One thing for sure, this game, at least the first half, showed how deceiving "statistics" can be. Heinz scoreboard flashed stats at halftime, when we're down 27-0, I believe.
We had 3 first downs, and total yardage favored Pitt by almost 4-1. Yet, per scoreboard, Herd had possession for 19+minutes while Pitt only had it for 10+. Almost 2 to 1, but with our ultra conservative playing calling, we ate up a lot of clock. 27 points down, and our offensive tempo never really was in a "hurry up" mode. In last few minutes of game, every play we ran, it seemed, Litton checked once, maybe twice with sideline, clapped hands once, maybe twice, and then waited several more seconds for the snap. 35 second clock down to under 15, even under 10, about every play. No sense of urgency, it seemed. Back to first half time of possession, it was almost like our plan was to slow the game down, use up the clock on offense, knowing Pitt could not score if we ran the clock down and kept the ball. Seems coaches figured our D couldn't stop them from scoring and scoring quickly, so lets try keeping the ball.