I have to dash this one off because I’m late for work but wanted to at least wrap things up. Note this will not be my finest writing. But it will be my hastiest!
Special Teams / Kicking Game: I want to start here because without Alex Kessman’s performance we don’t beat Louisville. 3 for 3 FG coming off of 0-for-whatever spells R-E-D-E-M-P-I-O-N. The entire Pitt fan base thanks you for your resilience Alex! A+
Quarterback: I’m chalking Kenny’s bad day up to the alternate uni glove on his throwing hand. C-
Running Backs: Saw more Izzy than we’ve seen all year and I liked it. Vince Davis seemed to round into form in the second half. AJ looked good until he got targetted (no foul called). Missed Wildcat snap by Vince a minus. Would have liked to see some Todd Sibley. B-
Wide Receiver: Lots of ho-hum punctuated by flashes of brilliance. Jordan Addison’s TD. Addison snatching the ball away from a defender and going for a first down. The Mack Miracle, which was maybe the headiest play I’ve seen by a wide receiver, ever. These three plays helped us score just enough to win. B+
Tight End: I’m calling it now. Danny Moraga needs to get more balls thrown his way. Had a key third down catch to move the sticks and dragged a tackler for a couple of yards. Nearly made a highlight real catch down the seam in Q4 – full extension, got one giant mitt on the ball and then got whacked by the safety. I’d say better than 50% chance he came down with the catch if Louisville didn’t have that defender overt to top. It was the most athletic play I’ve seen out of a Pitt Tight End in a long time. C+
Offensive Line: The run blocking is starting to come together in fits an starts. The pass blocking is still way better than we expected. Ironically it’s the tackles that have been leading the Way. Carter Warren’s Pass PFF pass-block grade was right around 88. Carson Van Lynn came in at Right Tackle for Gabe Houy, logged 40 snaps and his pass blocking graded out at 81+. The guard play still has a way to go (at least according to PFF), and I want to see the run blocking a little crisper, but so for, not bad. B
Defensive Line: “These guys were … different”. Scott Satterfield. A+
Linebackers: Looked like a possible mental lapse by Chase Pine early on that 75 yard touchdown run, but after that he settled in an played a very good game. I didn’t see them giving up many passes and I saw them in on a lot of tackles. B+
Defensive Backs: Pitt made literally three mistakes on defense all day. One was by the linebackers on that 75 yard run, per above. One of them was on personnel – AJ Woods at Corner on Tutu Atwell on 4th and 4. Louisville made us pay. The third was a blown assignment on the first Tutu TD (After a very questionable call on a “fumble” by Pickett). But for the most part Pinnock and Williams locked down the X and Y, and the safeties did the rest. Hamlin had a great play knocking a long reception out of Atwell’s hands even though he was a step behind him. A-.
Discipline: A-. I think three penalties all day? Maybe four. One on defense that I can count and then Patrick Jones used his offsides as motivation and notched a sack right after that so all was forgiven. If Pitt plays like this every week, they have a chance to win every week.
Coaching: Solid with one exception. Defensive timeouts on third down seemed to work. Going for it on 4th down seemed to work, except one dropped ball by DJ turner at the end, but that was not the coaches’ fault. Duzz did get out-thunk on that penalty / fake punt though. And they should lose points for having AJ Woods in on that fourth down. B-.
Pundits: Pitt beat a ranked opponent and dropped from 21 to 24 in the AP poll. Tennessee, who squeaked by unranked South Carolina now sits at 21. North Carolina who has beaten one team sits at 12. Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State have yet to play, and all sit above Pitt. Even BYU is ranked higher. F-.
NC State Depth Charts:
pittpov.com 
I will guarantee you that another ball club that is pissed off about the Panthers drop in the polls after beating a solid Louisville team is the Wolfpack.
I think this bunch of Panthers take those rankings, posts them on the bulletin board during practice week & then come Saturday, this Panther Defense takes names & kicks a$$.
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maybe, possibly even a little tremble(fear>anger) in the Wolfpack
and that is in addition to that likely pre-existing in any QB’s Pitt faces from here out
gotta keep it up!!!
H2P!!!
H2PN!!
H2HL!
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Pitt dropped because these goofballs added 4 B1G teams who haven’t played yet to the polls. All above Pitt of course. How nice….
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Written on the fly or not, excellent article, MM.
Hoping we get Baldonado back soon. I thought Weaver looked a bit out of energy in that last series.
