The Duzz

[doubleAA's]

wow... what an in depth game plan. Whoooo they are a clever bunch

 

[PHATWOOD]

Navy actually threw a lot of wrinkles in to their game plan. They knew that Pitt had their tape, they knew they had seen GT this year. They had a month also.

And for those who said that Pitt had more talent on the field, I'll only say at some positions, yes. But not at enough positions. Their entire system is built to stress YOUR entire system. Once they find the spot where you aren't strong, well, you've got a big problem.

Pitt may never again play an option QB as good and mistake free as Reynolds. The one mistake he made yesterday ended up in the endzone. And that's the difference between this Navy team the past few years and many others. They have a guy who executes at such a high level that the offense doesn't stall, doesn't turn the ball over, and doesn't beat itself.

You might have multiple All-Americans on your defense, but if you have a couple of D-II level players they'll turn your lights out. It's not as easy as just tackle the fullback, tackle the QB, and turn everything inside by the DE. It's so much more complicated than that.

 

[thebadby2]

Navy actually threw a lot of wrinkles in to their game plan. They knew that Pitt had their tape, they knew they had seen GT this year. They had a month also.

And for those who said that Pitt had more talent on the field, I'll only say at some positions, yes. But not at enough positions. Their entire system is built to stress YOUR entire system. Once they find the spot where you aren't strong, well, you've got a big problem.

Pitt may never again play an option QB as good and mistake free as Reynolds. The one mistake he made yesterday ended up in the endzone. And that's the difference between this Navy team the past few years and many others. They have a guy who executes at such a high level that the offense doesn't stall, doesn't turn the ball over, and doesn't beat itself.

You might have multiple All-Americans on your defense, but if you have a couple of D-II level players they'll turn your lights out. It's not as easy as just tackle the fullback, tackle the QB, and turn everything inside by the DE. It's so much more complicated than that.

That's a good post and I agree with much of it. Just one criticism-everyone's talking about our D vs Navy's O--there's a whole other side to the story-our O should have been able to move the ball consistently and score on their D. We were ineffectual on offense and that was just as much to blame for the final,outcome as the defensive failures. I actually think Chaney was sorely missed as the play caller in this one. And we did not play well offensively-lots of mistakes.

 

[TD_6082]

Badby with solid posts on this thread.

I think an F-150 is pushing it to be honest.

Agreed. Badby owns this thread.

 

[PHATWOOD]

That's a good post and I agree with much of it. Just one criticism-everyone's talking about our D vs Navy's O--there's a whole other side to the story-our O should have been able to move the ball consistently and score on their D. We were ineffectual on offense and that was just as much to blame for the final,outcome as the defensive failures. I actually think Chaney was sorely missed as the play caller in this one. And we did not play well offensively-lots of mistakes.

I don't disagree at all with that, as a matter of fact I almost added another post saying something along those lines. In order to beat Navy your best defense many times is your offense. You have to be able to put the same pressure on them to score every drive as well. It was clear the offense wasn't very in sync in the first half until the end when they spread Navy out and went uptempo in the two minute drill. I'm not sure if that would have worked as well in the second half, but I didn't see Pitt give it a real shot either. No idea if that was fear of going three and out, if they felt Peterman was struggling, etc.

Losing J.P. and Officer clearly made it difficult to just pound the ball, especially to the right where you had O'Neill and Bookser. And Navy's run defense was very good this year. Pitt had 198 rushing yards vs. a team that only gave up and average of 133. They gave up an average of 229 passing yards per game, so that kind of tells you what Pitt needed to be doing.

Going in to this game I had little doubt that Navy was going to score at least 28 points, and I said as much to those I was with. I was just hoping we could find a way to force a few more field goals and that they'd be able to get Tyler deep a few times. But I knew we would have to score over 30 to win. The red zone INT was just an absolute killer.

 

[MrGee]

I even saw an empty set or two from Navy, I think on one of them we called a time out - WTF, what option team runs an empty set? They worked it.

From an offensive perspective, Navy totally outclassed us and out coached us---had us on our heels the whole game, great mix of pass-run and different sets, passing when unexpected---better coached

 

[KennyTheKangaroo]

That's a good post and I agree with much of it. Just one criticism-everyone's talking about our D vs Navy's O--there's a whole other side to the story-our O should have been able to move the ball consistently and score on their D. We were ineffectual on offense and that was just as much to blame for the final,outcome as the defensive failures. I actually think Chaney was sorely missed as the play caller in this one. And we did not play well offensively-lots of mistakes.

We scored on the opening kickoff, then proceeded to score 0 points for the rest of the half. Navy's offense is obviously good, but in this day and age of college football, you can't possibly expect to compete with ANYONE, let alone Navy, if you are putting up seven points in a half.

 

[thebadby2]

We scored on the opening kickoff, then proceeded to score 0 points for the rest of the half. Navy's offense is obviously good, but in this day and age of college football, you can't possibly expect to compete with ANYONE, let alone Navy, if you are putting up seven points in a half.

Right-and a kickoff return TD is a gift. The O couldn't sustain and finish a drive to keep the Navy O off the field.

