PITT has improved since the year began
- Thread starter jivecat
- Start date
Since the last 3 opponents are weaker, is it realistic to expect winning 2 of the last 3? That
would at least give credibility to the claim that there's been improvement
How can you put two offensive categories in your "improved" list when the offense ranks in the bottom 15-20% for all offensive categories in FBS? In case you were wondering, this coincides with being last in the ACC for offense.
what was the competition like with what Jurk faced vs CV has?
There is your answer as to whether they've improved or not
Clearly you haven't watched any games after game one. The defense has been pretty solid.
Our defense is better than our offense, I will give you that. But defensive rankings are pedestrian at best. Lots of categories we are 100th or worse.
Correct. Even the VTech game. They ran all over Pitt. There’s no spot on this team that doesn’t need to be improved. Not 1. Of course that should be obvious with a 2-7 team but doesn’t seem to be.
Unfortunately, yes. It's been like a train wreck this year...you just can't look away.
I know you're trolling, but there's a difference between saying we have some good players and calling this a good team. Miami has had teams laden with draft picks that finished below .500.
I do think we'll be back to "normal" (7-5ish with a chance to do a few games better or worse, depending on how the ball bounces) in like 2025 if we can retain our young building blocks. But by most accounts, we're not going to be able to do that.
A pretty lousy 5-3 Notre Dame team had 535 yards of total offense against us.
Louisville had 444 yards; we were the beneficiaries of some very lucky bounces.
FSU had 501 yards.
A one-dimensional Wake Forest team with a converted safety under center had 323 yards and posted to touchdowns in crunch time.
Virginia Tech.... 427 yards and 38 points.
Cincy... 371 yards while running it down our throats.
UNC... 41 points and admitted to taking their foot off the pedal in the second half.
Have YOU watched the games? The defense isn't good. The line sucks, and it's been a huge issue. We also suck at tackling. We're 60th in yards allowed and tied for 87th in points allowed. That's not good.
DId i say good? I said improved. Pitt's defense always gives up yards (bend don't break). Other than ND and UNC they've held teams to very few points. Guess you haven't watched the games.
No, Pitt's defense has literally been the exact opposite of bend don't break under Pat Narduzzi. It's not that at all, and he'll be the first one to tell you that. It's a feast or famine approach.
And you said the defense has been "solid." I mostly disagree. We have faced some anemic offenses, but the better ones we've faced have had success. I'm not giving Pitt's defense credit for holding some bum quarterbacks for WVU and WF to low scoring totals. The team - including the defense - showed a lot of fight against FSU, but that really seems to be getting to people's heads. As if losing to a safety playing QB and then losing by half of a hundred didn't just happen the two games before that.
It only seems that way to those whom have none.
How much has the defensive stats you cited been impacted by the poor offense? Pitt is 107th in the country in time of possession. It regularly goes 3-and-out. No defense can be expected to withhold that kind of disadvantage forever.
He actually wouldn't.
If Pat ran a "feast or famine" type of defense, you'd see a lot more man blitzing. Our man blitzes are traditionally under 10%. We are a zone blitz - 3 deep / 3 under team. That is not feast or famine. That is as safe as it gets.
He would be playing a lot of straight cover zero instead of pattern match cover 4 if we were this uber aggressive in philosophy defense.
We shadow press, we do not play bump and run.
I dunno, man - you seem like you're losing the forest for the trees here. Pay Narduzzi literally said in an interview within the last two years something to the extent of:
"You guys see a receiver running behind a cornerback and think it's the cornerback's fault, but maybe we see it differently. We'll give you that low percentage pass if you can hit it."
Paraphrasing, but playing a system that involves guys in one on one matchups to consistently get behind the cornerbacks if the pass rush doesn't get to the QB first is, um, pretty feast or famine. I understand we have a delta package on third down, but the philosophy I've heard Narduzzi himself describe is he will devote an extra man to the box to stopping the run and, as a result, will give you favorable matchups in the passing game if you can hit them.
"Corners pressed up on a receiver 95% of the time"
"We're an attacking front"
"We're a blitz defense"
"We have an attacking philosophy and are up in the receiver's face every snap"
"Receivers have to waste time to get off our press"
"Press technique"
Like if your argument is that we're not playing goal line and fire blitzing every play, I guess you win.