Another positive aspect for Kessman was the way he was bombing the kickoffs. With the speedy guys Louisville has, I was glad to see them being unreturnable.
Hope MM is right about Daniel Moraga. We need Wright back too. We had Carrigan playing a lot of snaps as a blocker, but I don’t know if we’ve ever even attempted a pass to him…
Go Pitt.
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I pretty much agree with your grades MM except for the offensive line play. There has to be a major problem on offense when our offense scores so little given the opportunities given it by our defense. The OL is below average C- at best and the Whipple’s play calls are below average as well. In the last 16 games with Whipple calling the plays I’ve seen almost no improvement on that side of this team.
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No fans in the stadium – F
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MM – a grade you missed:
Christodoulou holding on field goals —> A
😊
Go Pitt.
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Offense was balanced at least.
1st downs – 10 rushing 10 passing
40 rushes, 38 passes
The run game is still a work in progress. Having to shuffle the right tackle and TE is not helping. I believe Krull and Wright were both out for the game. Moraga isn’t the biggest guy to have in there to seal the edge on run plays. He is only listed at 225lbs. Maybe he beefed up since. If Carrigan is in it gives away that is is a run play, not sure he has been targeted at all.
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Uniforms and sweet Caroline.
F’s in my book.
Fans will be allowed back when the Nitters start up. Probably 25 percent max capacity.
Again, why aren’t tarps being used. Could display certain symbols and slogans. And what happened to the cardboard fan cutouts for the seating.
Pitts schedule is back loaded. Just like the Steelers, little more than a mediocre 3-0 team right now. Can this team beat the Hokies, tarheals (not on schedule) canes, Irish and tigers.
I see Pitt as the 5th or 6th best team in the conference. So top third for a top third spend. No great value however.
Remember guys pitt just covered after not covering cuse. They are doing what Vegas generally expects. Pitt is a top 25 team right now. Not a top 15.
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The folks who set point spreads are pretty amazing. With all the crazy plays and near-misses in that game, and the domination of Pitt’s Dline, it still comes down to a 3-point game…
Go Pitt.
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John, you can’t believe the research and prep that goes into setting those lines. I had a friend Randy , that moved to Vegas 20 years ago to gamble legally and he ended up being a line setter. About 170 IQ, smartest guy I ever knew. If gamblers were sane, and knew what went into setting lines, they’d never bet again.
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Hey, you don’t have to beat the house to win; you just need to beat the guy who took the other side of the bet.
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Kessman field goals – 2 of 3 were from the left hashmark. The third was from straight on. Perhaps there is a right hash mark problem since that is where his misses came from earlier, right?
Rankings – The rankings this year will be all over the place and we shouldn’t worry about them, yet. Winning should cure that. BUT, some games will have weird results due to shortcomings in roster due to covid/illness. It will be interesting how the conferences/teams spin losses. Was the other team better. or did your team compete without 3 star players on offense or defense due to covid. I don’t think the collection of us giabroni’s will know the reasons for half the scores this year. Will be weird.
Ike, 4-1 start expectation is due to the easier schedule upfront and really is the footprint for how scheduling should take place going forward. Hopefully the AD takes notes on how the ACC helped PItt do what they couldn’t do on their own. Let’s not get over our ski’s with enthusiasm yet. The easier upfront schedule is meant to bring confidence to players, get younger players playing time, “show” formations to make others worry going forward (uggh) and to get noticed nationally. Wow, what a concept! Thanks ACC for showing the AD how to do it!
Pitt either takes advantage of the schedule and closes strong or they don’t. I hope they do, but won’t go too far over the ski’s. I am 3-0 on predictions this year!
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Appreciate your sharing this perspective here, Huff
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FWIW: If my “Likes” actually show publicly — they haven’t logged here on WordPress as of late — please note my intention to “Like” Huff’s comment; wasn’t trying to “Like” my own. (Cleaning up one’s Soc-Media trail can be exhausting.)
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I completely agree with Tex on the idea of tarps. I mentioned that to my better half during the game and she just shrugged and walked away (her family is a bunch of filthy Pedo supporters and in one case a booster).
I also agree that once the Pedos suit up, magically fans will be allowed back in some limited capacity.
Anyway, I also hate the uniforms but they looked slightly better on TV and the team did win. As long as the slag gray uniforms are a one off I won’t complain too much more about them.