 

[UPitt '89]

We scored on the opening kickoff, then proceeded to score 0 points for the rest of the half. Navy's offense is obviously good, but in this day and age of college football, you can't possibly expect to compete with ANYONE, let alone Navy, if you are putting up seven points in a half.

Well... we should've had 6 to 10 more. A missed chipshot FG and a interception deep in Navy territory.

 

[Fraliccrushedme]

This offense isn't designed to pound the ball. It's all about pulling and misdirection. That's been my problem with Cheney all year. Straight power blocking would be their strength, but they don't play power football. They play an offense that is designed for teams that have trouble recruiting linemen.
You pound QO between the tackles 30 times a game and we win 3 more games, including Navy. Most P5 teams don't have the hogs to last against for a whole game. This was, imho, Cheney's biggest misuse of his assets.
Why give a smaller "pursuit" teams help by running outside? Your front seven outweighs their front seven by 20 lbs a man. Run it down their throats. Get your 4 yds a carry and pop one for more every now and then. Draw the defense up to stop the pass then hit them with play action. It's not rocket science.

 

[thebadby2]

This offense isn't designed to pound the ball. It's all about pulling and misdirection. That's been my problem with Cheney all year. Straight power blocking would be their strength, but they don't play power football. They play an offense that is designed for teams that have trouble recruiting linemen.
You pound QO between the tackles 30 times a game and we win 3 more games, including Navy. Most P5 teams don't have the hogs to last against for a whole game. This was, imho, Cheney's biggest misuse of his assets.
Why give a smaller "pursuit" teams help by running outside? Your front seven outweighs their front seven by 20 lbs a man. Run it down their throats. Get your 4 yds a carry and pop one for more every now and then. Draw the defense up to stop the pass then hit them with play action. It's not rocket science.

Not true on the idea behind our offense as being designed for teams with weak O lines.. The offense we ran this year is designed to be power run heavy but multiple out of the shotgun. Just like MSU. We didn't look very comfortable in it all year, probably because it was our first season running it and Chaney's first season coaching it. We aren't Alabama-we arent going to line up and ram it between the tackles all day against the better teams on our schedule. I'm not saying we couldn't have done more of what you are suggesting or that our O was beyond criticism, but if we wanted to go power between the tackles all day, especially without Conner, I don't think the results would've been any different, and may have even been worse. One of our real problems was our passing game was largely awful, incapable of stretching the field at all. Zero downfield passing threat. Boyd is our only legit threat in the passing game and he's not a burner. Peterman appears incapable of getting the ball deep and our WRs don't seem to get separation deep. We were way too easy to defend.

 

[Fraliccrushedme]

Bb2
When you have 300 lb OT's kicking out to throw cut blocks on CB's you're not using your personnel properly. They did it all the time. They ran the short side pitch crap way too much. Too many of their runs took forever to develop. This line was built for dives, blasts, and power runs.

 

[Panther Parrothead]

Here's what I hope didn't happen!
We were unprepared for two games Miami and Navy.
It was reported on this board that coach Narduzzi helping MSUs Dantonio on how to beat Iowa?
I hope he's not still assisting Dantonio and not paying enough attention to PITT. Big stakes for MSU but in his position equally large stakes for PITT.

Honestly, that would be very hard to believe. I'd think that because it was his first bowl game, that he'd be 100% focused.

IMHO, I think that it's the players who've been getting the mulligans. As I mentioned earlier, UConn held the Middies to 28; USF held 'em to 29; Army only gave up 21. If we can't play defense better than those three teams, the entire "D" needs to be overhauled, player-wise.

 

[Ten Thousan Marbles]

From an offensive perspective, Navy totally outclassed us and out coached us---had us on our heels the whole game, great mix of pass-run and different sets, passing when unexpected---better coached

Worst was the pass to the quarterback. They were just trolling Pitt at that point, and it was still early.

Next year is another season.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

Worst was the pass to the quarterback.

You mean the play where we had two defenders perfectly positioned to make the tackle after a short gain and they both ran right past the play like as if they thought it was against the rules to tackle a quarterback who caught a pass?

 

[thebadby2]

Bb2
When you have 300 lb OT's kicking out to throw cut blocks on CB's you're not using your personnel properly. They did it all the time. They ran the short side pitch crap way too much. Too many of their runs took forever to develop. This line was built for dives, blasts, and power runs.

We ran a lot of zone run plays. That's how it's done. Works pretty well for a lot of teams.

Bb2
When you have 300 lb OT's kicking out to throw cut blocks on CB's you're not using your personnel properly. They did it all the time. They ran the short side pitch crap way too much. Too many of their runs took forever to develop. This line was built for dives, blasts, and power runs.

Chryst is gone, and the old school I formation and traditional power blocking schemes went with him. Neither he nor they will be coming back. So our O line had best get busy learning their new techniqoes. Lots more zone and stretch looks now. It has worked very well elsewhere, it can and will work here as well. Watch MSU's O (although Bama might not be the best game to get a flavor of it). That's what we are trying to copy here. Dooz has made no bones about that. A good OL is a good OL in any scheme, once he learns his techniques.