In the immediate aftermath of Pitt's disaster against Duke, there were a lot of questions about Pitt not centering the ball for Chris Blewitt's potential game-winning kick. I stressed the importance of needing to know if it was, in fact, Blewitt, who asked for the ball on the right hash mark.
It seems it was not.
The Post-Gazette's Sam Werner says it was Chryst's decision not to line up the kick.
Here’s Chryst's answer when asked why #Pitt ran to the right before game-winning FG attempt: pic.twitter.com/Y6eMseAhFe
— Sam Werner (@SWernerPG) November 1, 2014
That answer is so far off base that I don't even know where to start. 'Confusing' so inaccurately describes what Chryst said here that it's not even funny.
So, the gist of Chryst's argument seemed to be that they wanted to get out of bounds, presumably to stop the clock. That might make sense normally, but considering that Pitt, you know, had a timeout, doesn't seem to justify what Chryst was thinking.
I said earlier that Chryst should be criticized if Blewitt wasn't the one who specifically asked for the ball on that hash and that's the case here. You always line up a kick straight away. There's just no other reason not to do it. Really, it's coaching 101 and the fact that Chryst either didn't know that or didn't think of it in the heat of the moment is pretty inexcusable.
Don't get me wrong - a Division I kicker should be able to make the kick regardless of where it's at on the field. And the fact that he so badly missed doesn't tell me that even if it were centered that he would have made it. Still, Chryst's handling of the end of game situation seems extraordinarily bungled here.
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