H.B. Blades was named Defensive Player of the Week in the Big East. The leader on the defense matched his season average of 11 tackles per game and grabbed the tipped pass for an interception he returned for a touchdown.

A first-team All-Big East performer last year, Blades has continued to play at an all-star caliber level in 2005. He leads the Big East and ranks 13th nationally with an average of 11 tackles per game. His 88 total tackles are by far the most in the Big East. (The second-ranked defender, Rutgers’ Courtney Greene, has only 63 total stops.)

I’m pretty sure he’s the first Pitt player this year to take a weekly player of the week honor. Louisville’s Defensive End Elvis Dumervil has seemingly (and deservedly) had a lock on the Defensive Player of the Week honors. 19 sacks, 46 tackles and 8 fumbles forced in 7 games will get you attention.

While the rest of us get to second guess.

Another article about how the Pitt defense has kept its plans very simple.

According to weakside linebacker J.J. Horne, the beauty of the accomplishment is that they’ve done it without trying to get tricky. Instead, they have scaled back the defensive game plan, with an emphasis on keeping it simple.
…
Blades, who intercepted a pass in the first half and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown, said a reason the more basic approach is so successful is that the underclassmen and first-year starters aren’t overloaded with assignments and keys.

“You can’t get much simpler than what we did [Saturday],” Blades said. “Guys were just running around, making plays and having fun. We just went full speed to the ball on every play. We didn’t blitz much, we basically ran one call the entire first half.

“And the younger guys don’t have to think as much. They all know their responsibilities in the base defense and they just go out and play. It comes more naturally.”

The article points out though, that this has taken place against Cinci, USF and ‘Cuse. The 3 worst teams in the Big East in terms of offense. The next team Pitt faces will be Louisville.

Louisville is the best offense in the Big East by a wide margin, and the #7 offense in the country. They get nearly 500 yards per game (300 in the air, 200 ground) and average almost 47 points a game.

So here’s the quandry for the defense. What do you do with the schemes and game plan?

This is the bye week. They have time to work on more things. Do they go back to adding some more schemes, disguising coverages, blitz packages, etc? Or does the coaching staff work on keeping it simple and basic? Emphasize and focus on fundamentals and drills.

Either way, they are setting themselves up for second-guessing.

Stick to what they have been doing and get torched and everyone will question why, when they had extra time to add some wrinkles, and how could they rest on what they did against the bad offenses.

Go with new stuff and if it doesn’t work then everyone will ask why they didn’t just stick to the basics which had been working and focus on the fundamentals of defense.

I don’t have an answer at this time. Hope they do.

A Q&A with Pitt Forward Levon Kendall. Mainly just stuff about his personal life and how he is “quirky.” Nothing following up on his comments in September about Krauser and playing in the system.

There isn’t much to add. Against a bad Syracuse team, Pitt was rather balanced on offense.

In Syracuse, they are still dissecting how bad the offense is.

But in the blink of an eye it was over, and Dr. Jekyll transformed back into a Mr. Hyde that has haunted this team for the vast majority of seven games now. He reared his ugly mug on SU’s very next possession, which began at the Pitt 15-yard line courtesy of a brilliant individual play by senior defensive end James Wyche, who sacked Panther quarterback Tyler Palko and jarred the ball loose, then swept it into his grasp while lying on the ground before Palko and a diving offensive lineman could get to it.

… SU’s response was a 1-yard gain by Damien Rhodes, two incomplete passes and a Barker field goal.

Pitt, which could have been down 21-0 less than a quarter into the game, was only behind 10-0. Even so, considering that the Orange was about to benefit from a blocked punt by Smith that resulted in a special-teams touchdown, all the offense had to do was stay out of the way and let an impressive defensive game plan authored by Robinson continue to unfold.

It failed to do so. One interception resulted directly in a Pitt touchdown. Another set up a second one. Suddenly, a game that could have been an SU blowout at the half was instead knotted at 17.

At the very least, 13-0 if not for the missed field goal.

For Syracuse, the numbers didn’t lie. The biggest being the fact that they were 0-12 on third downs. This extended their Div 1-A lead in worst 3rd down conversion percentage over North Texas. 15.8 to 23.3.

Also, after the Pitt game, it seems Syracuse will not be calling for a screen pass for the foreseeable future.

When a reporter asked about the problems running the screen, Robinson fired back and asked what the reporter thought. Robinson asked if he thought it was because of that one interception or a season-long problem. The reporter mentioned Florida State and a few other games and Robinson agreed.

“You’re probably right,” Robinson said. “Florida State, that’s a good one. Buffalo, that’s another one. Two weeks ago. We might have to put the old screen play on the shelf.

“That’s a bone of contention right now – that play. It’s probably best to cool it off for a little bit right now.”

It was a screen pass (so they say) that Thomas Smith tipped to H.B. Blades for the interception and touchdown.