The one thing I did love almost as much as the win this weekend was my one friend, who is a Pedo fan took Louisville plus the points, He got a line of UL + 2.5 and lost by the hook. I literally LOL’d at him.
H2P
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I agree with the idea that letting Pitt slip in the polls will increase the chances of Pitt beating NC State. After the big win against Louisville, Pitt might have been poised for a letdown and come out flat. Now, they should be sufficiently fired up to dominate and prove they are no fluke.
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Pitt didn’t slip….they just added 4 B1G teams on Sunday. Rats I tell ya….
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I get that Huff and in complete agreement with you. Here’s the thing though. A few short years ago, many wouldn’t be so quick to predict that kind of start for a PITT football season no matter of the schedule. Narduzzi is slowly bending some of our brains. Expecting PITT to win any games was risky thinking.
Is the defense a thing of beauty to watch? A couple first downs Kenny and change field position and don’t turn the football over. 7 pts > 3 but points are the more important issue.
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“Is the defense a thing of beauty to watch?” I’d say yes: The Pitt defense has faced 164 plays from the opposition. More than 20% have ended behind the line of scrimmage.
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Notable Stats
PFF counted 23 pressures. 11 came from Jones and Weaver. (6 and 5 respectively).
The next highest was 2 (S. Dennis, D. Green, C. Bright, K. Camp, P. Campbell)
Hamlin allowed 2 rec on 6 targets
Pinnock 1 rec on 5. Atwell was 0-4 against him. IMO he’s approaching lockdown corner status.
Williams 1 rec on 3 , but only 14 yards
Cam Bright allowed 3 on 3, but only 16 yards total. Some strong tackling after the catch.
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Also, I read where the Pitt defense has allowed 3 second-half points this season…
Come on, Coach Bates! Clean up that second-half defense… 😊
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MM 2nd half PITT “O” isn’t scoring too many points vs conference opponents….that has to change soon….
Good week to get the running game going…. VT pushed/punished NC State with the Gobbler running attack…..we shall see- offense has been too sporadic and consistently weak in the 2nd half of most games…..
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Kancy should be listed in there.
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Watching the ACCN after I finally sat down after getting mu Italian sausages in the slow cooker. Packer reeled off where the PITT defense stands in the national rankings. This, so far, is 1980 stuff.
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No meatballs Ike? I’m disappointed. 🤠
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I make a mean meatball Tex, no arm hairs allowed. Problem is… I have to make a different recipe for the grand-kids. Of course I haven’t seen much of them lately 😦
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and btw thanks for nobody correcting me on the interception not being Pinnock but Williams where he is pointing out blockers and high stepping rather than just getting up field
probably a ton on other mistakes and you guys just feel sorry for me so let them slide,,,,wife oddly revels in correcting me,,,,often 😦
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Get ready for two more ACC Network games: Noon on Saturday against NC State at Heinz and 4pm the following Saturday at BC.
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MM, give yourself a break man. The above is another of your many fine pieces of work. If you relaxed your lofty standards a bit, it is clearly undiscernaible.
👏👏👏
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By the way, both Krull and Wendall Davis are not on the two deep roster this week. Looks like will be gone for quite some time if not the entire season.—–Carriagan 1st team TE. Don’t think we will see many called passes plays for him if he plays the majority at TE. If Pitt tries to shove the running game down our throat with Carrigan at TE they may well keep NC State in the game and Pitt fans on the edge of their seats in the 4th Q.
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Y’all give state too much credit. This team stinks to high hell. Couldn’t beat a school missing 23 players and 4 coaches. Pitt wins in a feel good blow out.
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Yes but could Pitt score 37 with Beville or Yellen at the controls? Even against these guys?
Tech’s #2 QB’s looked real good.
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Yellen yes
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That’s because he is actually their starting QB.
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A reminder: Ron “The Great Paterno” Cook picked Louisville to beat Pitt. As did most of the TV pundits.
They all had to be hoping Atwell would hang on to that pass in the end zone…
Go Pitt.
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Cook would make a good regift come Christmas.
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Cook? Remind me again who won the Heisman Trophy Fitzgerald’s last year? He’s an idiot.
Someone thinking PITT won’t win the game on any given Saturday, not surprising.
Kenny Pickett didn’t play a really bad game last week. When you have a defense that holds an offense that averages over 500 yards a game to half to that average you want to control the football for over 11 minutes in the fourth quarter. Oops, Pickett and PITT did just that and I don’t know football? hmm? BTW, PITT kicked Louisville ass this past last week. Style points don’t count in week three. Moving forward..
