His Q&A is up with questions about filling the stadium, how good is Rutgers, and from the department of “because that would make too much sense.”
Q: I don’t think Rutgers is very deep at receiver. Can Pitt cover man-to-man and then load the box and bring the house to stop the run?
ZEISE: That’s not been Wannstedt’s style. He doesn’t like to commit too many guys to any one area and he doesn’t like to blitz a lot because it leaves a defense vulnerable. I’d expect they’ll play a lot of their normal cover two and cover three stuff as well and let their corners play up in bump and run. I’d be shocked if they commit more than eight guys up inside to stop the run on a consistent basis. The defense is built on the concept of your defensive line getting the job done by winning one-on-one match-ups and thus allowing the linebackers to clean up all the rest. The line has played fairly well and it has worked so we shall see what happens now.
Aaiigh!
Rutgers hasn’t played from behind all year. They have yet to be put in a position where they are forced to throw. They are weak at receivers and Mike Teel has been inconsistent at best. This is not about blitzing. Like committing to the run, it’s committing to stopping the run. You have to at least bring the safeties up and force TE Clark Harris to stay in and block — taking away their best receiver in the process.
From his chat yesterday.
FearTheStache: Hi Paul, If Rutgers double teams Kinder then Turner will kill them deep and vice versa. how do you see Rutgers defending the pass?
Paul Zeise: They like to play a lot of man coverage, which Pitt has eaten alive any time any team has tried to do it. They will certainly need some safety help to stop Pitt’s passing game, but their real strength comes in the fact that they can put lots of heat on passers without having to bring the kitchen sink since their front seven is so good. If Pitt’s O-line can block well, which they have all year, I think Palko could have a big day.
I expect a couple early deep balls. To test their corners and also see how the pass protection looks against Rutgers.
Rutgers is playing with a house of cards and if Pittsburgh continues to execute on both sides of the ball — regardless of style — I think the Panthers kick around the Scarlet Knights fairly handily tomorrow.
