Big East Play gets an early start this season as Pitt takes on Cincinnati for final ownership of the River City Rivalry Trophy. Here’s a half-assed preview of Thursday’s game:
Pitt
They’re coming off a 31-17 loss to the Youngstown Penguins. Obviously this game is a must win because it’s not going to get any easier for the Panthers. They’ll have Virgina Tech next, but not for another 9 days. Pitt could find themselves in a 1-2 or 0-3 situation. Which means one thing: Start looking a travel packages for Birmingham in case they actually do become bowl eligible this season.
Offense
Pitt’s offense is lead by third year starter, Tino Sunseri who has led the Panthers to two consecutive bowl bids. Sunseri had a solid opening game. He also has Ray Graham and Isaac Bennett to hand the ball off to. Graham is still shaking off some rust giving his opening drive fumble. At WR, they have Devin Street and Mike Shanahan. At TE, they have monsters Hubie Graham and JP Holtz. Pitt’s offense put up respectable numbers last week….but normally most teams put these numbers up against 1-AA in one half, not four quarters.
Defense
Pitt’s defense is going through a lot of changes this season. A lot of new faces which leads to problems, like Youngstown State beating you up and down the field. Defense has talent on paper, experience is just another thing.
Cincinnati
Cincinnati is kicking off their season with their final River City Rivalry game against Pitt. They are coming off a 10 win season where they nearly won the Big East title. If Zach Collaros stays healthy, they probably head to their third BCS Bowl game.
Offense and Defense
Cincy is lead by Munchie Legaux at quarterback. He stepped in for Zach Collaros when he was lost for the season. He’s a dual threat quarterback who was 2-2 as a starter last year. Isaiah Pead and DJ Woods are gone. They are replaced by George Winn at RB and Kenbrell Thompkins at WR.
On defense, they run a 4-2-5 with a squad dominated by Juniors and Seniors.
Key Matchups
Pitt Offensive Line vs. Cincinnati defensive line – Pitt’s offensive line has a lot of size up front compared to Cincy’s defensive line. Cincy’s defense running a 4-2-5 is more tailored to stop the pass. Pitt needs to dominate the line of scrimmage and play to the running game. Pitt’s offense is not a passing offense and don’t expect them to come back from behind when down. They need to pound the ball for a chance to win this game.
Cincinnati Offensive Line vs. Pitt Defensive Line – Cincinnati Offensive Line has a lot of height. Tallest person is 6-9, smallest is 6-3. Everyone else is in between. Pitt’s defensive line is going to have to disrupt the offense due the situation they are facing at linebackers and the secondary. If they can pressure Legeax and get into his head, it could be long day at Nippert.
Bottom Line
Pitt needs to to play to their strengths with the running game on offense. It will take help from a steady offensive line. Can they do it? Defensively, they need to get off the field. They can’t let Legeax and this offense get into a rhythm early. We’ve seen Cincinnati do this too many times to this defense. Tino and the passing game don’t have to light it up like they’re USC because they’re not…but they have to make plays.
This game will be about pressure. UC already knows what happens when you load the box with Tino at the helm. Our history with UC suggests that if Pitt gets ahead playing straight up, they will load the box, run blitz, and make Tino beat them with his arm.
I like our Tight Ends to exploit the linebacking and safety groups from uc tonight. UC was fortunate to get a DL transfer from CMU(?), that will most likely start because they are thin at that position.Good chance for our OL to make a statement.
Look, we have to root for Pitt and I expect them to win and play well. We need to be 1-0 this week. Vegas has the teams even, with uc getting the mandatory 3 points for a home game. Will be interested to see if the referees play a part in this mess if it gets tight. We need to “kick em when they’re up, kick em when they’re down, kick em when they’re up, kick em all around”. Have some heart boys!
Now for the offense. Graham is still gimpy; Bennett and Shell can’t carry the load when Cincy D stacks the box. 3 yard outs just won’t cut it. Hoping for a couple completions over 20 yards but forget about that. YAC will be the only way to achieve that. Other than Saddler, our WR can’t outrun anybody. Hoping for the best but fearing the worst.
Cincy 17 Pitt 10 at half. Pitt comes out and turns the ball over early in 2nd half.