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True but any win by just 3 points is just too close for comfort Ike. Especially so when we did view the Pitt D did kick Louisville’s asses last week.
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Looking back on Narduzzi’s sarcasm about team speed…..he was more the correct. I think Pitt has good if not great speed on D from the LBs on back.
I think the effort is there to do the same on offense with Addison, Izzy and Bardon.
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NCST was missing more starters than VT. The VT storyline was annoying … instead of being 85 deep they were the size of an NFL team. Lol. NCST is not good though … but neither is our offense right now. Covid, injuries, drops, passes sailing high … lots to fix … except Addison. Don’t touch that guy.
I expected a giant leap from the offense this year but I’m sorely mistaken. Looks the same as last year. Whiplash killing any momentum.
For the love of God, please transition to a read/option offense after Whipple leaves. Join the 21st century. Most NFL teams aren’t running traditional pro-sets anymore either so it’s becoming less and less of a true selling point to get to the league.
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Gordon Conn aka GC aka Gordon has twice asked for an analysis of 2020 ACC schedules. His contention is that Pitt has the hardest due to back to back games with @Miami & ND, & later with VT & @Clem.
Based on my own ACC power rankings, I have the top 7 teams in this order. Clem, ND, Miami, Pitt, UNC, VT & L’ville, I will list all ACC teams over 4 or 5 comments. It will have home away. Back to back or B to B to B in brackets (….). A few things to remember – the top 7 teams can only play 6. The remaining 8 could play 7 & woe to them. H/A, IMO, can be important in judging the strength of a schedule- 2H & 4A to me is more difficult then 4H & 2A.
Lets start:.
BC – ((UNC,PITT,@VT)), @Clem,ND,& @Va. – 6 of 7. 3H,3A 1 B to B to B
Clem – Miami, @ND, ((Pitt & VT)@) – 4 of 7 3H,1A, 1 B to B
Duke – @ND, @VT, UNC – 3 of 7, 1H, 2A
FSU – @Miami, ((@ND, @VT @L’ville)), Pitt, Clem – 6 of 7, 2H,4A 1 B to B to B
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page 2
GT – ((L’ville, Clem)), ND, ((Pitt, @ Miami)) 5 0f 7, 4H, 1A 2 B to B
L’Ville – ((Miami, @Pitt)), @ND, VT 4 of 7, 2H, 2A
Miami – @ L’ville ((@Clem,Pitt)), @VT, UNC 5 of 7, 2H, 3A 1 B to B
UNC – VT, ((ND, @Miami)), 3 of 7, 2H, 1A 1 B to B
ND – ((L’ville, @Pitt)), Clem, @UNC 4 of 7, 2H, 2A 1 B to B
Pitt – L’ville, ((@Miami,ND)), ((VT, @Clem)) 5 of 7, 3H, 2A 2 B to B
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Page 3 & (Fort Pitt) that’s it.
Cuse – ((@UNC,@ Pitt)), @ Clem, @ L’ville, @ ND 5 of 7 all 5A, 1 B to B
Va. – @Clem, ((@Miami, UNC, L’ville)), @ VT 5 of 7, 2H 3A, 1 B to B to B
VT – @UNC, @ L’ville, ((Miami, @ Pitt)), Clem 5 of 7 2H, 3A, 1 B to B
Wake – Clem, VT, @ UNC, ((Miami, @ L’ville, ND) 6 of 7 4H 2A 1 B to B to B
I do have one correction – BC – substitute L’ville for Va.
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Interesting that UNC has 3 and ND and Clemson have 4. So while we might not have the toughest since we can’t play ourselves, The fact that the three highest rated teams have the easiest schedules does kind of support my overall point. The system was rigged.
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VT has a difficult end of the schedule
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Some good news we get VT after they play Miami and Miami after they play Clemson. Hopefully they are beat up a little.
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Interesting. Thanks for your work, Richard.
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Thanks again Richard. Just for fun how do you rate the teams from worst to best?
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Are you talking Scheduling or power rankings?
If it is power rankings, its the 7 teams listed in first comment 2’nd paragraph #1Clem, ND, Miami, #4Pitt, UNC, VT & #7 L’ville. Then #8 BC, #9 Va., #10 NC State, #11Cuse, #12GT, #13Wake, #14 Duke & #15FSU.
