Keys to Victory at Pitt

[bulls96go]

play for 60 min

no TO's

[USFreak]

Bulldoug, I disagree on a couple points:

If you mean one-dimensional in terms of passing all the time, that's just what we DON'T want. With Tyler Palko, they're actually good at throwing the ball. Just review the second half of the Rutgers game or the last drive of the Ohio game. If Pitt had called plays like that the whole season, they'd probably be 5-1 right now.

But unfortunately for Pitt, their new coaching staff is obsessed on establishing a power running game, even though their personnel is completely wrong for it. The Pitt offense doesn't concern me as long as they're trying to pound the ball with their injured running backs behind their mediocre offensive line. It's when Pitt gets behind, and game circumstances force the offense into the correct strategy, that they become dangerous.

I'm not so sure about blitzing Palko. When Pitt gets behind and starts passing the ball, it's all three-step drop/quick ins and outs and slants. Watch the second half of the Rutgers game, or the last drive of the Ohio game. You're not going to get to Palko in three steps, so it's wasteful to commit extra guys to a pass rush. Rush 4 or maybe even 3, and focus on short pass coverage. I realize that this puts pressure on the defensive backs to cover Greg Lee straight up. But that's a gamble we can live with, because the offensive braintrust at Pitt is too risk-averse to try exploiting it with a lot of deep balls.

Good analysis.  It blows my mind that Wanny didn't come in and just take the offensive machine Harris had left -- almost fully in tact -- and ride the horse a little longer.  What a putz.

You go from a BCS appearance to the bottom of the heap with essentially the same squad and a marginally better defense (arguable).  

Your poster sums it up.

[NOBULL1]

#1 key to winning at Pitt....make sure Wannstedt is the head coach on the other sidelines.

[Markeymark]

Score points, while at the same time defending against the University of Pittsburgh's team from scoring an equal or greater amount of afore-mentioned points.

[BULLfreak]

Play good D

Run Andre

NO turnovers

[Guest_Pariah]

Be able to pass the ball (to our guys) at least 20% of the plays

[usfinthere]

Establish that we can pass...

Then run Hall over, around and through them.

TOOOOUCHDOWN!  Andre Hall!

I hope to hear that on the radio a lot on Saturday.

[mellobull]

spike Pitts gatoraid with exlax... ;D

[GarySJ]

spike Pitts gatoraid with exlax... ;D

That should be #1 on the list of "57 reasons we're going to beat Pitt."

[smazza]

we need good qb play

if our qb can't move chains or turnsover the ball, we will lose