caused the Eagles to lose to the Jags with only :01 second on the clock, this after the Eagles took the lead with only :08 seconds to play, and the Giants-Commanders game that ended in a 21-21 tie when Jayden Daniels called a running play with :12 left in OT and no time outs remaining that made it impossible for the Commies to clock the ball and attempt a game winning football.   People smarter than me are saying that these gaffes were fireable offenses for head coaches Nick Siriani and Dan Quinn.

Some big college games coming up this weekend: Ohio State at Indiana, Alabama at Tennessee, and Notre Dame at BYU are matchups between ranked teams.  There are no marquis matchups that jump out at you in the NFL this weekend, but there will no doubt be a few games that will keep us glued to our television screens.

Oh, and Major League Baseball's League Championship Series are taking place over this weekend as well.  It is a good time to be a sports fan.

I will close out with a look at Jaylon Warren sprinting down the sidelines on his 80 yard touchdown.

Jaylon Warren

AFC Offensive Player of the Week

Shirt Pocket Notes

Time to check the shirt pocket and catch up with some things rattling around in my cranium.  (Two Myron Cope references in one sentence!) 

The Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup competition between teams of golfers from the USA competing against golfers from Europe began last Friday.  As we were driving home from Massachusetts all day Friday, I, of course, was unable to see any of that day's competition.  By the time I got home late that evening, all I knew was that the European golfers were kicking the collective asses of the American team, and there was talk of some ugly behavior from the American galleries which apparently consisted of a bunch of loudmouthed obnoxious New Yorkers - the matches were being staged in Bethpage on Long Island - who had had way too much to drink.

My Saturday television watching was confined to college football, but I was aware that the drubbing of the USA golfers was continuing and that, if anything, the behavior of the galleries was even worse.  Someone had thrown a cup of beer at Rory McIlroy, and the female emcee of the event, who was hired by the PGA of America for this event was engaging in organized "F**k You" cheers aimed against the European golfers.  To its credit, the PGA fired this woman, but they also must share in the lion's share of the blame for the national embarrassment that happened.  They, after all, have ginned up this event over the years as a "war" between the competing sides.

At that point, I had no interest in watching the singles matches on Sunday, which turned out to be pretty compelling and the USA turned a total drubbing into a close 15-13 loss.  So, I didn't see a single stroke of the whole shebang, and I can't say that I'm sorry, given what a total black eye this gave to the USA and its sports fans.

No less an imposing golf figure than Tom Watson said it best:

No word from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue about the events that unfolded at Bethage, but I am guessing that the POTUS was probably okay with how it all came down.

College Football

Last weekend was a great one for college football with all kinds of terrific match-ups.  It began on Friday evening when the University of Virginia upset ranked Florida State in overtime in Charlottesville.  It was a terrific game, but it was marred at the end by this truly frightening scene.

This, of course, was the storming of the field by the UVA students when Florida State's fourth down pass fell incomplete in the second overtime of the game, sealing the win for Virginia.  As the game proceeded through the fourth quarter and the possibility of an upset win by UVA looked probable, you could just see how the crowd was building in the end zone, which is apparently a hillside with no barrier between it and the playing field?, and you just KNEW what was going to happen if the Cavaliers ended up winning.  It was, as I said, frightening, and it is a miracle that no one  - that we know about - was seriously injured or even killed.

Spirit, loyalty, and joy over a Big Win are all wonderful things, but scenes like this are not.  The University of Virginia was fined $50,000 by the ACC for allowing this to happen, but what's fifty grand in today's world of big time college football?  A college football podcast that I follow suggested this week that fines, and hiring a couple of more security guys in yellow shirts aren't going to stop this, and the guys on this pod suggested that one way that would surely stop it would be having the home team forfeit the game.  

I'd be all for that.

Saturday's schedule saw Pitt take 17-0 lead over Louisville only to see them blow it and end up losing 34-27.  They are not a good team and Pat Narduzzi didn't help on successive play calls on a 3rd and 2 and a 4th and 7 in the final quarter that were positively baffling.  If he didn't have a contract with a $70 million buyout, I think that he'd be out on the streets after this season.

