I thought our OL was excellent. Had a few individual breakdowns at times, but the OT's held their own and actually the interior line gave up at least 2 of the sacks. Run blocking improved as we loosened them up and wore them down. The last two runs were clinics in blocking. Our interior line and FB play was great, and our OT play was good. Optimistic about them moving forward if we can keep them healthy.
What a difference having quick backs make! Canzeri and Daniels were very good today, and coupled with #1 above really help this offense (who we all thought might struggle) move. How many 85+ yard drives do we have this year...5? They missed a few cutbacks, especially Daniels sometimes, but Daniels is so much quicker this year and both have good feet. Canzeri is a big threat out of the backfield he reminds me of a poor man's Sproles sometimes. Can't wait to add Mitchell to the mix.
They must be rolling up a safety over the top on Tevaun, and so we keep feeding VDB, who was very good today. We could really use Duzey/Kittles, though. I thought KC ran well on his big catch, though, up until the fumble.
Special teams were very good today outside of a few decisions from King. Kidd was excellent and even the fake FG was flawless ..... ISU just didn't rush the 1 person we needed them to rush if you replay it.
I have more hope for our future DL having watched them slowly take over today. Hesse was good in reserve and Johnson gave a big 2nd half. I worry about Pitt's power running game though if Ott can't play, given our undersized ends and LB's on the edge. Not sure we can hold the edge on them and their 230 lb backup RB.
LB's flowed very well, and Niemann has a huge radius both in run support and pass coverage. He's going to make big plays for us, and is our best Blitzer too as I've said all along, despite his puny biceps.
Secondary is pretty solid and lets us do some things - like blitz - that we normally wouldn't. Pretty good coverage today despite a few big plays early. Lomax was solid and our CB's are very good.
Kirk is a good guy, arguably one of the best character guys in all of the BCS conferences. I fee happier for him than I do myself actually.
