Chas has put together a nice post with some news and links in it in anticipation of tomorrow’s match against Rutgers, “The USC of the East” according to some of their fans.
First off let’s get this out of the way. Rutgers’s football team has had some of the strangest nicknames of any team I’m familiar with. My two favorites are “The Queensmen” and later on their mascot was Chanticleer or “The Fighting Rooster”. This last led to a great quote from their football coach Harvey Harman, “You can call it the Chanticleer, you can call it a fighting cock, you can call it any damn thing you want, but everybody knows it’s a chicken.” He had his sexes mixed up a little there but you get his drift.
Harman later is said to have bought the first “Scarlet Knight” mascot costume for the 1955 season, which was to be his final season as football coach at Rutgers. Interesting, the first guy who actually does something to take the gayety out of the RU football program gets fired. They should have just compromised and called themselves “The Fighting Queens” or “The Queens Cocks”, both of which would fit perfectly today also. Oh, and Ozzie Nelson of Ozzie and Harriett TV fame was QB for the Fighting Cocks from 1924-26. Anyway, we should kick their asses based on the above alone.
So, let’s take a minute to look at things from the PITT perspective and talk about what we need to see from the Panthers tomorrow to 1) get us another Big East win and 2) make us feel more comfortable about the direction Todd Graham has the team headed at the mid-point of the 2011 season.
Can our offense keep the progress it’s made from the USF game going? Obviously we fans were ecstatic that we finally put up big numbers against a BCS team, but Rutgers’ defense is head and shoulders above USF’s. They are stingy giving up points at 16.5 ppg (17th nationally); great rushing defense with 91.5 per game (20th) and their pass efficiency defense isn’t too shabby either at 28th nationally. The latter stems from their impressive turnover ratio of +2.17 which leads the country.
All that said you have to take into account their opponents so far this season:
Thu 09/01/2011 | N.C. CENTRAL * |
48 – 0 |
W |
Sat 09/10/2011 | @ North Carolina |
22 – 24 |
L |
Sat 09/24/2011 | OHIO |
38 – 26 |
W |
Sat 10/01/2011 | @ Syracuse |
19 – 16 |
W 2OT |
Two cupcakes, a semi-cupcake then Syracuse, not exactly Murder’s Row. PITT should be able to open their eyes to what constitutes a BCS caliber offense in the form of Ray Graham running the ball and Sunseri getting the ball out quickly and, building on his work against ND and USF, using his run option to freeze the LBs.
One thing to note: when deciding to run with the ball over the last two games Sunseri has 15 carries for 93 yards which is averages out 6.2 ypc. That can’t be overestimated as to what that does for the offense. We’ll see more of it tomorrow I think. However, RU has been a sack machine with 3.5 per game (4th) but that again may be a result of inferior offensive lines. If we can replicate the work our young OL did last week and Sunseri can continue to get the ball out quickly then we may dodge this bullet.
I expect Shanahan and Street to shake off the willies they had last Thursday with the dropped passes and, hopefully, they will do it when Sunseri throws one of his better deep balls. Cam Saddler can continue to be a go-to guy in the Slot position. We should be able to match our scoring average of 30 ppg.
How will our defense fare against RU’s offense, specifically the passing attack? There should be no problem with our defense against the run. We are holding teams to a respectable 125 ypg so far and I don’t see that changing much. After all, as Chas pointed out in his last post – you can measure RU’s rushing gains in inches rather than yards “…the running game ranked 117th nationally and averaging 84 inches per carry.”
But, WR Mohammed “Sanu Believe It!” Sanu is going to try to make sure RU can get yardage through the air. He’ll be on the receiving end of passes thrown by either Chas Dodd or Gary Nova, two QBs who just don’t engender fear in the hearts of defenses. We’ll do what we did with ND’s great receiver Floyd, less the totally forgetting about the TE this time, but he’ll make some plays and score at least once.
Other than that I don’t see RU being able to move the ball much against us. They’ll have some offense but we’ll hold them out of the endzone most of the game and limit their points. I also expect us to finally break the turnover drought, we had two against USF but we’ve been missing on INTs hitting the defense’s hands all season and some of those would have been easy pick-sixes. I see Todd Thomas following up his great effort last week with another big game as he starts ‘getting’ his assignments and responsibilities.
Who wins the Special Teams battle? RU’s special teams pretty much suck with them being 88th or below in the major categories of punting yardage and returns. We are just a bit better than them but nothing to write home about. RU’s kicker, San San Te is pretty good having made 10 of 14 attempts and leads the nation with 2.5 per game. ; Pitt’s Kevin Harper has turned his slide around and has hit his last seven attempts. He now 9 of 12 on the season and that ain’t bad. Graham won’t hesitate to go to him especially if we are in a close game.
Our punters are pretty good now with Mark Myers doing some of the punting – which sets up nicely for a fake and a pass down the road. To lots of fans’ relief Graham has done away with the pooch punt… which was a bit surprising as it was actually effective in pining the opponents down inside their 20. I can’t help but wonder if this decision was helped along by Graham’s renewed faith in our offense to do what he wants it to do. Maybe we’ll see more conversion attempts on fourth down.
OK. Prediction time. I think we start off somewhat slowly until the OL gets adjusted to the speed on Rutgers’s defense, which is impressive especially in the LB corps. But talent will out and Ray Graham kicks in another 150 rushing and 35+ receiving. Sunseri continues his progress and throws some decent deep passes which are caught for nice gains. We score 35 points.
