Loved having a Saturday to watch and relax. Now we wait until Thursday for the game against VT which is a huge game for the Panthers. Tough game to handicap:
1. This will be the best defense 23 will have faced and the best OL that VT has faced. Pitt's offense will need to handle the various blitz packages that Bud Foster will throw at it. He likes to press the line of scrimmage and the pocket. But, block them and you have plays downfield and creases in the run game if you get by the initial level. Going to be an interesting game. In the past we've been successful with unbalanced lines to create creases in the run game.
2. Obviously the Penn State win was the score of the day. Their defense has clearly improved. It doesn't really change the playoff picture though if OSU runs the table and beats an undefeated UM team. Surprised how average their OL looked. The missed PI call at the end of the game didn't help but it's 15 yards and not an automatic win for OSU.
3. Okl 66 TT 59 WTF is that? Is it a Madden score? I mean seriously a Bob Stoops team giving up 59pts and WINNING? Some of these scores are just nuts! WVU could make the playoffs I said it last week and I believe it if they go undefeated. They play good defense one of the few teams in that conference that does.
4. I get the feeling that Texas will fire Charley Strong a year too early. Yes they are losing but that team has a ton of young talent. Sometimes you need to be patient. Curious to see what happens if Ed Orgeron continues to win. Louisana born coach, great recruiter. LSU obviously has a little more giddy up in their step.
5. I know that everyone has given Lamar Jackson the Heisman and rightfully so but Leonard Fournette is just a freak of nature. That kind of size and but speed doesn't just happen. He's a top 10 pick in the NFL when RB are rarely picked that high.
6. Ole Miss is 3-4 they should drop one spot to 24th in this week's poll. Who knows how these polls are done? I haven't seen a single Colorado down but obviously that coach has done a good job. Beating Stanford 10-6 at their house on a grand slam in the ninth is impressive.
7. I'm still trying to figure out how Syracuse beat VT? I watched them yesterday and if BC wasn't so inept they should have lost by 2 TD. BC ran on them quite a bit. Couldn't finish.
8. If we don't have Price on Thursday it's really going to be an issue. Not only because he's such a good pass rusher but because he plays the read option really well. There's no one close to him as a back up and if we have to use James more it tells you all you need to know about the coaching staff's confidence in the back ups.
9. Boy did Miami look terrible on Thursday night especially their OL. There's no question after watching so many teams that Pitt's offense line is a top 5 OL in the country.
10. Good for PSU to win that game but coach Franklin with his "healing" comment is completely off base. You can't equate a football win with what happened to those kids. Please don't denigrate the impact of what happened with a football game.
11. Weren't you once Oregon? Didn't you play for the National Championship 2 years ago?
12. If anyone thinks that MSU is going to fire their coach after one bad season they are nuts. Coach D has a lot of collateral built up, he made the playoffs last year for crying out loud come on. I will say the UM game could be very ugly. Harbaugh won't be afraid to run up the score.
13. Down 17-9 facing a fourth and 3 with 5 minutes and change inside Wisconsin territory Coach Ferentz decides to kick a FG? Really? You still need to get the ball back and score a TD. Not sure what's he looking at.
14. I'm hoping to see 55K+ at Heinz on Thursday but not sure we will. I can't make it, I fly to Hawaii the next morning for some R&R but my tickets are safely in the hands of my former roommate who lives in the Burg. Here's the thing, this is a really fun team to watch and this VT game will be the most important game left at Heinz. Hopefully they'll get a good crowd.
15. UNC has found it's defensive sea legs. That's a pretty good team. They still can't run the ball but that QB is really good and their WR's get open. Tough team to play. No one ran on them like we did though.
16. So Bama in my opinion is the best team in the country but man there's a lot of bad teams in the SEC. In fact there's really a lot of mediocrity in a lot of these conferences. Washington is good in the PAC 12 but who else do you love? The big 12? I don't know. Big Ten is probably the deepest conference or the ACC.
17. Weren't you Tom Herman resident genius coach? Navy and SMU (SMU?) back to back? See everyone goes crazy over beating OKL in Game 1 but OKL wasn't OKL obviously.. You never know how good these teams until mid October then you find out.
18. VT, @UM, @Clemson. Three weeks ago I would have said 1-2 would be good. I'm not saying that now. 2-1 plus giving Clemson a real run. That Clemson team is good but not great and I think we can run on them.
