In the world of Pitt Athletics, there are two dueling factions: those who look for the silver lining and those who think the sky is falling. This is their column.
*insert Law&Order dun dun here*
This week’s topic is the defense; a defense that has been quite offensive this season. When FSU tore them a new one, it was easy to justify because of how immensely talented FSU is. They could end up the national champion this season. When the starters played a good game against New Mexico, things stated to look better. A great start to the Duke game looked like this: interception, interception, touchdown allowed, punt. After that punt, the offense scored and with a 27-7 score, it looked like Pitt would cruise to an easy victory.
Then, the defense fell apart.
They allowed back to back touchdowns, and along with a punt return for a score, the game was back in contention. The offense stepped it up and made sure it was a 2 score game at halftime, 37-28. Thankfully, the defense came out strong in the 3rd quarter and the offense built a 51-28 lead.
Then, the defense fall apart…again. The offense did just enough in the 4th quarter to hold on and thanks to a clutch Savage to Weatherspoon throw, Pitt came away with the victory. The game really became a tale of two defenses when you break it down. The defense in the 1st and 3rd quarters was perfectly fine. If that defense shows up in the 2nd and 4th quarters, Pitt wins by 15+ easily.
If you consider which quarter a majority of the plays occurred in, here’s how the breakdown on the defense looks:
1st quarter: 2 turnovers forced (2 INTs), 1 punt forced, 1 TD allowed.
2nd quarter: 2 touchdowns allowed
3rd quarter: 1 turnover forced (fake punt failed), 2 punts forced, 1 TD allowed.
4th quarter: 2 turnovers forced (2 INTs), 3 TDs allowed.
So in the 1st and 3rd quarters, the defense forced 3 turnovers, 3 punts, and only allowed 2 TDs. That’s an acceptable ratio. Not great, but acceptable, especially given how the offense played. In the 2nd and 4th quarters, they allowed 5 TDs along with 2 turnovers. No punts and 5 TDs (technically 1 punt was in the 2nd quarter, but that drive mostly occurred in the 1st) is an absolutely pathetic margin. So is there hope for the defense?
The Optimist: While it would require a lethal combination of narcotics to consider this defense good, the pieces are in place for them to be good enough for the team to win 8-9 games. The secondary is clearly capable of forcing turnovers. Aaron Donald is fully capable of reeking havoc up front. There’s a ton of experience at LB. While the defense won’t earn a shutout, they’re a lot better than they looked against Duke in the 2nd and 4th quarters.
Something I’ve mentioned several times is that defenses struggle the week after they play an option offense. While Duke ran option plays, they still passed the ball quite frequently. New Mexico is an option based offense that rarely passes the ball. It is very difficult to drastically change defensive game plans in one week. The way you play New Mexico and the way you play Duke is drastically different. The defense had nearly 2 weeks to prepare for New Mexico. They had only 1 week to prepare for Duke and I have a hunch the transition was too difficult. It was obviously difficult for Duke to go from GT to Pitt.
The transition from Duke to Virginia will be a lot easier. Virginia is a pro style team that has a mobile QB and runs some option plays. Sound familiar? We’re going to see a lot of the same concepts we saw from Duke from Virginia. Their QB is prone to interceptions and they’re going to use a variety of RBs. The defense doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel in one week. They have to adjust to tendencies and focus on playmakers at different positions.
One of the things a new defensive coordinator will struggle with is week to week adjustments when opposing schemes are dramatically different. Good news: Duke, Virginia, and Virginia Tech are not that different. Coach House will not have to make a ton of adjustments until Old Dominion comes to town and hopefully the large talent advantage makes life a lot easier. Things will get sticky after that adjusting from Old Dominion to Navy, but the schedule makers blessed Pitt when they scheduled Georgia Tech right after Navy; their offenses are virtually identical.
Without a dramatic scheme adjustment, the defense will look a lot better against Virginia and Virginia Tech. If they don’t? We better hope Tom Savage has 6 TDs and 0 INTs in him on a weekly basis.