And speaking of Narduzzi, just what exactly does he write in that spiral top notebook on the sidelines while he is, presumably, coaching a game?

The game to which I was most looking forward came on Saturday night when 6th ranked Oregon traveled to 3rd ranked Penn State.  It was highly anticipated and it was to be Penn State's traditional "White Out Night" to really get the juices flowing in Happy Valley.   No doubt about it, the scene and the atmosphere were electric:

Then the game started.   A "meh" first half produced a 3-3 score at intermission.  Oregon then overcame a 3-10 third quarter deficit by scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game and then winning 30-24 in two overtime periods.

James Franklin's record at Penn State against Top Ten ranked teams now falls to 4-21.  That is not a statistical aberration at this point, folks, and how hot will the seat be under his rump should (when?) the Lions lose to Ohio State again later this season?

Also, Drew Allar has now dropped off of my list of "Quarterbacks That I Would Like To See The Steelers Draft".

The NFL

At this point, I'm just resorting to bullet points:

• That was nice win for the Steelers in Ireland over the Vikings.  3-1 and in first place in the AFC North.
• D.K. Metcalf is a marvel.  Big, fast, and can really catch the ball.  That 82 yard pitch-and-catch TD from Aaron Rodgers was a marvel.  He should be targeted at least a half dozen times a game, and I am guessing that no one knows this better than Rodgers himself.
• The Ravens fall to 1-3, and appear to be a not-very-good team.  Long noted for their great defenses, they have been giving up so many points (133 in four games)  that you might even say that they "stink".  Ray Lewis and Ed Reed are distant memories at this point.  Oh, and now Lamar Jackson will probably miss a game or two due to injury.  I guess they can still turn it around, but they had better hurry.
• Those of you writing off the KayCee Chiefs who started 1-3 can put those thoughts on hold for the time being.  They still have the best QB in football, as Patrick Mahomes showed with five TD passes against the Ravens on Sunday.

I will close with one of my favorite images from the Steelers win in the Dublin Game.  DB DeShon Elliott celebrating his interception with some Irish river dancing in the end zone.

PITT WINS THE ACC CHAMPIONSIP, and Other Football Thoughts

 

Last night was another "This Is Why You Follow Sports" moment for fans (long-suffering?) of Pitt football, as we watched as the Panthers rolled to a 45-21 victory over Wake Forest to claim their first ever Atlantic Coast Conference Football Championship.  After a first quarter that appeared to be the beginning of a 100 total points game, Wake led 21-14.  It was the Panthers defense that then rose up and completely throttled Wake Forest from that point forward. Numerous sacks of the quarterback and four interceptions, one returned to the two yard line and one returned for a touchdown, led to Pitt's dismantling of the Demon Deacons.

The night also was showcase for quarterback Kenny Pickett, who threw for 258 yards and two TDs, and positively electrified the crowd, the announcers, and the TV audience on the fourth play off the game by running around end for 58 yards and the game's first touchdown.

It was the culmination of a season that will surely make Pickett a Heisman Trophy finalist, and a career that has seen him claim ownership of every single significant passing record in the history of Pitt football.   He was both the ACC's Offensive Player of the Year and Player of the Year in 2021.  He is a likely first round NFL draft pick, and he has given his name to an era of Pitt football: The Kenny Pickett Era.  Pitt will have one more game to play, probably the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.  In order to protect himself from possible injury, it is possible, and probably advisable, that Pickett will sit that one out, and if chooses to do so, I don't think that a single Pitt fan will begrudge him that choice.  I'm guessing, though, that from what I've read about him and seen of him over the past five years, he will be playing in Miami on January 1st.

A few years ago, someone asked me "What are your reasonable expectations of a college football team that you follow (in my case, Pitt)?"  My answer was that (a) when you watch them play, you would hope that they would have a reasonable chance of competing in every game that they play, (b) that you would hope that they win more games than they lose, (c) that they would be entertaining, and (d) you would hope that they would be competitive for their conference championship most years  and have a reasonable chance of actually winning the conference every five years or so.