If SOS on scheduling, As I say in a comment below Hardest ACC schedule is #1FSU, #2 BC & #3 Wake. I am a firm believer in 6 games (against top 7) is harder than 5.I would have to put some thought & effort into how to score to separate the teams playing 6 (3), 5 (6), 4 ((4) & 3(2). Then you got the H/A & B to B & B to B to B.
Maybe come up with a scoring system (& be neutral) in approach. Wouldn’t be hard once the scoring system is in place.
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Power Rankings was what I was looking for.
So Pitt does not play 2 of the bottom four.
Duke, Louisville, and UNC do not play Clemson. Miami, VA and VT do not play ND.
BC, Duke, ND, Cuse do not play Miami, that is four so maybe a mistake.
In any case not having to play one of the top three really lightens the load because they seem clearly above the rest, at least for now.
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Hey ike, your Pitt Panthers are not only undefeated, they’re untied. 😊
Just wanted to remind you. (But remember, don’t let yourself get too smug about this situation…)
“I like ike.”
Go Pitt.
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Thanks John. Not smug at all, I enjoy life each day as tomorrow PITT could be back to square one. Let alone myself. Thinks about this and look at the stats the past two games. PITT beat the crap out of Syracuse and Louisville. Score not withstanding. A win is a win, I’ve heard from the opposite crowd a loss is a loss for way too long. Now those people were oppo soppo smug!
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You should enjoy life every day. Like every day was your last. That’s why I drink American bourbon.
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ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week: Drum Roll Please, Patrick Jones II. Was there any doubt after his 3 sacks? Not too bad for a 2 star recruit that many POV posters here belittled when he committed to Pitt.
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Pitt-cocks Fan, great job evaluating SOS. It appears to support the argument that assuming the entire schedule is played, Pitt arguably has the 1st or 2nd toughest by playing 5 of the best 7 and having 2 B to B games against the better teams.
NC’s schedule is a joke but what do you expect when your college runs the league.
I loved Jones/Weaver’s play but we can’t sleep on the play of Kancey last week. He seems to make at least 1 big play every time he’s on the field. It appeared to me that UL dedicated two blockers to Weaver which opened the door for Jones and Kancey who busted through the door.
I also liked Van Lynn’s footwork on pass blocking, he TE skills showed through as he used his feet to stay in front of his man. He may be too small to be effective in the run game, but I’d still like to see Whipple figure out a way to utilize a nimble converted TE, the way that was done with the guy who I can’t remember his name but was drafted highly by the NFL.
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Brian O’Neill who has been playing great for the Vikings.
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Mike, thanks for the write-up; pretty much agree with your grades . . . except for the coaching, I’d read them at C. Primarily, once again, there are no half-time adjustments on the offensive side. And with no adjustments, the other team knows what’s going on. Result, another 3 point 2nd half. It’s going to be next to impossible to come back in the 2nd half without more points.
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Agreed. You were a former coach weren’t you? Or very knowledgeable fan.
☀️
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We are a northern team in a southern conference and have a TV network with limited coverage but we need the money. The Bad the Ugly and the Good..
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Just noticed that I left off NC State on SOS. Is it important no. But it does point out that the 3 closely bunched schools in NC got off easy in the scheduling.
NC State – ((@VT, @Pitt)) Clem, @UNC 4 of 7, 1H, 3A 1 B to B
Guess which NC school got the short end of the stick.
Duke 3 of 7, UNC 3 of 7, NC State 4 of 7 & Wake 6 of 7.
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BTW – If you care, I have Florida State with the hardest schedule followed BC & Wake.
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Interesting Richard… which teams are the common opponents? aha. Well not Wake.
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But Ike, Richard is just pointing out that Florida State has to play a team as tough as Pitt while Pitt just gets to play a team like Florida State. That game alone certainly makes Florida State’s schedule harder than Pitt’s 🙂
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Maestro – bravo on the past two posts. Great analysis.
The only way to help the pundits rank Pitt properly is to play the games. We either win and rise or lose and fall.
The is a lot of bias in the rankings. ND and VT always get more love than they deserve and finally show the voters what the truth is.
Just hear don the radio that Pitt and the Steelers are making some osrt of moves to get attendees in at the games. Sounds like Duzz wants to get parents in and good for him.
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Giving the OL a B is nuts to me. It was mediocre, again. Couldnt impose its will at any point in the second half. Got weaker as the game went on.