The Pessimist: No matter what scheme adjustment is made from week to week, there are no excuses for the things the defense screwed up against Duke. Shane Gordon whiffed on Duke QB Connette before he waltzed into the end zone. Ray Vinopal was repeatedly out of position and got burned. Small and medium gains were exacerbated by poor angles and poor tackling. Players constantly bit on pump fakes and play action.
When a defense is failing at some of the most basic fundamentals across the board, things that weren’t issues last year, something is horribly wrong. Some people are pointing to superior opponents this year, but in what world is Duke a drastically better offense than Notre Dame? Last year they were nearly identical in total yards and Duke used their 3rd string QB against Pitt this year.
The players are screwing up basic assignments, the coaches can’t adjust, and they fall for every play fake under the sun. They play with their heads on a swivel instead of focusing on their job. A safety should never just stare at a QB while a WR runs right past him. A senior LB should never miss a QB behind the line of scrimmage.
When Virginia does the same things Duke did and drops 40+ on this team, we’ll once again fail to win 3 straight games for the first time since 2010. At this point, fans should hope that the defense can keep Old Dominion in check.
What does everyone think? Will similar schemes help Coach House and the D play better against Virginia or is it going to be just as ugly next week?
Score more points
Intercept more balls
Yeppers I suggested that yesterday. Tyrique Jarrett at 340 lbs would make a nice NT, play a 3 man line. Aaron Donald would get double-teamed less as well. He was all-BigEast as a sophomore playing DE when Toad was here as Toad ran a 3-4. Ejuan Price also excelled, to an extent as a Rush LB in the 3-4.
You are spot on sir !
Comment by outoftown 09.25.13 @ 10:29 am
You might have missed this from yesterday outoftown. Maybe you were…. Out of Town !
1)- Missouri changed from a 4-3 to a 3-4 at beginning of third qtr when Indiana went on offense. Missouri went on to to win & shut down Indiana in 2?nd half. Indiana is a spread option team. (I found this out because my wife makes me watch a SEC centric sports show during dinner.)”
Actually:
“It was a 3-3-5. First time that Missouri ran that defensive scheme. They are having a poll to see what to call it.”
You mean Mizzou players can adjust to a different scheme at halftime(20 minutes). And go on to easily stop their opponent in the 2nd half.
But PITT players can’t make an scheme adjustment in 7 days or 168 hours or 10,080 minutes.
This isn’t rocket science.
When something is really bad, best to blow it up.
So, I doubt the Missouri coaches split time amoung defenses. If they touched on it, I’m sure it was 90%-10% at best. Time would not allow for any in depth goings over.
My point, would be that Missouri pretty much made that change on the fly.
If they were able to have the kids concentrate on two defenses during August camp, then why doesn’t everyone, right??
I still don’t have a solid opinion though overall. Is it House???
Is it the talent???
Someone had a good point yesterday. Was it the competition of the Big East last year, that made our defense look better than it was, and the expectations this year with returning starters from that defense were bigger than they should have been??
Hail to Pitt!
Coaching the kids to run the defensive scheme is on Matt House. I have to say, I actually take some comfort about our defense from Hendricks quote. If it is true that the players are stuggling with the new scheme, that can be fixed (i.e. we have the talent to get better).
On special teams, not sure what the problem is. I do know that our special teams played one of the best games I have seen in many years against FSU, who is probably the most talented team on our schedule. Again, the talent is there, so I have to think some improvement in coaching is needed. It can be fixed.
I’ve pointed out in the recent past, that our defensive stats were inflated to an extent last year due to the weak schedule.
However they did play real good defense against the #2 team in the country and for 3 quarters we were kicking ND’s butt. Offense staggered as the game went on and the D was on the field too much.
But I regress.
Defense was excellent against Rutgers, Cuse, and a few others. Ikr they aren’t great teams, but neither are Duke or New Mexico.
