Tag: Pat Narduzzi

POV Game Thread: Georgia Tech

Yesterday I predicted a four point GT win over the Panthers 38-34 because I thought this might be the game our run defense – as great as it has been – shows some weakness against a speedier backfield using the Triple-Option, something that we haven’t seen yet this season.  Here’s a good in-depth explaination by the GT HC Paul Johnson.

That’s how HC Paul Johnson’s offense will look today.  Now, here is a well-seasoned and expert ex-Coast Guard academy Defensive Coordinator John Loose explaining how to defend against it (just a coincidence, really!)

Interesting Huh?  What we need is the defensive approach Dave Wannstedt used to shut down Navy’s great option offense back in the day.  The key there was to keep our MLB Scott McKillop as the ‘spy’ on the Navy Fullback regardless of what was happening on the play.  It worked well and we won some games doing that.  Of course having McKillop at MLB help a bunch there also.

Continue reading “POV Game Thread: Georgia Tech” →

Monday Morning QB: Marshall

As is the tradition here we’ll take a look, a quick look today, at three things we each think jumped out at us on the positive and the negative aspects of our play on Saturday.  I’ll start and you guys can chip in.

Because we won we’ll start with the happier part of the conversation.

POSITIVES:

Nate Peterman’s play at QB with the leash off.  I say with the leash off not because he was allowed to attempt more passes by our offensive coordinator Matt Canada but because of the type of passing game playcalling that was instituted from the start of the game.

So maybe I should include Canada in this one also.  But here is what Peterman’s box score looked like.  np1As you can see he was very effective with his passing with a very good 74% completion rate and a final QB rating for the game of 204.8.

But it was how Canada started of the game with being inclusive of our almost-forgotten passing attack that was impressive, and it produced a quick seven six points.

passing

Wow! 2/3 for 52 yards to get us to the Marshall 5 yard line and a TD scored on the next play.

That is how we needed to get the passing game established as an equal partner in the offense and to dispel the then-current thinking that Nate Peterman’s best QB play was behind him.

Continue reading “Monday Morning QB: Marshall” →

POV Predictions & Know The Enemy

(Game Notes – don’t leave home without them)

Marshall – just the name strikes fear into opposing football teams!

Not really, I just wanted a dramatic opening.  But Marshall isn’t a program to be taken lightly no matter what their current record is – which stands at 1-2 with big scoring losses to Akron (65-38) and then Louisville (59-28) both at home.  Their singular win is against Morgan State also at home.

So Pitt will be their first away game of the season.  In normal times we’d think that an opposing team would face a lot of screaming Pitt fans in Heinz Field but I wonder about that for this weekend.  Pitt is also coming off two high scoring losses and there may not be all that many butts in the seats – especially given that the game starts at 7:30 pm.

Marshall’s Thundering Herd resides in Conference USA and while many Pitt fans may look down their noses at this it is my firm belief that Marshall shouldn’t be taken lightly.  As a matter of fact while most of us looked at the beginning part of the schedule and saw three ‘big games’ I have been writing that there are four – because Marshall always seem to annually upset a team that didn’t take them seriously enough.

Continue reading “POV Predictions & Know The Enemy” →

I’ll Have the Braised Crow Please…

 

I must say I swung and missed on that game yesterday, so I will.

I was totally wrong…and not just about the score of the game.

I’m a Show Me kind of guy and really wondered, not believing actually, that Pat Narduzzi would pull this one out – not after watching the Miami and Navy games last year.  But I was wrong. This was his first Big Win and how grand he must have felt at the end whistle yesterday.  Notice I said ‘first’ big win… there will be more.

Continue reading “I’ll Have the Braised Crow Please…” →