Report Card and Game Balls @Pittsburgh

Here's my report card and Game Balls to give out for yesterday's regular season finale win @Pittsburgh

Special Teams wise, we force a turnover on the opening kickoff, when Patty forces a fumble and we score 3 plays later. Of our 4 penalties yesterday, just one on this unit, (the block in the back on Walter in the 1st quarter on a Kick Return by Jamal). Matty had a solid game yesterday with 2 FGs (one from 29 in the 1st, and the other from 39 in the 4th). Another solid return game with 92 yards of total return, like last game, all on KR's. What a game from Patty overall. it was rock solid with 3 of his 4 punts being inside the 20 and zero touch-backs. On Kickoffs, he was good there. The Kick Return Defense in my opinion, regressed yesterday, allowing 176 yards of returns (all on KR's). Garrett Kidd had a very good game, recovering a fumble and making a tackle. We started drives on Average from our own 30 and Pitt started drives from their own 25, which is still ok, but we could still do better pushing the average back a little more.   Grade: B

Offensively, we were outstanding. we had 476 yards of total offense. 296 yards passing 180 yards rushing. The big games here on the ground came from Stacy and Gus the Bus with 73 and 64 yards respectively. We had contributions from Dallas and Eduardo. We had a big and historic game out of Hurns here having 173 yards on 9 catches and finished the regular season with 1,183 yards, the first since Andre Johnson in 2002 to go over the 1,000 yard mark for receiving in a season. Stacy had a big game as well with 73 yards receiving on 3 catches, and 2 TDs. Very solid game from Stephen here going 17-28 296 yards, 3 TD, but the big numbers are 0 INT and wasn't sacked at all. However, that said, we still need to be better and clean up those silly mistakes. Of the 4 penalties yesterday, 3 were on the offense (Two false starts (one on Ereck, and the other on Stacy), and the holding call on Danny). What a job by the OL, not allowing a sack in this game and giving Morris time in the pocket to throw and opening holes in the running game. Bottom line, ok, but this type of performance won't cut it in a bowl game vs a very good opponent, and especially not going 4-11 (36%) on 3rd Down conversions. Need to do a better job on 3rd down conversions. Grade: B+

Defensively, we forced a turnover (Pick). The pick was by Artie. However, we did allow 501 yards of total offense to a so-so Pitt team, and we allowed another 100 yard rushing game from an individual standpoint (Bennett with 141 yards on 21 carries and 1 TD). In the 1st half, we allowed 104 yards rushing, and 109 passing. At times we made Tom Savage look like a Heisman candidate. In the 2nd half, we allowed 116 yards rushing, and 174 yards passing (147 yards alone in the 4th Quarter). It did step up and make the plays that had to be made. I seem like a broken record here, but again, lack of a pass rush reared its ugly head as we only had 1 sack, their receivers had nice games as a team (Boyd had 98 yards on 9 receptions, and a TD). Pitt on 3rd downs were 6-14 (43%). We did better on 3rd down Defense, but we can do better there. However, we forced Pitt into 3 three and outs. The good part here was that of the 4 penalties we had in this game, none were on the D. We still allowed a little too many X-Plays yesterday (namely the 45 yarder by Bennett on Pitt's first TD). Again, against a good team that we'll face in a bowl game (likely either Louisville in Orlando, or an SEC team in Atlanta [Texas A & M or LSU], those types of errors come back to bite you. Still a work in progress here. Grade: C-

Now, to Game Balls. This week, I'm going to give out four game balls. 

1. Garrett Kidd - 2 tackles, 1 fumble recovery
2. Pat O'Donnell - 4 punts, 3 inside the 20, no touchbacks. 1 FF.  
3. Allen Hurns - 9 receptions, 173 yards (1,000 yard season, just the 4th in CANES history to do that)
4. Stacy Coley - 171 all-purpose yards, 3 TDs (73 rushing, 73 receiving, 25 KR yards).
5. Stephen Morris - 17-28 296 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, sacked 0 times. 

Overall, we got the big lead, but we again got sloppy. In the end, we again kept grinding and got it done. That being said, again there were still some ME's (Mental Errors), that still need to be fixed, namely the penalties, which are still issues that have to be fixed. We don't know when our next game is. That will depend on what happens today (Saturday 11/30) in both Chapel Hill and Charlottesville. Regardless, it'll be nice to have the 15 extra practices this year and not have our season end too soon. We'll see what happens and GO CANES!