The games against ND, Rutgers, Cuse and some others would suggest the Defense when properly schemed and properly motivated, should be adequate against teams like Duke, UVA, VT, Navy, GT, UNC and Syracuse. This defense looked bad in the 3rd quarter and the 4rth quarter against one of the weakest teams in D1, New Mexico. Even knowing UNM could only run the ball. Duke scored 28 points against lowly Memphis who hasn’t won a D1 game in like 3 years. But we couldn’t stop Duke at all after the first 2 series in the 3rd quarter after they made adjustments to our halftime adjustments. We never did make any 2nd half in game adjustments as far as I could tell.
The only player of significance that we lost and made a major impact on defense last year was Holly, the Safety. Eric Williams was another convertee to LB and was a marginal player.
Totally shutdown their offense and created several turnovers in VT territory that resulted in PITT scores.
What about me Herr Doktor? lmao
Chas, are we going to get an opinion and analysis of the Virginia match up going? Less than 72 hours to kickoff.
That’s normally my department and unfortunately I’m moving this weekend (will be at the game, then immediately throwing boxes into the truck) so my ability to post things that require research is not good. I can throw up things that don’t require a ton of research, but when I’m looking at an opponent, tendencies, stats, etc. it takes a decent amount of time to put it together, time I don’t have this week.
of you remmber reading it.
it was said the good thing abought the house hire
is that pitt can run the same D that they wont
have learn a new D.
well that was bullshit.
did any of you read it.
That well might be true HbgFrank.
However wouldn’t PC want Dr. in the House to run the same nationally ranked defense that was run last year.
Some say the athletes are much better in the ACC compared to BigEast. Maybe FSU & Miami, not so much the rest.
Don’t know if ppl saw it, our pals over in Piscataway beat SEC Arkansas on Saturday. While we don’t know how good Arky is at this point, I thought the SEC had the best athletes hands down.
Uconn almost beat the Big Joke’s Michigan also on Saturday @ the Big House. And Louisville can play with anyone in the country. I think a lot of this, one conf. has better athletes is a bunch of crap.
It’s more about out coaching and out scheming, out smarting, out motivating the opponent.
Which explains why Boise State could always play and beat the so-called Big Boys. Same thing with TCU when they had Andy Dalton.
If the so-called ‘better athletes’ were the key, the Favorites would win EVERY Week in college football.
As we all know, they don’t.
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1. Pittsburgh: According to ESPN’s rankings, Pitt had the 41st-ranked recruiting class last season, but few programs have gotten more production from their freshmen right off the bat than the Panthers. Pitt has played 12 true freshmen already this season, including two of the nation’s best. Tailback James Conner ranks second in the ACC in rushing, and receiver Tyler Boyd has been electric, ranking fifth in the nation in all-purpose yards. Including receiver Scott Orndoff and kicker Chris Blewitt, freshmen have accounted for 70 percent of Pittsburgh’s scoring this season.
Looks like they might run out of the Pistol with that QB Watford. New Mexico ran the Pistol as well.
Nevada with Kapernick was the most famous team that’s run it so far as they had the Coach who invented it. (retired now)
You have to tackle the QB on all option reads, not just tap him if he hands off. You must level him so he gets a little antsy and weary as the game goes on. The QB in the Pistol shouldn’t get stronger as the game goes on, as Duke’s Connett did. Why….because PITT didn’t hit him much, they tapped him.
BTW, wasn’t suggesting we play a 3-3-5, as we don’t have enough quality experienced DB’s to play that. Was suggesting we play a 3-4-3, to get another big on the D-Line. And get the 2 current DE’s OFF the field. Also Price is better as a standup rush LB, as opposed to a DE in a 3 point stance. Didn’t they watch any of the tapes from 2011 on Price ? As he was injured all of last year and redshirted. He showed some promise then, think he had like 5 sacks in part-time action.
feb 19 2013 a talk with mat house.
when we drcide to go with a 3- 4 look we will be ready we are going to be multi not just 4- 3
not the exact words pull it up and read it your self.
and on feb 18th he said my positional focus will be the safeties.
i will be the DC but i will work with the safeties
and hank will do the CB.
and the safeties look like shit
read it and weep
Sgt. Schultz’s line was …’I see nothing’.
Among others, like…’I hear nothing and of course “i know nothing’ his most famous line.
See how easy it is to confuse our comedic Nazi’s.