Final Score
Cincy 38 Pitt 17.
lol, we couldn’t even score more than 20 points and gain 400 yards against a D2 team that was 6-5 last year. A D2 team !!
People keep saying our QB had a good game against YSU. Yea right, we scored 17 points against a D2 team and he overthrew two sure TD passes. And passed for a whopping 200 yards. Again against a D2 team. Any decent D1 QB would pass for 200 yards in one half against a D2 team, not the whole friggin game.
Yet the beat goes on. Haven’t even heard a whisper of any changes, nor were even any questions asked, surmised, mulled over, had an inkling of, or whispered by the local media (at least they weren’t to Chryst)
All is well, all is well. lol 🙂
The biggest decision is, do we even want to waste 3 hours this evening watching the latest bumbling performance from this joke of a QB in what is sadly become a joke-of-a-program and of course a joke of a team.
Plus my liquor supply is very low, way to low to watch this latest voyage of the Titantic of college football programs.
Come on ya schmucks surprise the heck out of me.
Don’t ya want to win and cherish the River City Trophy thingie for all eternity.
Oy Vey !!
GRP !!
Ezell might help a little as Lippert was invisible
and clueless last week. But a game changer….a no.
If the 3 play we’re going to see 3 more confused bodies out there, more than likely. And this time we’re not playing a D2 team.
The only saving grace is this is the Bearcats first game. So you would think this would give some sort of advantage to PITT.
You would think !
Expecting the worst, hoping for the best.
Scared, hands over my eyes and peeking through my fingers every so often…….
Maybe if your real lucky, you’ll pass out at halftime, better yet in the 1rst quarter.
Sorry Frankcan, I do not recognize, coach speak, reporter speak and political rhetoric as being part of the English language anymore.
God, they must think were all friggin idiots.
Get a load of what Alan Pincket said about ND. They need “more criminals on the football team to succeed” like Ohio State. He’s been suspended from ND broadcasting job.
Comment by alcofan 09.05.12 @ 5:37 am
Finally an Honest Man. Get this guy in a political party (other than the Red & the Blue team) and ELECT him for President.
So what do they do when someone speaks the truth.
They take him off the airwaves. (see Lou Dobbs, Glen Beck, etc.)
Cinn will take advantage of superior field position throughout the game and win by 20.
they will get you to if they find you the bastards.
the wheel of time turns watch your back i do.
This line is very misleading. lol
It suggests leadership. As in leading a team.
And being led to that made-up-for-thebigleast-espn needs programming-bowl in bumf8ck alabami is not a reward, it’s further humiliation.
All BigLeast Bowls need disbanded after this season, cause no-one cares, no-one goes(other than Sal & Roxy & kids) and the few that watch need to seriously review their priorities in life.
What….Dancing with the Stars wasn’t on that night. 🙂
Yes our only hope, we all need to bet on UC.
Tino will f8ck all of us and have a career game, with 500 yards passing and 5 TD passes.
And we’ll swear to ourselves on Camera closeups, that’s looks alot like Big Ben wearing #12.
if they ask we could just say he grew 5 inchs sence the last game.
no close ups please.
Contradictions presented as well, for instance, “Pitt’s offense put up respectable numbers last week….but normally most teams put these numbers up against 1-AA in one half, not four quarters”. Sounds like the offensive numbers weren’t so good after all in retrospect, since YSU IS 1-AA last time I checked.
Then in the match up analysis, no mention of the three absent players on defense who are back after their one game suspension, although your well informed readership initiated that debate in the comments without the author’s prompting.
No hard feelings I hope, I’m just sayin,,,,
I am with you. you need to score pts. in the college game and 200yds. and 17pts. won’t cut it especially against teh spread offense.
The only thing worse is I am fearing a 6th year of eligibility for Sir Tino.
And Emel, “Tino will f8ck all of us and have a career game, with 500 yards passing and 5 TD passes”. If so, then I’ll be the first one in line, bent over with the KY jelly jar opened with a smile on my face if Tino puts up those kinds of numbers tonight. WLAT, time to double down on that Cincy bet, I feel a good a$$ f8cking coming on! I am such a sick bastard.
The Panthers think that ESPN stands for:
Explosive
Spewing of
Poopy
Nasties
Hail to Pitt, anyhow.
know if we have hope for the season.
or if we are doomed.