Pitt did all of that in 2021, and gave us a season to remember.   Anything that happens in a Bowl game (which, except for the CFP games, have become pretty much meaningless) will be icing on the cake, and that 2021 ACC Championship Banner can hang forever at Heinz Field.

It's Why You Follow Sports.  Hail To Pitt!

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Yesterday was absolute Hog Heaven for fans of college football with Conference Championship games being played throughout the day.  Serving as the amuse-bouche  for the Pitt game for me was the Big XII title game at Noon and the SEC matchup at 4:00.

Baylor defeated Oklahoma State in the Big XII game, a game that served to convince me that neither of these teams deserve to be within sniffing distance of any CFP consideration.  It was an exciting game, but not all that good a one.

In the SEC, Alabama throttled undefeated, first ranked, and seven point favorite Georgia 41-24.  It was a game that undoubtedly sewed up the Heisman Trophy for Crimson Tide QB Bryce Young, and also a game that prompts the question, why would you ever - EVER - pick against a Nick Saban team in a big game?

Did you catch this amazing statistical graphic that CBS showed during the game?  In games where a Saban coached team has held a 14 point lead at any point in the game,  the teams have a record of 160-4.  Now it's 161-4.

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The CFP Committee will announce it's four finalists in about a half hour (it is 11:30 AM as I type this).  My guess is that Alabama will be #1 and Cincinnati will be #4.  Michigan and Georgia will be 2-3 or 3-2, not that that matters.  No way the Committee would want to see a Alabama-Georgia rematch in the first round, and why would they even want to allow for the possibility of that in the final?  I think inclusion of Notre Dame in the final four would be better and more attractive, but I also think that the sway that the SEC holds in college football will carry the day, and they will get two spots in th playoffs.

Let's hope for a Michigan win in the semis.  Can you imagine the hype a Nick Saban-Jim Harbaugh match up will generate?  Assuming that the Tide beats Cincy, of course.

One really good thing about his year's CFP, of course, is the fact that William Christopher Swinney will not be coaching in it.

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Before actual games were played this weekend, college football dominated the news this past week with two amazing coaching changes.  Lincoln Riley leaving Oklahoma for USC,

and Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame - NOTRE DAME!!!! - for LSU, where he immediately began speaking with a southern accent.

There may be college football programs bigger and more vaunted than Oklahoma and Notre Dame, but if there are, you can count them on the fingers of one hand.  There was a time, and it wasn't so long ago, that it would have been impossible to imagine a coach voluntarily leaving either of those schools to take a job at another school.

The times, they are a-changin'.

********

Now to the pros.  

The Grandstander has been remiss in posting his Grandstander Power Rankings.  There are reasons for that, not the least of them being the awful performances of the Steelers in recent weeks.  I was ready to do one yesterday, but at the last minute thought, to Hell with it; might as well wait until this weekend's games are finished, so look for a new GPR come Tuesday morning.

One aspect of the NFL in recent weeks that bears noting is the fact that the New England Patriots.  Led by rookie QB Mac Jones, a strong defense, and, of course, their always lovable and peerless coach, 

the Pats have won six games in a row, have an 8-3 record and a one game lead over the team that they will play on Monday night and once again two weeks from now, the Buff Bills. This will be the Game of the Weekend in the NFL, and I can't wait to watch it come Monday night with Peyton and Eli.

It's indeed a great time of year to be a football fan!!

Pre-Season GPR and College Football

One of the wildly popular features of this blog has been my weekly Grandstander Power Rankings for the NFL, wherein I rate the NFL as if it were college football - the Top Four teams only.  I usually begin issuing these after the sixth week of the NFL season in order to give the League (or as Booger McFarland would put it "our League") time to shake off early season kinks and let the dust settle, and that is what I shall do in 2020 as well, but what the hell, here's a pre-season look at the GPR.  Along about Week 6, I'll get serious with this, and we'll see how accurate I might have been.

