Pitt-Kent State reaction: High-scoring game a sign of things to come from Kade Bell, Eli Holstein?

K St hey everyone your pit beat Riders from the Pittsburgh Post cazette here at Acer Stadium after pits opening game with your postgame show the Panthers open the season with a 5524 romping of the Kent State golden flashes here at home uh Stephen offense was abound in this game we heard about uptempo we heard about Cade Bell's new offense Eli holin the new starting quarterback Desmond Reed new starting running back all were on for a spectacle in this game yeah I thought Eli Holstein was really the star of the show he was the one that we've talked about all week the quarterback decision was the most important thing coming out of training camp and Eli holin I thought proved why he was the guy and why he earned this spot right away as always we do our good bad and our ugly and your first good is Eli what did what most impressed you about Eli in this game yeah I thought his accuracy on deep throws I thought his willingness to take those shots uh and I thought his creativity too um he faced a little bit of pressure that you're going to talk about later but I thought he was really calm Under Pressure you remember this is his first collegate game period he has never played college football before a game of college football before uh and he was efficient he spread the ball around he took advantage of the big plays I thought he pretty much locked up this quarterback battle when he completed that 46 yard pass to Kenny Johnson in the opening period uh it was a beautifully thrown ball beautiful catch from Kenny Johnson and you can see the upside is there even if there were some mistakes uh you see the kind of tantalizing upside that pit was banking on when they chose Eli absolutely he was delivering passes down the side line down the field over the middle looked sharp in doing so and that's why my good is Cade Bell's offense the schematics were just impressive SE and I haven't even had time as Pat Nardi says to look at the tape but I have seen enough to say like hey this is more involved than what was La the last couple years under Frank signy you saw guys breaking open over the middle routes playing off of each other guys naturally running open and Eli holing being on time with them that's another thing here it's it's one thing to draw up plays it is another to coach your quarterback to execute in rhythm with those plays seven straight completions to start the game for Eli holste and they weren't just Dink and dunks they were all over the place and what I thought was really special was you had with with Eli Holstein alone four receivers two tight ends two running backs all the different players that they caught passes from him and they were on the side on the short sideline on the far sideline over the middle over the hases deep down the field intermediate short passes he seemed like he grasped this offense and the way this offense attacked also in the Run game with how they opened up opportunities for Desmond Reed who also ran for over 100 yards and got a touchdown in this game 145 to be exact I thought the opportunities were abound that's why I wrote about that in my postgame analysis for the Post Gazette yeah the newcomers really were the the stars of the show today I mean it was K Bell it was Desmond Reed it was Eli Holstein I mean everything that pit needed to change about their offense last year they did and it seems to be paying off for them immediately absolutely but as always we do good bad the ugly so what's the bad in a 30 plus Point win here for pit Stephen yeah I think the bad is the 24 points that they gave up and they did it a lot largely because the secondary did not really play up to how you would hope they would um I think especially the safeties that veteran group of safeties did not really play I think up to the standard that they have set out for themselves or as well as anyone would hope I mean they gave up I think four different plays uh passing plays of 25 yards or more one of them fortunately was called back because of offsetting penalties um if you know tone lineup doesn't commit a uh commit a horse collar penalty that that Kent State offense is still at the uh in the red zone and looking to score another touchdown so um they've really got to figure out the communication on the back ends they've got to play with a little bit better technique uh and you know this this secondary has to be better if this defense is going to to get back to where they are or where they have been uh over the past few years with Pat ardi absolutely my bad flips to the other side is the offensive line constant pressure from Kent State and that is a very bad because Kent State is not a defense that pit is going to play the cow of much again this year you got young down state sure but Cincinnati next week is going to be better than that you know West Virginia is going to be a lot better than that and the entire ACC is going to be a lot better than that four sacks allowed in this game in total two of them coming off of Branson Taylor who I expected to see a lot better out of at left tackle he was voted as a team captain for a reason and I've seen him be much better than this I just thought there were some plays where maybe some breakdowns happen late to the punch not getting off the ball fast enough the offensive line has to do better in these upcoming games they don't have to be a dominant offensive line but they cannot be a liability otherwise all those schematics all those things we're talking about that Cade Bell and Eli holon and Kenny Johnson and Poppy Williams and all these guys are doing none of that will matter because the defens is just in the back field ruining the timing of these plays and timing is the important part of this so they H the offensive line has to be better yeah and I think it's really important especially with the a true excuse me a red shirt freshman like I said making his first start playing his first season of college football you want to keep him clean you want to make sure that he's not panicking in the pocket there in pit I don't think did a very good job of that today agreed now we get to the ugly what is your ugly from this game Stephen yeah unfortunately my ugly is kante mfield um not a banner day for a guy who was elected as a captain last week um a little bit I think he was surprised um but he uh he was a guy that we heard about all through training camp he was expected to be the wide receiver and we've seen in the past do really well yes we we've seen k they play very well and today was just not his day he had a dropped touchdown pass he fumbled a punt return that got taken back for a touchdown uh and just in general I thought he seemed to kind of not always be on the same page with Eli Holstein um I think that'll come along that latter part the the chemistry between him and Holstein will come along as they play together more often but mfield has to make the layups he has to catch his punts uh he has to catch those wide open touchdowns that are going to come for him um I think he's still in for a big year he still made some nice plays today caught the opening touchdown of the game uh but he needs to be better in every other facet of the game and I agree and it's it was wild because it's such a stark change in the first like few minutes of the game he caught a touchdown I think he caught the first touchdown of the game looked in Rhythm the same guy that we were used to seeing from pit the past few years the guy that would that would make plays even while everything else is falling out falling down around him disappointing but I do expect him to bounce back my ugly is a little different my ugly is actually the difference between last year's red zone offense now if you go back to last season in 2023 we always we talked about all summer how that was the worst offense in the ACC but if you look at pits Red Zone numbers they had the fewest Red Zone trips in all of college football in the FBS and the fewest touchdowns in the Red Zone in all of college football in the FB only tying Michigan State so those numbers were bad in this game six red drone trips five touchdowns on those red Red Zone trips that's already I believe 24% of the touchdowns they had in the Red Zone last year and like 30 plus% of the trips they had last year like that's how much how much more efficient this offense looked and again granted it's Kent State they got to play much better opponents but the fact that they were moving the ball at will like this they they had they had more Red Zone trips and touchdowns in this game and they did against wford last year wford so that's where I'm at is that this red zone offense was a really good sign uh we talked to Eli Holstein after the game he said Kell takes the Red Zone personally they work on it every day and it's something that they focused on they work on the chemistry every day those things Stephen I think could go a long way if they maintain into these tougher parts of their schedule right we talked about the level of competition we know what Kent State is we know who they are as a team we know that they're not uh particularly good relative to the rest of the FBS but you can take a lot away from a performance like this against a team like that even understanding the level of competition pit did things last today that they weren't capable of doing against anyone last year and I think that's a very encouraging sign absolutely we'll have a lot more to break down pit heads into week two 1 and0 but they got Cincinnati in Cincinnati next week stay tuned with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Chris Carter here with Stephen Thompson your pit beat reporters also shout out Abby Schnabel she was she was with us today she wrote some great stuff read all of our work at postgazette.com find us here on post on the post gazette's YouTube channel and podcast wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube from Chris Carter and Stephen Thompson here at aurer Stadium we'll see you again soon right here with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette perfect thank you for checking out this content from Post Gazette sports if you watch this video on YouTube please like the video and subscribe to our channel for all of the sports covers the post cazette has to offer visit postgazette.com [Music]