Joe Starkey has a piece on ESPN.com about Pitt and Rutgers.
No. 19 Rutgers (6-0, 1-0) moved up five spots in the AP poll this week, checked in at No. 16 in the BCS Standings, and is off to its best start since 1976. It boasts the nation’s top-ranked scoring defense (8.3 points per game) and second-ranked overall defense (221.3 yards).
Rutgers tailback Ray Rice will be clashing with Blades plenty on Saturday — Rice is fourth in the country in rushing (149.8 yards per game) and Blades is sixth in tackles (11.1 per game) — but the two are in sync on the subject of the game’s importance.
“It’d be a steppingstone for either program, whichever comes out the winner,” Rice said. “[The Panthers are] obviously way better than they were last year.”
Rice had his consecutive 100+ yard games streak snapped in the Rutgers blowout win over Navy. Pitt’s defense will need to focus even more heavily against the run. Mike Teel, their QB hasn’t been that great — though he finally had a good game versus Navy — minimizing their passing game despite having Clark Harris at TE.
If Rutgers does pass, it doesn’t seem like they’ll be bothering with one side of the field.
There’s a reason why Pitt’s Darrelle Revis only has two interceptions through seven games: Teams simply avoid passing in the direction of the All-Big East cornerback.
“I don’t know how much we’re going to want to throw at him,” Schiano said. “We’ll see. It’s early in the week, but from what I’ve seen of him, he’s awfully darn good.”
Rutgers defense has been excellent since Rutgers HC Greg Schiano also took over the DC duties. Especially against the run this year.
The veterans up front, starting with senior defensive tackle Ramel Meekins, who leads the team with six tackles for loss, six quarterback hurries and three sacks, have played a big part in the Scarlet Knights’ success.
Meekins was named the Walter Camp national defensive player of the week and the Big East defensive player of the week after having 12 tackles, two sacks and three forced fumbles in the Scarlet Knights’ 34-0 win Saturday against Navy.
And Pitt couldn’t run the ball last year against Rutgers.
The Panthers ran the ball 25 times for minus-11 yards in the 37-29 loss to the Scarlet Knights, which means they lost a little more than a half a yard every time they ran the ball. Those numbers were skewed a bit by quarterback sacks, but the adjusted numbers without sack yardage — 20 carries for 34 yards — weren’t much better.
Pitt (6-1, 2-0 Big East) plays host to the Scarlet Knights (6-0, 1-0) Saturday, and Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt knows the Panthers will have to run the football much better to have any chance to win.
“The goal is to do better than we did a year ago, that’s for sure,” Wannstedt said, then laughed. “This will be by far our toughest test running the ball of the year. They are playing against the run as well as anyone we [have] played. Last year, we didn’t do a good job of blocking and we didn’t give ourselves a chance because of falling behind. It won’t be easy again — they have seven seniors on defense, and six of them are in their front seven.”
…
Pitt center Joe Villani said the Panthers’ poor running performance last year has not sat well with the offensive line. He said controlling Meekins is only one part of the equation for success against the Scarlet Knights. The other is figuring out who is coming from where and blocking them.
“That’s not a stat we like to talk about, minus-11 yards,” Villani said. “That was a bad night for all of us, but a stat like that, plus the [five] sacks or whatever, we got our butts kicked. What else can you say? This year, though, we are a year more experienced. I think we are running the ball better than we have, and we need to just keep working hard.
“What makes Rutgers so tough to run on — or move the football on, for that matter — is their front seven is so fast and so physical, and they will take some chances. This is a game where we all need to know our assignments. We all need to be on the same page because they are too good to take even one play off.”
It didn’t help that Pitt buried itself by being run over on defense in the first half and found itself down 27-0. Essentially guaranteeing that Pitt had to throw. In Palko’s two games against Rutgers he’s exceeded 300 yards both times.
We’ll find out in this game whether Pitt’s O-line really is opening holes for the running game, or if it was simply inferior opponents. Mind you, that is still progress considering Pitt couldn’t open holes last year even against inferior opponents. I’m just hoping for a little more.