1. Chiefs
2. Ravens
3. Saints
4. Titans

No real surprises there.

******

Now for college football.

Alabama to defeat Clemson for the National Championship in the CFP.  This comes after hours upon hours of reading voluminous scouting reports and analyzing hundreds of hours of game films of schools throughout the Power Five.  It was tough call, but I figured, BE BOLD in my predictions!

I'm not going to wade into the topics of the decision of the Big Ten and the PAC 12 to postpone their seasons.  That's been discussed and over-discussed, and we can always revisit it later, especially (a) if schools continue to cancel and postpone games, which has already happened with some frequency, and (b) if the Big Ten caves to financial and political pressures and backtracks on their decision not to play.

So the, let's just stick to the local scene and the Pitt Panthers.

Pre-pandemic, all signs pointed to 2020 being the year when all of Pat Narduzzi's building of a program would come to fruition.  The defense would be experienced and very good, and the offense would be led by senior QB Kenny Pickett.  The thought of a possible canceled season was quite frustrating to Pitt fans, because it would be yet another stroke of bad luck for Pitt.  You know, "THIS is the year we were really going to be good, and now we can't play."

Well, Pitt and the ACC are going to play, and it begins in three days against Austin Peay at Heinz Field.  There then follows a revamped ten game ACC schedule, which includes a games against Clemson and its sanctimonious coach and Notre Dame and its grumpy coach.  No divisions in the ACC this year, and the top two teams will meet for the Conference Championship in December.   However, as I alluded to a few paragraphs back, we are already seeing some college games being postponed or cancelled due to COVID concerns, so that while we are pretty sure that Pitt and the ACC and other conferences will begin their seasons, there is no guarantee that they will finish them.

Will Pitt be in the mix?  I have no idea, and the only prediction that I will make is that if Pitt turns in another 6-5 or even a 7-4 season, the heat on HCPN will be turned up considerably.

Sadly, there will be no one in attendance at Heinz Field to see the Panthers this year, at least at the beginning of the season, and even if fans are allowed to gather at some point, it will be without me and my fellow ticket holders in our group.  We have elected to roll our 2020 payment towards our tickets in 2021, hoping that circumstances will once again allow large gatherings in our society.

#H2P

To Absent Friends - Johnny Majors

Head Coach Johnny Majors

In his Salad Days at Pitt

Another all-time great in Pittsburgh sports has left the Departure Lounge today.  John Majors, two time head football coach at Pitt, died today at the age of 85, but his legacy stretches far beyond the University of Pittsburgh.  

The son of football coach, Majors was an All-American at the University of Tennessee.  In 1956, he finished second to Notre Dame's Paul Hornung for that year's Heisman Trophy, and after a stint in the Canadian Football League, he embarked on a coaching career that would land him head coaching positions at Iowa State, Pitt, and Tennessee, his alma mater.  His career record was 185-137-10.  He is in the College Football Hall of Fame, and he won four separate Coach of the Year Awards over the course of his career.  But since this is a Pittsburgh based Blog, let's talk about his time in this little corner of the sports world.

In 1973, he was hired by Pitt to rescue what was a moribund (to put a kind face on it) football program.  To do so, he scoured the country and brought in over 100 scholarship players for that first season (you could do that in the NCAA back in those days), one of whom was to become one of the greatest Pitt players ever and its only Heisman Trophy winner, Tony Dorsett.

He also changed the colors, logo, and font of the uniforms and helmets.

Subsequent decisions over the years to change colors, logos, and fonts have so roiled up the Pitt fan base that it probably cost at least one athletic director his job.

Anyway, the "Major Change In Pitt Football" that was predicted did occur and culminated in a 12-0 record and a National Championship for Pitt in 1976, the year Dorsett won his Heisman Trophy.

