How good is the Pitt O-Line?

[NCBull]

Pitt will try and run it on us; no doubt.  We are absolutely crushing the run this year, so the advantage is to us.  But we're a little banged up on D, and if the Pitt O-Line comes at us strong, they have a couple special RBs carrying the ball who can make plays.  How do we stack up against their line?

[Jihme]

we won't stack up very well if we keep putting nickle packages on the field.  we'll need 7 in the box if we want to have any chance of stopping a running game like theirs.

[nobull.Bulls]

We havent faced a good running team all year, so this will be a good test of our run defense

[NCBull]

Any update on Selvie?

[Brad]

Pitt's play up front was just too good

SU lost control of the line of scrimmage early and the Panthers just pounded away.

Monday, September 29, 2008

By Dave Rahme

Staff writer

Four brilliant individual plays and a couple of coaching decisions open to second-guessing placed a thick haze over the Syracuse University football team's 34-24 loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon in the Carrier Dome. It is time to clear the air. Syracuse lost its Big East opener for this simple reason: It got dominated at the line of scrimmage. With a rebuilt offensive line that had struggled in its first three games, the Panthers pushed SU's front seven all over the field. With a defensive front seven that did not bother to blitz one time in the second half, Pitt shut down the run after intermission.

End of story.

The offensive line's dominance allowed Pitt to rack up nearly twice as many first downs (23-12), nearly twice as many rushing yards (241-126) and a possession advantage of nearly 17 minutes. It ran 31 more plays than SU. The Panthers were 3-for-15 on third down a week earlier in a 21-20 victory over Iowa; Saturday they were 11-for-18.

"Our offensive line was just blasting them," Pitt tailback LaRod Stephens-Howling said.

"It didn't matter what running back was in there, we just gained positive yards each time."

Pitt's well-rested front defense, meanwhile, went with a vanilla plan in the second half and held the Orange to 21 yards rushing after yielding 105 in the first half.

"We tried to come with some pressure in the first half," Wannstedt said. "The long run they had in the first half was on a play in which we thought they were going to pass and they caught us (in a blitz). We went in at halftime and said that's the end of that. We didn't blitz once the second half."

The Panthers didn't do much of anything in the second half - the offensive players said they ran the same play over and over again and the defensive players said they played it straight - except dominate in the trenches.

That should be much more disturbing to SU fans this morning than questionable coaching calls, because there is no cure in college football for getting clobbered up front. Syracuse learned that Saturday when it used four dazzling plays to build a 24-13 lead two minutes into the third quarter. Each is worthy of another round of applause.

Rest of Story

[lmiusf]

We AIN'T the 'cuse!!!!! Gook luck "clobbering" our D-line PITT... >

[BullyPulpit]

Pitt will try and run it on us; no doubt.  We are absolutely crushing the run this year, so the advantage is to us.  But we're a little banged up on D, and if the Pitt O-Line comes at us strong, they have a couple special RBs carrying the ball who can make plays.  How do we stack up against their line?

Their offensive line is awfully good. I mean, they play as a line, they block, they do all the things you need to have a good offensive line. We are going to have to prepare and play hard if we have any chance of getting to the quarterback. And I really mean that. 

[TheBullies]

Their offensive line is awfully good. I mean, they play as a line, they block, they do all the things you need to have a good offensive line. We are going to have to prepare and play hard if we have any chance of getting to the quarterback. And I really mean that. 

It's going to be a heck of a ball game.

[deters-]

We should be able to dominate the line IMHO.

[Bulls On Parade]

Offense needs to jump on them fast and point points on the board so they can't stick with the run so much.

I was looking at the running yards against mostly bad teams I am not that impressed, we will be the best team

they have faced by far, atleast we have faced a good team in Kansas.