New system needs fine-tuning

When the Pitt football team stormed out of its home tunnel on Saturday night, the members of the… When the Pitt football team stormed out of its home tunnel on Saturday night, the members of the blue and gold donned an aura of uncertainty about what kind of team they were going to be.

After 60 minutes of football, the questions still linger.

During an offseason when talk of Pitt’s new high-octane strategy was so redundant that most fans were ready for a new catchphrase, Pitt finally opened up the season and put the new product on the field. There was some good and some bad, but all of it was inconsistent.

In a tribute to Todd Graham’s fueled-up new system, here are your watery, regular and diesel moments from this Saturday’s home opener against Buffalo.

Water

The Panthers looked like they had the pedal to the floor but little control of the vehicle at first, and the result was a seven-point first half against a MAC team that won two games last season.

To be blunt, the first half of Pitt’s up-tempo and exciting brand of football was more reminiscent of paint drying than play by any kind of offensive powerhouse.

“We ran 43 plays in the first half and only scored seven points,” Graham said after the game. “That might be a record.”

In 30 minutes of football, Pitt had missed two field goals and scored only once, and quarterback Tino Sunseri had punted twice from inside Buffalo’s territory.

The reality check came on the first play of the game when Sunseri overthrew wide receiver Mike Shanahan by about 5 yards. Shanahan — who could’ve scored on the play — brought everyone back down to earth when the ball dropped at his feet.

Sunseri struggled with his accuracy for most of the game, completing 16 of 28 passes. The problems came on the deep-ball, where success was nonexistent. Almost all of the passing production came on underneath routes that the receivers turned into big gains.

Regular

Without question, Graham lived up to his word that the Panthers would move quickly. For the most part, Pitt never took more than 15 to 20 seconds between offensive plays. The problem was that the quality of the snaps didn’t match the quantity.

Despite some of the struggles, signs of the new system were definitely there, and some of them were definitely positive. Pitt ran 66 plays and put the ball in the end zone five times.

In the first half, the new 3-4 defense was flying all over the field and spent a ton of clock in Buffalo’s backfield. Although they only produced one turnover — a Chas Alecxih interception — it was a timely one.

After the game, Alecxih said that he played 80 snaps on Saturday, the most he’s ever played in a single game.

Diesel

Two words: Ray Graham.

In his first game as the feature running back, Ray Graham stole the show and went off for 201 yards on 29 carries and found the end zone three times. He also added 50 yards receiving out of the backfield.

For a guy following in the footsteps of Tony Dorsett, Curtis Martin, LeSean McCoy and Dion Lewis, he sure looked ready to carry the torch of great Pitt running backs.

Once he could smell the end zone, Graham was pretty much unstoppable against a leaky Buffalo defense that had trouble wrapping up the 5-foot-9 back.

Not all the players could keep up. Combined with Buffalo’s similarly up-tempo style, many players were left out of breath and flustered by the quick pace of the game. Jordan Gibbs, Pitt’s starting right tackle whom coach Graham said had trouble breathing, didn’t play much after the second half.