Following that magical season, Majors left for his "dream job" at Tennessee, where he coached for 16 seasons, won 116 games, and a couple of SEC titles.  By then Pitt Football had again fallen on hard times, and Majors, after being eased out in Knoxville, came back to Pitt as HC.  This "Back to the Future" stint didn't work out nearly as well: four losing seasons and a 12-32 record (as opposed to 33-13-1 from 1973-76) before he stepped aside.  No one at Pitt ever seemed to hold that second administration record against him, and Majors remained a part of the Pitt family right up until the end.  I honestly don't think that I've ever heard anyone say anything bad about him.

A couple of interesting notes I discovered while researching for this post.  One, a football player at Tennessee named Harvey Lee Yeary became fast friends with Majors during their time at Knoxville.  When Yeary decided to become an actor, he adopted the name of Lee Majors after his football playing buddy.  Two, Wikipedia lists a coaching tree for Johnny Majors that lists twenty-seven men who went on to become head coaches in college and the pros.  I won't list them all, but among them are Jimmy Johnson, Dom Capers, Jon Gruden, Jackie Sherrill, Dave Wannstedt, and Ron Zook.  Three, he has a street named after him, Johnny Majors Drive, on the campus at UT where the football team's practice facility is located.

Quite a legacy.

RIP Johnny Majors.

The Week 13 GPR , plus Pirates and Pitt Thoughts

As you have all no doubt been on the edge of your seats awaiting this, here are the Grandstander Power Rankings for the NFL after Week #13:

1. Ravens
2. Seahawks
3. Saints
4. 49'ers

Knocking at the door....Bills, Chiefs, Packers, Patriots, Vikings.

No change in the Top Four teams from last week, but the Saints and 49'ers swapped places.  I wanted to put the Steelers as a team "knocking at the door", but I'm just not ready to do that quite yet.  If I was going on defense alone, they might be in the Top Four.

My pal John Frissora has his FGE top four as follows:

1. Saints
2. Ravens
3. Seahawks
4. Patriots

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The Pittsburgh Pirates were in the news last week with the announcement that Derek Shelton will be their new manager.

In a manner that was so typically Pirates-like, they made this announcement on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving when most people, if they were thinking about sports at all, they were thinking about football, and they did it via a press release, and Shelton wasn't even here in town for the announcement.  

Way to get the maximum publicity bang for the buck, Bucs.  Why didn't they just wait until Christmas morning to make the announcement?

Shelton will be formally introduced to the media and to Pittsburgh at a presser on Wednesday (tomorrow) of this week.

Shelton spent the last two years as bench coach of the Twins and, prior to that, was the hitting coach of the Rays for several years.  He combines, according to the press release, both old school baseball knowledge and familiarity with new age analytics/metrics 21st century baseball acumen.  Personally, I am glad the the Pirates went outside of the box and brought in a new face and not some retread who has been hired-and-fired by several teams (Jeff Bannister, e.g.).  Is he the right guy for the Pirates?  Who knows?  

The former Best Management Team In Baseball has now been overhauled and replaced and the BMTIB 2.0 (Williams, Cherington, Shelton) is now on board, but Bob Nutting is still the guy steering the ship and controlling the purse strings.  One thing that the Nutting Administration has done is make me a complete and total cynic when it comes to the performance of the Pirates.  I hate that this is what they have turned me into, but there you are.  I hope, I really, really hope for good things ahead for the Pirates, but I am no longer accepting anything from 115 Federal Street on blind faith.  They've got to show it to me.

********

Pitt ended it's 2019 football season by laying two colossal eggs, a 28-0 did-they-even-show-up? loss at Virginia Tech (when a chance for the division title was still there) and a 26-19 loss to Boston College at home on Senior Day. They finish the season at 7-5 with some nondescript to-be-announced bowl game ahead of them.

This is the year-by-year W-L record for Pitt in the Pat Narduzzi Era...8-5, 8-5, 5-7, 7-7, 7-5 = 35-29 (.555).  In ACC play, they have fared slightly better under HCPN...6-2, 5-3, 3-5, 6-3, 4-4 = 24-17 (.585).  

They have won more games than they have lost, they have more often than not put an entertaining product on the field, and there was that ACC Championship game appearance last year, but... Yes, there is always a "but", and it was posed by Joe Starkey and Ron Cook on The Fan yesterday, and that is..."Has the Pitt program improved or moved forward under the HCPN regime?"

