It's been a long time, Lair. Between work/family life and the 2023 offensive abomination, I haven't really posted anything for awhile.
But I love Kade Bell and I want to sing his praises.
Because he had an answer for everything Geoff Collins tried on Saturday. And Collins really did try just about everything.
I saw more interesting offensive scheming in the first half against UNC than I did in the previous two seasons combined.
I'll go through the game basically chronologically and explain how I think Bell saw this game and the adjustments he made, and the re-adjustments he continued to make that rendered UNC helpless to stop the Pitt offense.
It seems like Pitt was pretty sure that UNC was going to come out in a zone defense. The answer to zone is identifying the leveraged defenders (ones who would be in a position to choose between covering one player nearby and another) and forcing them to make the wrong decision. And Kade seems to love him some pre-snap motion and he particularly loves to go to Reid in these situations. The first example is the 4th down play on the opening drive.
Here Bart shifts and then Poppi motions out and UNC is in a zone. The motion causes the flat defender (21) to loosen a bit before the snap and then the run action causes him to take a false step inside giving Reid the room to come underneath with an angle to sideline. Very nice little play set up partially by the motion and run fake.
Next, UNC switches to a man defense. Eli correctly reads man to man on the outside to Mumpfield but I love what Eli does here. Instead of rushing the throw and possibly giving the safety the chance to get over the top, he waits, looks to the middle of the field, and THEN releases a beautiful throw to where only Mumpfield can really make a plan on the ball for a big gain.
What a throw and catch. But it all starts with Eli identifying the matchup and making the play the "right" way. He's never really rushed in his decision making. It's really impressive for a young player.
Next, Pitt will do something it hadn't really done yet which is actually get the ball quickly to the motioning player. So far, the offense had been using motion as window dressing. If you do that enough times and the defense doesn't honor the motion, the right play is getting the ball to the motion guy.
It's a simple play and not a huge gain but you can see how UNC was not very reactive to the motion from KJ and the quick screen was easy money. All the yardage the past 2 seasons was hard, sometimes excruciatingly earned. Here, it's just easy. As an offense, you like easy.
Now all the side to side stuff helps create running lanes, especially when you have a QB like Holstein. Next you can see how reactive UNC's defenders are to the jet motion and how many are out of the picture to the bottom of the screen. Like I said before, easy yardage.
This is somewhat the reality for the Pitt offense. They aren't maulers in the run game. Maybe that develops as the year progresses, but as of now the passing game is the key to opening the running game. In that way, the offense is somewhat similar to the 2021 unit the relied heavily on the pass early then closed games running the ball. We still haven't seen the offense pound a team at the end like the 2021 team did, but I'm hopeful that will come as the OL gets more experience and confidence in the scheme.
Now is the part where I have to talk about Eli's INT...but how he completely corrected it later on!
First, Eli is clearly expecting man which would mean these defenders are locked on these receivers...
Instead, UNC is in a zone. I suspect Eli was just locked on Poppi Williams and not really reading the drop from the nickel corner inside that would have told him it's zone. The result is the outside flat defender (21) reads the out and jumps the route for the pick 6.
It's all good because Eli completely redeems himself. I read this next play as something of a cover 4 or matchup zone. Meaning it looks like zone and as soon as the receivers declare on their routes, the nearest defender locks on like it's man. Kind of similar to what Pitt does defensively. Where do teams often give Pitt trouble? A good receiving running back. Here, Reid just makes the MLB look silly. The read that Eli and Reid both makes shows some impressive synergy. If the MLB stays to the middle, Reid probably stays up the seam. If the MLB runs towards Reid, Reid runs for the open void around the backside of the MLB. Holstein throws the ball before Reid has even cleared the defender. What an awesome understanding of the play design and execution. The stack formation was also useful in creating a little confusion for the defense AND it helped to clear the middle of the field as the UNC defense FLEW to the outsides of the hashes.
I love this stuff.
Next, Pitt gets down into the redzone. Things can get congested and difficult to read sometimes. But here I think UNC made it kind of easy to diagnose. The way the defenders are aligned directly over the WR's and the extra UNC defenders are heavy to offense's left would tell me it's either cover 1 with a spy or cover 0 with an overload blitz.
Either scenario makes Censere Lee the obvious match up either on an out or a short corner.
Easy points in the redzone is such a welcomed change and it doesn't happen by accident. Kade Bell is just calling a hell of a game.
Pitt has another chance to put some points up in the 2nd half and here we see Eli absolutely perfectly diagnose a zone defense and deliver the ball before Poppi Williams really even makes his break. The motion and the run action will also cause the linebackers to not get the necessary depth in their coverage drops to have a chance to make a play.
This is my favorite play of the game. Eli knows EXACTLY what's happening here. His eyes are immediately on the MLB. As soon as he takes one little false step towards the the numbers, the ball is out of his hand and into the void where Williams is all alone. This play is like a symphony to me. It has all the elements of what Kade Bell had done so far. A shift, motion across, play action fake with crossing action from the TE to hold the eyes of the LB's. There's just so much going on in this one play that doesn't really happen without the plays that came before it. The result is an easy LOOKING touchdown.
That's probably enough for today. I am just completely on board with Kade Bell and Eli Holstein. I'm not positive the OL will hold up against a truly elite defensive front - but - I am confident that Bell is the right coach for this team because he doesn't really ask the line to do more than it's capable of doing. And that should help sustain this success as we get deeper into the season.
