I suppose that this thread serves as Primal Scream therapy for most of us, so I'm going to indulge. This game was horrible for me and my 95 year old Mother to watch. [when we were on offense]. Even the last clutch drive did not help. The whole feeling was: we're not improving. I honestly thought that we were in some constant up-tick prior to today. Discouraging.
I'm not advocating going back to Dayne Crist, but it is at least not an irrational thought. Both Urban Meyer and Chris Spielman thought it during the game. Both are knowledgeable people and are not prejudiced. Nevertheless, I don't see Dayne Crist as our answer, though I wouldn't go ballistic if Kelly decided differently.
But, if this really was a regression by Tommy Rees as it seemed, then he is not the answer either. But would throwing the season into the fire with one of the rooks be better?
Is there any explaining what went on today? Maybe. I believe that ex-Tulsa D-coordinator outcoached us. I believe that he saw a pattern in Rees' play prior to the snap [that is his MENTAL pattern], and schemed it brilliantly. Someone smarter than I needs to analyze this, but it seemed to involve a nearly fixed pattern of "sideline check, then re-check due to safety position, then confusion due to last second safety re-positioning, leading to lack of confidence and staring down just one guy". There may have been more to the disguise.
If any of that was true, and both Meyer and Spielman talked about parts of it, the Pitt DC was playing effectively with Rees' mind. Was it then up to Rees or Kelly to clearly see this and devise ways out of it? Whatever, it only finally began to happen in the second half, when we went largely to a "don't change things, just go" mentality.
Anyway I look at it though, it seems someone figured out how to use Tommy's mental patterns against him. Where that leaves us for the rest of the season I don't know.
God bless the Defense.