Rutgers gets some turnovers that lead to points but we harass their QBs endlessly and shut down their already poor running game. Sanu gets the ball more than we like and puts up some points but RU leaves the stadium with 21 total.
PITT 35 RUTGERS 21
Up to this point in the season, Tino Sunseri has been supported by the Pitt coaching staff through thick and thin, mostly thin IMO. Last Thrusday Sunseri put on a show that was nothing short of an out of body experience for him.
Now, can Tino follow it up???
I’m praying that he can. Hail to Pitt!
Editor’s note: This commenter has a great sense of humor, doesn’t he?
They needed 2 overtimes to squeak by Syracuse’s 250 yards of total offense and 16 points. And 7 of those 16 were a DefTD. And they were up a touchdown over Ohio U after 3 quarters.
Sheesh. IT’S RUTGERS, not LSU!!!! Rutgers has 5 conference wins the last two seasons combined.
If they play the way they did on Thursday, Pitt by 30 going away and Anderson plays most of the 4th quarter.
Rutgers hangs with us for two quarters. Pitt adjusts to the blitz on offense and gets a couple of ints on defense.
Game starts at 12:30 for me, so I’ll have had a nice mtn bike ride in and be ready to watch.
At the end of the season the winner gets a signed copy of one year of PITT Blather posts.
Hail to Pitt!
Rutgers: 22
A RU fan named Rutgersal posts insanely optimistic predictions about Rutgers football. Take a look at this thread on Scouts (first post) and have a laugh…
This is my favorite part where he can’t decide whether to praise or criticize the RBs:
“Our running back is Juwan Jamison, reminds me of Ray Rice. He is a tough runner, especially between the tackles, and always keeps his legs churning forward. He had a tough go at it, in the SU game, as the OL did not run block so well, much of the time. Savon Huggins is our homerun back, who comes off the bench. Savon is slender, for now, and he needs to add mass in the offseason. I only hope he lasts the season.“
Reed, you are the best.
Go Pitt
Will the new and improved Tino show up today?
Let’s Go, Pitt!
Should open things up for Pitt’s receivers and the QB runs. Tino needs to think fast and play fast to avoid the blitzing. Fingers crossed.
Pitt 33 Rutgers 17
Hail to PITT!
What were you doing up at 3:18 AM? I thought you were in bed by 11-11:30 every night. Hope you were just excited about today’s game and that everything is OK with you.
I can’t count the number of times that major expectations about the Pnathers have been dashed by inferior play in games that Pitt should have won going away. Iowa, for example!
This is a new era for Pitt football though and I’m hoping that Todd Graham will keep this team focused and motivated through 4 quarters of football today. Our history haunts me however, after big wins and especially after a lay off Pitt has a tendency to come out flat and play lifelessly. On paper we should be able to hang one on the Scarlet Knights but,,,,,,,,
The USF bounce back from the two heart breaking losses at the hands of Iowa and ND was impressive. Graham has to know how important this game is to build the momentum and confidence in this team as they get back on track in Big East play.
On the field it is going to be all about Sunseri’s play against a pressuring defense. If he performs well we should pick these guys apart. On the sidelines and in the coach’s box there will be another game going on, trying to exploit the other team’s weaknesses. This will demonstrate how well Graham has prepared this team mentally as well as how quick he thinks on his feet by counteracting what Rutgers is doing and taking advantage of their defensive weak spots that are going to be there when they bring pressure on the QB.
Huge game for Pitt, can we shed the “same old Pitt” persona by schooling the Scarlet Knights for 4 quarters and showing them the errors of their ways when them bringing blitzes produces nothing but yardage through the air to single covered WRs like Street and Shanahan, time will tell.
Hail to Pitt!
Your “same old Pitt” analysis is dead on! Anyone who has even remotely followed Pitt over the last 25 years knows that this is the type of game Pitt will find a way to lose.
You want to know why there are 20K yellow seats at HF? You want to know why the PG coverage of PSU is greater than it coverage of Pitt? You want to know why the PG covers WVU just as much as it covers Pitt? You want to know why “The Fan” radio, in spite of being “your home for the Panthers” talks more about the Steelers, Pens, etc.?
The answer to all those (and more) is that Pitt has managed to break the hearts of loyal fans (like us) and turn off the casual fan with a string of upset losses to inferior opponents.
When TG starts to win games like this RU game and when the offense starts to score 40+ points on a regular basis all those thing real Pitt fans like to complain about will be magically corrected.
GO PITT!!
My prediction: Pitt 37 ru 13 (w their TD coming in garbage time).
The link is below:
Go Pitt!!!
Anyway, for today I am thinking a little different. Pitt starts off slow is down by 14 going into the 2nd. By halftime it’s tied up. We come out in the 2nd half and rack up the points.
Pitt 41-20 after being down 17-3 in the 2Q.
Rutgers 21 Pitt 20
My heart is a little more worried about a closer game….
What is wrong with Tom Bradley is that he could not meet the stringent job requirements established by the Pitt Athletic Department. He did not quite fit the Bill Callahan mold. He had no children out of wedlock, and was not fond of Freddy Kruger. The endorsement from the Rooneys, who of course know nothing about hiring quality football coaches, did not help.