I guess it all comes down to what you want your University and its athletic teams to be.   I wonder if even the staunchest Panthers Fanatic out there would like his or her University to surrender its soul to the likes of Nick Saben or Urban Meyer and all that that entails just to have a string of double digit wins seasons.  Be careful what you wish for.

And bring on the Mienecke Car Care Pizza Pizza Weedeater Bowl!

Sunday Morning Quick Hits.....

Pitt gets into the win column with a (as Myron Cope used to put it) desultory 20-10 win over Ohio University.  A win is a win, and Pitt surely needed one as they figure to be big underdogs the next two weeks.  However, on the entertainment meter, that game yesterday at Heinz Field scored pretty low.

On the plus side, the Ohio University marching band, The Marching 110, was terrific!  Really.

*******

One of the reasons for that could be due to the fact that the Pitt game was totally hijacked by the news, delivered via social media on everybody's cell phones, of the release by the Oakland Raiders of that well known Steelers former WR, Antonio BrowNarcissist. That news completely inundated the crowd at Heinz Field and completely sucked all of the air out of the game being contested between Pitt and OU on the field. 

It was, everyone agreed, a completely remarkable turn of events.

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But however crazy those turn of events were, they were, incredibly, topped only a few hours later when now free agent BrowNarcissist was signed by none other than the New England Patriots. 

I don't want to go all Oliver Stone here, but it stretches all credulity to think that there WASN'T any tampering and hinky doings going on behind he scenes among BrowNarcissist, his sleazy agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and, of course, the evil empire of Bob "Happy Endings" Kraft and Bill Belichick.  Surely the Commissioner's Office needs to look into the machinations that went into this farce.

And now tomorrow's highly anticipated nationally televised Sunday Night opener between the Steelers and the Patriots will be hijacked by constant close-ups of BrowNarcissist standing on the New England sidelines with all of his new best buds on the Patriots.  It'll be sickening.  

Of course, if the Steelers can only manage to beat the Patriots......well, how sweet would THAT be?

Pitt 24 - Miami 14

This is why you follow sports.

Pitt was 4-7.  They had just lost two consecutive games that were there for the taking.  The third year head coach was for the first time in his tenure coming under fire, and there were reports that he was sniping at the new Athletic Director (the one who didn't hire him), and the team would not be going to a bowl game.  Now, on the day after Thanksgiving, they would be playing out the string in a half empty stadium against the University of Miami.

Yes, Miami, who was 11-0, ranked #2 in the CFP, were headed to the ACC Championship game, and who would be a serious threat to win it all in the College Football Playoff.  The same Miami who had dismantled the third ranked team in the CFP on national television just two weeks ago.  The same Miami that had everything to play for against a team that, if you called them an "also ran", you would be being kind to them.

Nope, no way that Pitt was going to win this one or even hang close to Miami.  The only question would be just how large the margin of victory would be.  Hell, if the weather had been bad today, I might have opted to just skip this one and stay home.

You know what happened.  Pitt, with freshman quarterback Kenny Pickett making his first start for the Panthers, led 10-7 at half, bumped it to 17-7 in the third quarter, and seemingly sealed the the deal with an amazing 22 yard naked bootleg run for a TD by Pickett with under three minutes to play that made it 24-7. I say "seemingly" because, of course, Pitt never makes it easy for the fans, as they allowed a long TD pass and then saw Miami recover an onside kick when the ball took a one-chance-in-a-hundred bounce.  However, a fumble recovery two plays later gave Pitt the ball and THAT sealed the deal.  There were no fluke or freaky plays involved in this one.  It was complete and thorough Pitt victory, and it ended what has been a fairly sour season on a very sweet note.

Miami may still make it into the CFP, and if they do, they could very well win the whole thing.  And there are still questions hanging over a lackluster season-long performance by Pitt.  However, neither of those circumstances take away the euphoria experience by Pitt's players and coaches, and fans, especially this rowdy bunch in Section 535.

