Pitt Coach Dave Wannstedt held his weekly press conference Tuesday at a fish fry down at the local Fire Hall 976. Dave talked about the Bowling Green game and about the upcoming game against Buffalo. Ice cold IC Light was served and you had a choice between coleslaw and fries. Pierogies were an option as well.
On the Bowling Green:
"It was a great effort by the staff and the players on Saturday. We almost pulled off an impossible upset over Bowling Green. They are a very solid program in the MAC. We fought hard, but we came up short in the end. We had some costly turnovers, some missed opportunities, and a missed field goal. We had it going when we were up 14-0. Once Bowling Green came back, we knew it was going to be a battle the rest of the way. We played hard, but we just fell short. That's all there is to it. "
On the game plan:
"We wanted to keep the game plan simple. We didn't want to force anything or be too daring because who knows how the game would have really went. We figured if we kept what we did on offense simple and let the defense dictate the game, then everything would have worked out. We had a new quarterback leading the offense since Matt graduated. Tony Dorsett is now in the pros collecting a paycheck. When you lose those two coming off a national championship from two seasons ago, it can be a challenge to bounce back. We decided five to ten yard passes would be the key, and we would take our chances on whether Oderick Turner could catch a football.
We also had some 4th down situations at around the 35 yard line and we could have went for it. That's not always the best option. We wanted to make this game interesting so we just decided to punt instead."
On making adjustments:
"Adjustments? What are those? We don't know what those are. You guys are thinking way to ahead to the future. We had a good game plan, but we just didn't execute. We turned the ball over way too many times and we didn't block well. Joe Thomas is still doing his Michael Jackson moonwalk impersonation and he's gotten pretty good at it. We did decide to blitz. Blitzing is a new thing for us and figured we'd try it. It did work, but that's not how to coach football."
On the Buffalo game:
"This one should be a big test for us. Buffalo runs a no-huddle offense and they have a good coach in Marv Levy. Jim Kelly is one hell of a quarterback, they have a speedy back in Thurman Thomas, and Andre Reed is a big play receiver. Their defense worries you as well. Bruce Smith and Shane Conlan will be players we'll have to watch out for. I figure we'll keep the game plan simple again and just move the ball one yard at a time. I don't want to overwhelm the players too much. Well that's it for now. I will see everyone at the game on Saturday. Right now, I need a cold Ahrn City.
No comments:
Post a Comment