Here we are at the one third mark of the 2013 season and we are still not sure of what we have in the way of a football team. We sit at three wins and a loss and that should make us feel pretty good, yet it is as if somehow the other shoe is going to fall on the season.  PITT fans, not the most optimistic of people in the best of times, have the tell tale marks of nervousness not just about the upcoming Virginia Tech game but of the rest of the season also.

One of the nice things about college football, in my opinion, is the week to week inconsistency by both the teams and units within those teams.  One truly never knows what you’ll get week to week unless you are a powerhouse program like Alabama or LSU.  Most times you can point to one part of your team after camp finishes up and feel pretty good about it or know that it will let you down. That really hasn’t been the case with PITT this year, with a few exceptions.

After watching some summer camp practices and scrimmages I felt like the strength of the team was going to be our experienced defense, especially in the backfield that played so well last season and which carried over virtually intact.  Last year that unit ended up 20^th in the nation in Pass Defense giving up only 194 ypg, 15 INTs and 15 TDs through the air.  A real show of solid play was PITT’s Pass Efficiency Defense which was very good at 113 (21^st nationally). Our pass defense was pretty solid all around.

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Yahoo approached Chas about writing a column for their Battle Loyale series and he graciously allowed me the opportunity to bash Virginia Tech for somehow losing to us four times in a row. Here’s the link. It’d be great if people would tweet it, share it on facebook, etc. because it’s a great promo for the site to bring in new visitors. It’s a pretty cool moment for me to see my name on Yahoo’s website as a writer. Hopefully I don’t piss too many VT fans off with the column. I certainly was a lot more critical than the VT writer’s column where he spoke about dining halls.

I got promoted at work a couple weeks ago. So, the extra hours/work and new stuff has me adjusting my schedule quite a bit. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent slowdown in posting. It’s not as good an excuse as Justin has with moving and a baby on the way (Congrats, Justin), but it’s the best I can do. This has led to a pile-up in browser tabs. So it’s time just to clear them.

Recommended reading time. The Key Play has an exhaustive game preview for the Pitt-VT game. Lots of really, really great info stats and X-O material. Especially about Pitt’s defense and giving up the run.

The ongoing surprise in the offense has been how underutilized the tight ends have been. Obviously there is the breakout of Tyler Boyd to allow for deeper passes to him and Devin Street. There is also the issue with blocking. The tight ends have had to do a lot more of it to help the O-line. The other aspect is that Tom Savage still is not as accurate — or comfortable at times — with the dump-off or short passes to the tight ends. It’s not a crisis, but given the amount of hits Savage is taking looking downfield, it might be good to go shorter occasionally if Savage wants to live through the next eight games.

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