6-3 eh. QB the most important position in football, we have none. Coaching gaffes, that and stupid penalties are the only consistent thing on this team. Injuries, nothing you can do about them.
Just when I believed the D was getting better you burst my bubble with facts.
Narduzzi is not a full press coach. Hence, that's why we shadow press. We do not bump and run. We give the illusion of full press when really we give ground to gain ground to get in phase immediately beyond the 3 step (under center) 1 step (gun) quick game.
I have never seen a 4-3 defense not "attack." What he means is they are not a react front like a 2 gap 3-4 or an old school split 6 or 4-4 front. We spill and we don't box. We don't blitz the run even though PFF likes to think we do. Go ask Bates himself what he thinks of PFF's run blitz data. The risky part of PITT's defense their LB's will be true run players 1st. They will be a step late in coverage in the base cover 4. However, they have checks to handle bubble RPO's and such.
Might want to check the data on this. 10-12 years ago, he might have blitzed more. In the past few years when PITT blitzes in base coverage (cov 4), it's usually a sim blitz. Meaning if you're leaving a back into block, PITT's LB's are often given the green light to blitz instead of dropping unnecessarily in grass. It goes right into their philosophy of pattern matching. What PITT is known for when it comes to blitzing is to spot drop fire zone, aka country cover 3. 3 deep and 3/2 under. This is a conservative approach and it fits the modern game much better because of mobile QB's. Duzz's philosophy is he'd rather have defenders' eyes on QB's instead of having their backs turned in man coverage.
again - they're a 4-3 spill front. That doesn't mean they're a gambling go for broke defense.
No one is running "goal line" defense anymore. Fire blitzes are extremely common of "bend but don't break defenses." Our 3 deep / 3 under is a "fire zone." I've seen the data and PITT probably is in cover 4 - 65-70% of the time. That is a conservative approach in modern football. We aren't running cover 1 where you're asking LB's to run with WR's. You also don't see in straight cover zero where the DB's don't have help on switch routes. One final point, the modern game is usually played from 2x2 and 3x1 sets. When we see 3x1 sets, Duzz has a boatload of options how to play that set. In his "solo" coverage, he essentially is playing 1/4 1/4 1/2 with pattern matching principles. That is not "risky". When I see teams play cover 1 or god forbid cover zero vs 3x1, they have to play the ILB on the QB. That is a serious mismatch in the modern game.
Extra point - I spent time with a ton of DC's the past 2 years. Almost all of them will say the sooner you can get in phase with a receiver, the less riskier it is to defend them. It is somewhat of a newer philosophy in defending the pass but it makes complete sense. The spread game is designed to force you tackle in space. Playing off man and spot drop zone puts the secondary in a much riskier position to give up big yardage. That's why you see so much pattern matching in today's game.
It feels so good watching how much this team has improved. Week 1 Pitt would have let Syracuse get 400+ yards rushing, this week we're only going to allow 300-350 rushing yards.
What’s next from jivecat?
“We played a really solid game today. Syracuse was just a little bit better”
“The Syracuse game showed what a good pass defense we have.”
🤣🤣
“We played a really solid game today. Syracuse was just a little bit better”
“The Syracuse game showed what a good pass defense we have.”
🤣🤣
There are a couple posters who frequently claim we were the better team after losses. I don’t even think they’d dare tonight. But ya never know.
See, they only allowed 382 yards rushing. That's only 111 more rushing yards than Colgate allowed against them. I bet that's not even a team record.
Pass defense was tremendous. Only gave up 8 yards.
Still standing by your statement of improvement???
This team sucks, and has sucked ALL year...PERIOD...end of discussion.
We are far too injured on the office of a defensive lines right now. our tackling is so pathetic on the defensive side that we just have to start playing all the new guys and get them experience.
That was obviously before yesterday’s disaster on ice… the likes of which I’ve never seen…
So what are you looking for? A Nostradumbass trophy? A lollipop?
VERY disappointing weekend. I am sure many of you would have preferred to eat your words then to gloat about my opinion being wrong. The question becomes...what do we do now?
1)Narduzzi cannot be fired
2) We need to bring in a new OC
3) Even with injuries, we have less depth then we have experienced in the past 25 years.
4) We do not have a QB
1)Narduzzi cannot be fired
2) We need to bring in a new OC
3) Even with injuries, we have less depth then we have experienced in the past 25 years.
4) We do not have a QB
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