Yep, a game like this one is why you follow sports.

A No Football Weekend

No Pitt football yesterday, no Steelers football today.  Talk about a lost weekend, but it prompts some Random Thoughts from The Grandstander.....

At the beginning of the season, you would certainly signed up for a 6-2 first half of the season from the Steelers, although you would have never predicted that those two losses would be to the Bears and the Jaguars.  Still, with five of the remaining games at home, the schedule looks to be much in the Steelers favor, to the extent that a twelve win season looks to be attainable.

One thing that needs to be reversed in this second half is better, and I hate to use this term, Red Zone Production.  How many times have the Steelers been in First and Goal situations and have had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns?  Seems like about a million times, right?  That trend really needs to change.

I am also concerned about Ben Roethlisberger's performance this year.  It's not that he's been bad (throw out that freak five interception game aberration against Jacksonville), but he has just appeared to be just a bit "off" from his past seasons' capabilities.  One can hope that he can shake it off, but there is a fine line between being great and being ordinary, and perhaps at age 35 and in his 14th NFL season, Ben has come up to that line.  He spoke of retirement after last season, and maybe the end is coming.  Steelers fans can hope that both he and the team can summon in all up over these last eight games and make a run to the Super Bowl, which I predicted and I will stand by that prediction here at the halfway mark.

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Pitt now sits at 4-6 and needs to go 2-1 (North Carolina, @Virginia Tech, Miami) in order to go 6-6 and be bowl eligible.  Personally, at this point in the Narduzzi Era, I was hoping for more than merely scraping to go 6-6 and getting an invitation to some WhoCares Bowl.  I was also disappointed to see that Pat Narduzzi found it necessary to take a shot via Twitter last week after Penn State's loss to Ohio State last week.  Seems that HCPN should be tending to his own team, and at least contending for the championship of his own conference  before engaging in such schoolyard behavior.

As for that bowl eligibility, I see a win over NorthCarolina and loss to Virginia Tech.  It will all come down to that final home game against currently undefeated Miami.  I'm thinking that Pitt does not go bowling this year.  There goes those vitally important 15 extra practice sessions that coached love so much.

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Speaking of boorish behavior among coaches, Penn State got dealt a dose of humility with its second consecutive loss yesterday, this time to Michigan State.  I see in the paper this morning that James Franklin stated that perhaps his team was too concerned with things like national rankings and getting into the College Football Playoffs, and that maybe they weren't "mature enough" to handle things.  Since he, Franklin, was foremost in voicing such opinions, I hope that he was including himself among those not being mature enough to handle it, but he probably wasn't.

Franklin has convinced me that he is a pretty good football coach, but like many such coaches, he's not an easy guy to like, unless he coaches "your" team.  As such, not a lot of people outside of central Pennsylvania are going to feel too bad about this sudden two game losing streak for Franklin's Lions.

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And speaking of unlikeable coaches, how about Urban Meyer and  Ohio State getting pasted in Iowa yesterday?  With this second loss of the season, this should take Ohio State out of any talk of being one of the four teams in the CFP this year.   The Committee seemed to automatically include Ohio State int e Playoff last year, and that was wrong (and, yes, the team that should have been there was Penn State).  It is not Ohio State's birthright to be there, and it looks like they won't be this year.  Although, I guess that the Buckeyes could still win the Big Ten Championship, so who knows?

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Right now it appears that all signs are pointing to the SEC Championship Game, most likely between Alabama and Georgia, as the Game of the Year.  Both are undefeated and are ranked 1 and 2.  Unless that game is a rout for the winner, it is likely that both teams will make the CFP, and a rematch will be possible in the playoffs.  That never usually works out well.

Speaking of Sports....

It's been awhile since I've commented on the sporting scene, so let's play a little catch-up, shall we.....

Two weeks ago, the Steelers lost, badly so, to the Jax Jaguars, and were headed on the road to play the undefeated KayCee Chiefs.  It was looking grim, and a poor performance against the Chiefs could have sent the Steelers season in the wrong direction.  

