Reed has been all over the issues with the QB controversy disgruntlement. Everyone is frustrated by the continued exploitation of the linebackers. The O-line has its issues. The area that really has me bothered, though, is the secondary. Unlike the O-line and linebackers there is experience, talent and some depth in the secondary.

Antwuan Reed, Buddy Jackson are K’Wuan Williams may not be the absolute best, but they are more than adequate. Williams has been picked on as the youngest player in the secondary. What’s troubling is that they haven’t been aggressive as expected. They have played soft in the coverage and given the receivers in the two games space. This is not part of the aggressive defense we expected. Few if any attempts made to jump routes

The Buffalo game was baffling with that issue even to Coach Graham — other than possibly old instincts from the previous coaching regime kicking in — but the Maine game could at least be explained because the Maine game plan involved using short passes and slants before the Pitt defense could really get coverage. Exploit the weakness in the pass defense with the linebackers.

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It’s mid-week between our win over the might Maine Black Bears and our upcoming scrum against the corn fed Iowa boys.  Last game has generated more discussions than any since the Cincy loss in 2009 I think.  First and foremost the debates and bitches have been on the QB play so far, setting aside the defense which I can’t bear to talk about.

   Todd Graham took some time to go into (surprising) detail on the subject of where we stand at QB right now, how the starting QB has performed and what is expected from the QB in his offense:

“We are a timing passing team — 1-2 and out on our quick passing game; 1-2-3 and out on our drop-back passing game,” Graham said. “The play has no chance because we are not reading what we are supposed to be reading, and we are not getting the ball off on time.  “There are about 10 or 12 plays a game like that. Then, the play breaks down, and it becomes a mess. Fans get frustrated. We get frustrated.”

Basically you need to be able to count to three and throw the ball.  Here’s one example of this problem: “Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri threw two interceptions against Maine, but Graham said an even bigger issue is Sunseri “freelancing” on some plays rather than trusting the offense and executing it.  He said one of Sunseri’s interceptions Saturday was a ball thrown to a receiver “who wasn’t even in our progression.”  That had to be the sideline INT where Sunseri forgot which color uniform we were wearing. (more…)