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October 1, 2007

Why the Pitt Offense Goes Nowhere

Filed under: Football,Tactics — Dennis @ 9:10 pm

I’ve always felt that how a team does on first down is a huge factor in how well the offense does overall. A solid gain on first and ten keeps you from long third downs and from three-and-outs. Pitt’s first down play calling and (in)efficiency has always frustrated me beyond belief. Using ESPN’s play-by-play I compiled the following information.

Note: “—” denotes the drive continued.

Obviously, a ton of passing at the end in an attempt at desperation. As you can see, on our last drive Bostick attempted a pass on each of the six first downs and only completed one. If we want to score quickly, this isn’t the way to do it.

McCoy was given the ball on 7 first down runs, with LaRod Stephens-Howling getting 2 first down carries. I’m fine with that — but notice the play/series/drive with the ** next to it. McCoy picked up 9 on first then LaRod picked up 0 on second down…then again on third. Give McCoy the damn ball.

Out of 11 drives, 3 ended in three-and-outs, 3 more ended in punts as well. Six of 11 drives ended with a punt and 50% of those lasted only three plays — ugly. Four of the times we punted came after a first down gain of 3 or less plays (including one after a sack for an 8 yard loss).
The run vs. pass stats were thrown off by the amount of passes thrown at the end of the game to try for a comeback (hah, like we’d actually make a comeback, yeah right).

Those 11 first down passes broke down into this:

I plan on doing this for a few more games this year because the stats from one game really mean nothing. Especially the way this game went, having to come from a huge deficit. I think with more and more data compiled we’ll learn more about why our offense (and any other given offense) is ineffective.

This Is Almost Getting Comical

Filed under: Injury — Dennis @ 5:22 pm

Another injury.


Jason Pinkston out for the season after shoulder surgery.

Okay, after LSU and USC everybody sucks. Or is at least so severely flawed that you just can’t count on them.

Rank Team Delta
1 LSU 1
2 Southern Cal 1
3 California 3
4 Ohio State 5
5 South Florida 8
6 Boston College 4
7 Wisconsin 4
8 Florida 4
9 Georgia 3
10 Oklahoma 7
11 Kentucky 6
12 West Virginia 7
13 Hawaii 3
14 South Carolina 5
15 Texas 8
16 Rutgers 8
17 Missouri 1
18 Cincinnati 3
19 Oregon 5
20 Arizona State 3
21 Nebraska 1
22 Miami (Florida) 2
23 Virginia Tech 2
24 Purdue 2
25 Florida State 1
Dropped Out: Clemson (#15), Penn State (#20).

Standing by/Wait Listed: Hell if I know anymore.

LSU is just too impressive. I finally had to flip them with USC. USC has struggled with Washington, but LSU hasn’t slipped yet.

Purdue didn’t really deserve to move into the rankings after that performance against ND, but someone had to go in at #25.

Florida and Oklahoma had off games as much as anything else. Things just seemed freaky in those.

Wisconsin is winning but is continually shaky doing so. When they finally lose, expect everyone to plummet them with their votes. Right now, though, there’s no one else to really put in front of them.

South Carolina struggled until late against Miss. St. yet moved up way too much. I’ll have to adjust that. I don’t care that they beat Georgia head-to-head. I see no reason to move them ahead of the Bulldogs at this point.

If the upper-teams keep losing, then Hawaii might actually creep into the BCS poll.

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