What followed was convincing win against the Chiefs, and that was then followed with an even more convincing win over the Cincinnati Bengals.  Not coincidentally, both wins featured strong performances by this guy...

Le'Veon Bell

....who may very well be the best running back in the NFL.  Bell has shown knucklehead tendencies in the past, but it cannot be disputed just how good he is.

Both of these past two Steelers wins have also been highlighted by strong defensive performances, and now, just two weeks after that woeful game against the Jags, the team appears to be one of the strongest in the NFL.  Of concern, however, is the Steelers mystifying inability to turn First and Goal opportunities into touchdowns and settling for field goals instead.  It hasn't hurt them too much so far, but there will come a time, against a strong opponent, when I fear that that deficiency will bite them in the posterior.  Until then, though, let's enjoy the ride.

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Is there anything that can cure Steelers Sluggishness more that playing against the Cincy Bengals?  Once again, the Bengals turned into the Bungles when playing the Steelers yesterday.  At no time was this more apparent than at the end of the first half.  The Steelers have the ball inside their own twenty-five yard line, under two minutes to play, and only one time out.  What happens? A Bengals penalty for having twelve men on the field gives the Steelers a crucial first down, and that was then followed up by a forty yard pass interference penalty that gave the Steelers the ball on the Bengals five yard line.  And all of that was followed by a Bengal second half where Andy Dalton and his mates redefined the term "hapless".

As I have often said, Death, Taxes, and Unbelievable Screw-ups by the Cincy Bengals.  Three absolutes in life.

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Two weeks ago, I sat in Heinz Field and watched Pitt get thoroughly beaten by North Carolina State and fall to 2-4.  Really, there was nothing positive to take from that game.  Poor line play, which led to no running game and inept quarterback play.  It was discussed among my ticket group that it was possible that the Panthers might not win another game all season.

What happens?  Pitt travels to Duke and lays a beat down on the Blue Devils, a win that featured a 200+ yard rushing performance from Darrin Hall.  Go figure.

Pitt now has to go 3-2 the rest of the way to become bowl eligible.  Can they do it?  I suppose it is possible, but I give it a less than 50/50 chance unless some spark is lit at the quarterback position.  Makes you realize how good a college QB Nate Peterman was.

Anyway, bowl eligibility now becomes the Panther goal, but how good are you really going to feel about a 6-6 season?

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The World Series begins tomorrow night!  Once the premier sporting event in all of America, the World Series is still a pretty big deal to me, and this year's battle between the Dodgers....

Dodgers defeat Cubs

and Astros....

Astros defeat Yankees

certainly has the possibility to be an exciting one.  

Both teams won over 100 games, and the Dodgers, save for an inexplicable 20 for so game stretch game in late August, steamrolled through the regular season and the NL Playoffs.  Likewise, the Astros blew through the AL West in the regular season, and won a thrilling LCS in seven games over the Yankees.

(Before I go on, a word about the Yankees.  They are young and they are good, and unlike Yankees teams from the George Steinbrenner/Billy Martin Era, they are hard not to like. [With the exception of Aroldis Chapman; I can't see myself ever liking him.] With guys like Judge, Bird, Sanchez, and Severino, they have the makings of a team that we shall be seeing in the post-season for years to come.  They also have a really good manager in Joe Girardi. They'll be back.)

The Astros and Dodgers.  Both teams have terrific starting pitching and terrific hitting.  Both have deep benches.  The Dodgers have an absolutely unbelievable bullpen, and that is where I give them a significant edge over the Astros.  The Astros, given the depths that the team was in earlier in the decade, and given what the City of Houston has experienced this past summer, will be the easier team for which to root, but I think that the bullpen will be the edge that will give the Dodgers the ultimate victory.

In my Pirates preview post of April 2, 2017 (you can look it up), I ended with the following sentence:

The Los Angles Dodgers will defeat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

Okay, I had the AL team wrong, but I will stay with that original sentiment and call it a Dodgers win in seven games.  As always, watch but don't bet.