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The PITT football team gets an A+ across the board.You win as a team, you lose as a team. They are a team nuff said.
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Mike – very nice wrap-up. Don’t be so humble. This one is right up to the standards you’ve set for us – and yourself.
One thing to add – on the almost-miraculous one handed grab by Moraga. That safety made one helluva play on that would be catch. Kudos to him. It looked to me like Moraga about controlled the ball with his paw till the safety hit him. Perfectly timed. A few milliseconds later, and the ball would have been cradled in Danny’s gut. I would say he had about 80% chance of completing the catch w/o the hit.
Mike – if this is “not your finest writing”, let’s see you top it this week! (There, I wrote just like you told me!) 😇
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As far giving out grades for last week, one grade that I did not see, but very important is Covid results. Pitt had 0 cases this past week. In this wacky year, that’s an A in my book. If you think that should not be difficult, Notre Dame, the savior of college football 😉 just reported this:
” After having its scheduled game against Wake Forest last weekend postponed due to several positive tests, Notre Dame is reporting 18 new cases within its program from its latest round of testing. That makes 25 players currently in isolation and 14 more quarantining due to contact tracing.”
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Notre Dame may be trying the SEC/Clemson approach to Covid. If all the team gets it, hopefully they cannot get it again. Notre Dame does not play again until 10/10/20. Wonder how much Covid takes out of a player and how quickly they can bounce back.
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How much it takes out depends on what symptoms, if any, the individual has. The other issue with having all these players unavailable is the lack of practice time the individuals get and the team as a whole get playing together. If this was the ND strategy, they’re dumber than the SEC/Clemson (is that possible?!?) who did theirs before the season began.
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Couple tidbits:
—Pitt converted an impressive 9 of 19 third downs. Louisville converted 1 of 11.
—“Chunk” plays are defined as runs of 10+ yards or passes of 15+ yards:
Louisville with their high powered offense had six (one was the fake punt).
The clunky Pitt offense had 12 “chunk” plays. Addison had three of them on passes; V. Davis had 3 on runs of 14, 20, and 21.
—Patrick Jones praised WR Will Gibson for helping the defense prepare for Louisville by impersonating QB Cunningham on the scout team. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to prepare for a game…
Go Pitt.
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Took a momentary escape from KC and Baltimore. Pitt guy Louis Riddick is doing the game.
Just watched an ACC network snippet and saw PITT logo in the background. So I quit channel surfing. Pitt is in the national conversation, according to Kelsey, Jordan and Dalen, because of their defense. The guy with the tiny mohawk said Pitt has 17 sacks and next team up has 11! Is that correct? Not exactly Beano, Mark and Lou (2 of 3 Pitt guys, but I digress).
In the year of Covid-19 when everything seems irrelevant, Pitt is relevant.
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Tony, I don’t know if you caught it but the mohawk guy, Mark Herzlich, said that when Pitt and Miami play in week 7, “up until that point both teams will probably be undefeated”. That will make a good locker room quote for Clemson who plays Miami in week 6.
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Yes, Pitt’s 17 sacks is #1, 3 teams have 11.
But Pitt is #5 in sacks/game 5.67. 4 schools (including UNC 7/g & VT 6/g) are above them. All 4 have only played 1 game.
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I would never ever have a special team punt return team on the field. Also, I would always have two players back to return a possible punt, one short and one at normal depth. The one at short depth could be looking for the fake and call for a fair catch in case of a shank. There problem solved. Next question.
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DionJag, what a Handle!, I did catch that comment.
It raised Pitt’s relevancy to potential black belt level.
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Pitt will be facing some pretty good defenses in the weeks ahead after NC State and BC. They have got to get their offense going to have a chance against Clemson, Miami, and maybe ND and VT if they are healthy. Especially the running game, which must get better to control the ball and keep the defense off the field.
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Boy, I would like to get the numbers from the Miami, Louisville game compared to the PITT game. At first glance, sure looks like PITT has the better defense. What do you all think they are thinking? PITT fans always wear their shoe on the same foot.
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Good game review, but I disagree with the RB take — V. Davis averaged less than four yards per carry (as is his yearly average so far); AJ Davis looked okay, but is barely averaging four yards per on the season and never seems to make anyone miss…Sibley also less than four — that’s bad for the NFL, but really bad for college. Carter looks like he can move a pile but hardly gets the ball — but Izzy seems clearly the most talented and needs to get 10-15 carries a game to see what we’ve got…my guess is a game-breaker, but Duzz is being too loyal to his upper-classmen again.