Pitt82
1. This will be the best defense 23 will have faced and the best OL that VT has faced. Pitt's offense will need to handle the various blitz packages that Bud Foster will throw at it. He likes to press the line of scrimmage and the pocket. But, block them and you have plays downfield and creases in the run game if you get by the initial level. Going to be an interesting game. In the past we've been successful with unbalanced lines to create creases in the run game.
2. Obviously the Penn State win was the score of the day. Their defense has clearly improved. It doesn't really change the playoff picture though if OSU runs the table and beats an undefeated UM team. Surprised how average their OL looked. The missed PI call at the end of the game didn't help but it's 15 yards and not an automatic win for OSU.
3. Okl 66 TT 59 WTF is that? Is it a Madden score? I mean seriously a Bob Stoops team giving up 59pts and WINNING? Some of these scores are just nuts! WVU could make the playoffs I said it last week and I believe it if they go undefeated. They play good defense one of the few teams in that conference that does.
4. I get the feeling that Texas will fire Charley Strong a year too early. Yes they are losing but that team has a ton of young talent. Sometimes you need to be patient. Curious to see what happens if Ed Orgeron continues to win. Louisana born coach, great recruiter. LSU obviously has a little more giddy up in their step.
5. I know that everyone has given Lamar Jackson the Heisman and rightfully so but Leonard Fournette is just a freak of nature. That kind of size and but speed doesn't just happen. He's a top 10 pick in the NFL when RB are rarely picked that high.
6. Ole Miss is 3-4 they should drop one spot to 24th in this week's poll. Who knows how these polls are done? I haven't seen a single Colorado down but obviously that coach has done a good job. Beating Stanford 10-6 at their house on a grand slam in the ninth is impressive.
7. I'm still trying to figure out how Syracuse beat VT? I watched them yesterday and if BC wasn't so inept they should have lost by 2 TD. BC ran on them quite a bit. Couldn't finish.
8. If we don't have Price on Thursday it's really going to be an issue. Not only because he's such a good pass rusher but because he plays the read option really well. There's no one close to him as a back up and if we have to use James more it tells you all you need to know about the coaching staff's confidence in the back ups.
9. Boy did Miami look terrible on Thursday night especially their OL. There's no question after watching so many teams that Pitt's offense line is a top 5 OL in the country.
10. Good for PSU to win that game but coach Franklin with his "healing" comment is completely off base. You can't equate a football win with what happened to those kids. Please don't denigrate the impact of what happened with a football game.
11. Weren't you once Oregon? Didn't you play for the National Championship 2 years ago?
12. If anyone thinks that MSU is going to fire their coach after one bad season they are nuts. Coach D has a lot of collateral built up, he made the playoffs last year for crying out loud come on. I will say the UM game could be very ugly. Harbaugh won't be afraid to run up the score.
13. Down 17-9 facing a fourth and 3 with 5 minutes and change inside Wisconsin territory Coach Ferentz decides to kick a FG? Really? You still need to get the ball back and score a TD. Not sure what's he looking at.
14. I'm hoping to see 55K+ at Heinz on Thursday but not sure we will. I can't make it, I fly to Hawaii the next morning for some R&R but my tickets are safely in the hands of my former roommate who lives in the Burg. Here's the thing, this is a really fun team to watch and this VT game will be the most important game left at Heinz. Hopefully they'll get a good crowd.
15. UNC has found it's defensive sea legs. That's a pretty good team. They still can't run the ball but that QB is really good and their WR's get open. Tough team to play. No one ran on them like we did though.
16. So Bama in my opinion is the best team in the country but man there's a lot of bad teams in the SEC. In fact there's really a lot of mediocrity in a lot of these conferences. Washington is good in the PAC 12 but who else do you love? The big 12? I don't know. Big Ten is probably the deepest conference or the ACC.
17. Weren't you Tom Herman resident genius coach? Navy and SMU (SMU?) back to back? See everyone goes crazy over beating OKL in Game 1 but OKL wasn't OKL obviously.. You never know how good these teams until mid October then you find out.
18. VT, @UM, @Clemson. Three weeks ago I would have said 1-2 would be good. I'm not saying that now. 2-1 plus giving Clemson a real run. That Clemson team is good but not great and I think we can run on them.
Pitt82
