20 things I'm thinking about this morning (split into two posts because I wrote too much)...
1. Will the real Pitt offense please stand up? Because I don’t know if we’ve seen the real thing just quite yet.
2. Basically, there are five Pitt offenses that we have seen so far. There was the offense in the first half of the West Virginia game; the offense in the second half of the West Virginia game and the first half of the Tennessee game; the Nick Patti offense in the second half of the Tennessee game; the Nate Yarnell offense in the Western Michigan game; and the Kedon Slovis FCS offense in the Rhode Island game.
Each of those offenses was fairly unique from the others. Sometimes that was due to personnel (particularly at quarterback) and sometimes it was a seemingly willful decision on the part of the coaching staff. Either way, it looked pretty different in each of those five iterations.
3. To some extent, offensive game plans are always going to shift based on the opponent. “Take what the defense gives you,” coaches will say (and I expect Pat Narduzzi to say the same today). On the other hand, I don’t think we can really sit here and say, “A, B and C are the things this offense does well.” I don’t know what the foundation of this offense is - its identity. That’s what I am unsure of.
4. Some will say, “It’s just a boring old run-based offense, obsolete in today’s college football.” And sure, when they ran the ball 50 times at Western Michigan, that’s what it looked like. But we all know the context of that game; by comparison, Kedon Slovis ran 47 passing plays in the second half of the WVU game and the first half of the Tennessee game.
So is that the real offense? Like I said, I don’t know.
5. The quarterback situation has certainly created some caveats when it comes to evaluating the offense. Slovis missed a game and a half and Pitt used its third-string quarterback for one of the four games so far. But that seemed to set up Saturday’s non-conference finale against Rhode Island as a perfect opportunity to get the passing game into a rhythm. Experiment with the passing game, take some shots and let Slovis and the receivers get comfortable working together in a game.
6. Instead, it was almost the opposite. Slovis attempted 27 passes against Rhode Island; I wrote the word “screen” next to nine of them (and I used screen to loosely mean just about any sideways pass). Five more passes went to the running back, and I would imagine almost all of those were behind the line of scrimmage. So you’ve got close to half of the passes thrown not crossing the line of scrimmage. Is that really the game plan you need against Rhode Island?
7. Dig this stat: in the official box score - the official one, not just what I jot down in my legal pad - Pitt’s receivers, backs and tight ends were credited with 191 yards after the catch. Seems like a lot, right? It was actually two more yards than Slovis officially threw for.
Kedon Slovis - 189 passing yards. Pitt’s receiving targets - 191 yards after the catch. Do the math on that one.
8. Now, obviously the run game has been rolling. Israel Abanikanda is on a tear that finds its precedent five years ago; that was the last time a Pitt running back had three consecutive 100-yard games, and that’s the streak Abanikanda is on right now. He’s the ACC’s leading rusher with 479 yards; Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham (395) is the next closest, but Abanikanda is the only player in the conference who is averaging more than 100 rushing yards per game. He’s also got the longest run in the ACC this year (that 76-yard touchdown run against Tennessee).
That’s great. But blocking against Western Michigan and Rhode Island is not quite the same as blocking against ACC teams, so I don’t know if I would want to bank on that same level of success going forward.
9. That said, Georgia Tech gave up 284 rushing yards on 51 attempts to UCF last week and currently is ranked No. 120 nationally in run defense, allowing more than 200 yards per game, and has been gashed for 600 yards on the ground in the last two games. So…I can probably guess what Pitt is going to try to do this weekend.
10. And after that, Pitt will face Virginia Tech (No. 14 rush defense), Louisville (No. 94), North Carolina (No. 123), Syracuse (No. 38), Virginia (No. 61), Duke (No. 71) and Miami (No. 19). Not exactly murderers’ row. And Miami’s impressive performance against the run is offset by the Hurricanes ranking No. 91 in passing yards allowed and No. 111 in pass efficiency defense.
1. Will the real Pitt offense please stand up? Because I don’t know if we’ve seen the real thing just quite yet.
2. Basically, there are five Pitt offenses that we have seen so far. There was the offense in the first half of the West Virginia game; the offense in the second half of the West Virginia game and the first half of the Tennessee game; the Nick Patti offense in the second half of the Tennessee game; the Nate Yarnell offense in the Western Michigan game; and the Kedon Slovis FCS offense in the Rhode Island game.
Each of those offenses was fairly unique from the others. Sometimes that was due to personnel (particularly at quarterback) and sometimes it was a seemingly willful decision on the part of the coaching staff. Either way, it looked pretty different in each of those five iterations.
3. To some extent, offensive game plans are always going to shift based on the opponent. “Take what the defense gives you,” coaches will say (and I expect Pat Narduzzi to say the same today). On the other hand, I don’t think we can really sit here and say, “A, B and C are the things this offense does well.” I don’t know what the foundation of this offense is - its identity. That’s what I am unsure of.
4. Some will say, “It’s just a boring old run-based offense, obsolete in today’s college football.” And sure, when they ran the ball 50 times at Western Michigan, that’s what it looked like. But we all know the context of that game; by comparison, Kedon Slovis ran 47 passing plays in the second half of the WVU game and the first half of the Tennessee game.
So is that the real offense? Like I said, I don’t know.
5. The quarterback situation has certainly created some caveats when it comes to evaluating the offense. Slovis missed a game and a half and Pitt used its third-string quarterback for one of the four games so far. But that seemed to set up Saturday’s non-conference finale against Rhode Island as a perfect opportunity to get the passing game into a rhythm. Experiment with the passing game, take some shots and let Slovis and the receivers get comfortable working together in a game.
6. Instead, it was almost the opposite. Slovis attempted 27 passes against Rhode Island; I wrote the word “screen” next to nine of them (and I used screen to loosely mean just about any sideways pass). Five more passes went to the running back, and I would imagine almost all of those were behind the line of scrimmage. So you’ve got close to half of the passes thrown not crossing the line of scrimmage. Is that really the game plan you need against Rhode Island?
7. Dig this stat: in the official box score - the official one, not just what I jot down in my legal pad - Pitt’s receivers, backs and tight ends were credited with 191 yards after the catch. Seems like a lot, right? It was actually two more yards than Slovis officially threw for.
Kedon Slovis - 189 passing yards. Pitt’s receiving targets - 191 yards after the catch. Do the math on that one.
8. Now, obviously the run game has been rolling. Israel Abanikanda is on a tear that finds its precedent five years ago; that was the last time a Pitt running back had three consecutive 100-yard games, and that’s the streak Abanikanda is on right now. He’s the ACC’s leading rusher with 479 yards; Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham (395) is the next closest, but Abanikanda is the only player in the conference who is averaging more than 100 rushing yards per game. He’s also got the longest run in the ACC this year (that 76-yard touchdown run against Tennessee).
That’s great. But blocking against Western Michigan and Rhode Island is not quite the same as blocking against ACC teams, so I don’t know if I would want to bank on that same level of success going forward.
9. That said, Georgia Tech gave up 284 rushing yards on 51 attempts to UCF last week and currently is ranked No. 120 nationally in run defense, allowing more than 200 yards per game, and has been gashed for 600 yards on the ground in the last two games. So…I can probably guess what Pitt is going to try to do this weekend.
10. And after that, Pitt will face Virginia Tech (No. 14 rush defense), Louisville (No. 94), North Carolina (No. 123), Syracuse (No. 38), Virginia (No. 61), Duke (No. 71) and Miami (No. 19). Not exactly murderers’ row. And Miami’s impressive performance against the run is offset by the Hurricanes ranking No. 91 in passing yards allowed and No. 111 in pass efficiency defense.