But I love Kade Bell and I want to sing his praises.
Because he had an answer for everything Geoff Collins tried on Saturday. And Collins really did try just about everything.
I saw more interesting offensive scheming in the first half against UNC than I did in the previous two seasons combined.
I'll go through the game basically chronologically and explain how I think Bell saw this game and the adjustments he made, and the re-adjustments he continued to make that rendered UNC helpless to stop the Pitt offense.
It seems like Pitt was pretty sure that UNC was going to come out in a zone defense. The answer to zone is identifying the leveraged defenders (ones who would be in a position to choose between covering one player nearby and another) and forcing them to make the wrong decision. And Kade seems to love him some pre-snap motion and he particularly loves to go to Reid in these situations. The first example is the 4th down play on the opening drive.
Here Bart shifts and then Poppi motions out and UNC is in a zone. The motion causes the flat defender (21) to loosen a bit before the snap and then the run action causes him to take a false step inside giving Reid the room to come underneath with an angle to sideline. Very nice little play set up partially by the motion and run fake.
Next, UNC switches to a man defense. Eli correctly reads man to man on the outside to Mumpfield but I love what Eli does here. Instead of rushing the throw and possibly giving the safety the chance to get over the top, he waits, looks to the middle of the field, and THEN releases a beautiful throw to where only Mumpfield can really make a plan on the ball for a big gain.
What a throw and catch. But it all starts with Eli identifying the matchup and making the play the "right" way. He's never really rushed in his decision making. It's really impressive for a young player.
Next, Pitt will do something it hadn't really done yet which is actually get the ball quickly to the motioning player. So far, the offense had been using motion as window dressing. If you do that enough times and the defense doesn't honor the motion, the right play is getting the ball to the motion guy.
It's a simple play and not a huge gain but you can see how UNC was not very reactive to the motion from KJ and the quick screen was easy money. All the yardage the past 2 seasons was hard, sometimes excruciatingly earned. Here, it's just easy. As an offense, you like easy.
Now all the side to side stuff helps create running lanes, especially when you have a QB like Holstein. Next you can see how reactive UNC's defenders are to the jet motion and how many are out of the picture to the bottom of the screen. Like I said before, easy yardage.
This is somewhat the reality for the Pitt offense. They aren't maulers in the run game. Maybe that develops as the year progresses, but as of now the passing game is the key to opening the running game. In that way, the offense is somewhat similar to the 2021 unit the relied heavily on the pass early then closed games running the ball. We still haven't seen the offense pound a team at the end like the 2021 team did, but I'm hopeful that will come as the OL gets more experience and confidence in the scheme.
Now is the part where I have to talk about Eli's INT...but how he completely corrected it later on!
First, Eli is clearly expecting man which would mean these defenders are locked on these receivers...
Instead, UNC is in a zone. I suspect Eli was just locked on Poppi Williams and not really reading the drop from the nickel corner inside that would have told him it's zone. The result is the outside flat defender (21) reads the out and jumps the route for the pick 6.
It's all good because Eli completely redeems himself. I read this next play as something of a cover 4 or matchup zone. Meaning it looks like zone and as soon as the receivers declare on their routes, the nearest defender locks on like it's man. Kind of similar to what Pitt does defensively. Where do teams often give Pitt trouble? A good receiving running back. Here, Reid just makes the MLB look silly. The read that Eli and Reid both makes shows some impressive synergy. If the MLB stays to the middle, Reid probably stays up the seam. If the MLB runs towards Reid, Reid runs for the open void around the backside of the MLB. Holstein throws the ball before Reid has even cleared the defender. What an awesome understanding of the play design and execution. The stack formation was also useful in creating a little confusion for the defense AND it helped to clear the middle of the field as the UNC defense FLEW to the outsides of the hashes.
I love this stuff.
Next, Pitt gets down into the redzone. Things can get congested and difficult to read sometimes. But here I think UNC made it kind of easy to diagnose. The way the defenders are aligned directly over the WR's and the extra UNC defenders are heavy to offense's left would tell me it's either cover 1 with a spy or cover 0 with an overload blitz.
Either scenario makes Censere Lee the obvious match up either on an out or a short corner.
Easy points in the redzone is such a welcomed change and it doesn't happen by accident. Kade Bell is just calling a hell of a game.
Pitt has another chance to put some points up in the 2nd half and here we see Eli absolutely perfectly diagnose a zone defense and deliver the ball before Poppi Williams really even makes his break. The motion and the run action will also cause the linebackers to not get the necessary depth in their coverage drops to have a chance to make a play.
This is my favorite play of the game. Eli knows EXACTLY what's happening here. His eyes are immediately on the MLB. As soon as he takes one little false step towards the the numbers, the ball is out of his hand and into the void where Williams is all alone. This play is like a symphony to me. It has all the elements of what Kade Bell had done so far. A shift, motion across, play action fake with crossing action from the TE to hold the eyes of the LB's. There's just so much going on in this one play that doesn't really happen without the plays that came before it. The result is an easy LOOKING touchdown.
That's probably enough for today. I am just completely on board with Kade Bell and Eli Holstein. I'm not positive the OL will hold up against a truly elite defensive front - but - I am confident that Bell is the right coach for this team because he doesn't really ask the line to do more than it's capable of doing. And that should help sustain this success as we get deeper into the season.