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agree somewhat but I don’t think any of them look like they will be the guy we hope for
maybe Izzy has the best potential so hope the next 2 games someone emerges if not him
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V. Davis broke several tackles against Louisville. The big loss when he misplayed the wildcat snap hurt his stats. Plus Louisville had 8 tackles for losses which were not sacks – where the blame, IMHO, looks to be more in the play design.
I think we see more Izzy as time goes on. If V. Davis is going to miss a blitzer, which is what the one play looked like to me, then might as well take more chances with Izzy…
Go Pitt.
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I never understood the rationale for a single punt returner either Iek…
Also need to see what Izzy can do.
Carter when healthy and Izzy seem like a good combo.
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my one question … is V Davis running any snaps in the I formation, or almost all of them in the spread. In my very brief exposure of the last 2 games, Pitt runs much more effectively from the I than the spread … and it’s not even close.
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COVID protocol comments from DUZZ –
“I talked to them after the game about how I guess the bars are open in Oakland. Just a constant reminder of, Hey, you’re not allowed to go to a bar. Bars are off limits. I don’t care who’s opened them up. I don’t care if you know the bartender. I don’t care what you know. The bars are closed, and I told them they shouldn’t hang out with a girl that’s been to a bar. I’d check and see if they’ve got a stamp on their hand. If they got a stamp on their hand, I wouldn’t let them in. I’d say, See you after this season is over.”
On parents not being allowed to attend games –
“You sit in these homes — I hope it’s starting to boil up. Again, here’s the thing. I’ll go back. These parents are coming here. Kenny’s parents are meeting him at the stadium every day. They’re here. They just can’t go sit in the seats.
So they’re all here, so where are they watching the game? They’re probably going to some bar for four hours. I would rather them not be in a bar, I’d rather them be sitting in Section 138 with nobody around them. We’ve got a 75,000-seat stadium. I’d rather them be there than some bar next to who-knows-who because after the game those parents are going to be with our kids.
That to me is the scariest part. I still don’t understand it. The safest thing for everybody to do is to put those parents in those stands because they’re going to be with our kids afterwards, and if we don’t want any problems and we want to play football, to me that’s the best thing to do.“
Thank you PA government leadership!
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Heather to be on the FAN between 7:30 – 8:00 this morning to discuss allowing fans into the games.
Anyone see Lamar Jackson’s necklace at the post game interview last night?
I want one of those for Christmas!
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is Lamar Jackson the next Tino?
NFL Research@NFLResearch
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Since Lamar Jackson was drafted in 2018, the Ravens are 0-9 after trailing at halftime (including playoffs).
They are the only team in the NFL without a single win after trailing at halftime in that span.
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Here’s a post lifted from Dokish’s blog, lending support to my thinking that the coaches for the offense are out of their element at the D1 level, and that we have a way-below-average offensive line (which includes the TE).
“Here’s where I dial back the Pitt hype a bit: Through 2 games vs P5, Pitt offense is averaging 4.52 yards/play.
That ain’t good.
In past 5 full seasons, only 20 P5 teams were worse. Their combined record vs P5? 37-153.
Winning isn’t sustainable w/o more offense.“
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Slightly different from the power rankings but not significantly.
https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2020/09/29/pitts-acc-odds-shortening-after-3-0-start/
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We probably will not see the defense play a better game this year, near perfection.
We will see the offense play better games and probably worse as well. Just hope their better games come at the right time.
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—Short and long punt returners are nice, but doesn’t that leave you outnumbered at the line and encourage more fakery? Maybe use it on fourth and longer yardages?
—With the Pitt pass rush being so impressive, will we now see more opponents rolling out?
I was surprised, but pleased, that the Louisville offensive coaches seemed to keep trying the same stuff – even though they had a QB who can run.
Go Pitt.
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How about faking 2 guys back until the last minute…fake out the fakers.
Haha.
Seriously, I thought the up man was to take care of the gunner from the kicking team.
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Yeah the up man can pause to see if there is a fake in progress and them drop back for a shanked or short punt. Yards are hard to come by and did you ever notice how many yards are lost with the ball rolling and rolling. That should never happen. There are specific times when a team should go for a block and then are times teams should try and preserve field position. In other words, you don’t have to drop back two punt returners at all times.
Fran is right, The short man gets the gunner.
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