Recalibrating expectations

[tboyer]

You don't think we'll see the shuffle pass scheme the rest of the year? Really. I've got some beach front property in Wyoming if you're interested.

I said we won't see anything like the PItt O. It's a pretty unusual scheme with all the pre-snap activity and misdirection.

I agree with you, I wouldn't be surprised if everybody on PSU's schedule calls some shuffle passes after a fake sweep. They'll see it until they can stop it. That was a really nasty little play.

 

[rudedude]

Has nothing to do with the score. My concern is the D couldn't get stops. According to the ESPN play by play chart PSU gave up three, count 'em THREE 15 play drives and two 9 play drives. That is pretty unusual for a winning team.

Meanwhile PSU was pretty much unable to sustain drives against the Pitt D. Longest was 7 plays. And it's not like they were just scoring TDs at will. Seven punts is a pretty healthy day of work for the awesome Mr. Gilliken.

Weird weird game. You look at the stat sheet and you just can't reconcile the stat sheet with the final score.

No need to reconcile the stats with the final score. It's the way we play and means we are really never out of any game at all as we saw last year with the exception of Michigan.

 

[AWS1022]

I said we won't see anything like the PItt O. It's a pretty unusual scheme with all the pre-snap activity and misdirection.

I agree with you, I wouldn't be surprised if everybody on PSU's schedule calls some shuffle passes after a fake sweep. They'll see it until they can stop it. That was a really nasty little play.

But it's not something you can just put in during a week of practice and run it like Pitt does.

 

[tboyer]

But it's not something you can just put in during a week of practice and run it like Pitt does.

Good question, I dunno. I'm sure most teams have some version of it in their playbook. But yeah Pitt ran that thing very well. That is a pretty good defense to fool over and over again like that.

 

[tboyer]

No need to reconcile the stats with the final score. It's the way we play and means we are really never out of any game at all as we saw last year with the exception of Michigan.

In general no. And maybe this was just a fluky game. But it is not a good thing to not be able to sustain drives and not be able to stop your opponent's drives. I don't think you can rationalize it away entirely.

 

[PSU_l]

Watching Pitt win the trenches yesterday, and then seeing what Oklahoma did to Ohio State..... I think we're going to have to recalibrate expectations a bit for this PSU team.

The OL and DL are improved from last year but clearly have a long way to go before you could call PSU a playoff caliber team. Of course the positive side of it is they're young and they will improve as the season progresses.

For me it was a shock that the Pitt front four handled PSU offensive line so well. If you can't make holes for your running back AND you can't protect your QB AND you can't make lanes for your QB to step up and throw the ball, you can't really run the PSU offense.

That was really the story of the game. PSU is stior ll, like last year, not able to sustain drives, but without Godwin they don't have the quick strike potential they had last year.

Really PSU has quite a bit of work to do the next two weeks before they go to Kinnick.

The Iowa O-line will be better than the Pitt O-line and their D-line could be a LOT tougher than the PItt D-line. So PSU has got to get better line play AND better production from the wideouts.

What a bunch of rubbish - PSU's 1986 National Championship Team which beat #1 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl, only beat unranked Cincinnati 23-17 in week 5. Beyond that, USC was jumped over PSU despite struggling mightily to a team that is currently 0-2 after week 2. This system is a joke as is your notion about PSU getting dominated by ASWP. What laughable bull$hit! ASWP gained 342 Offensive yards on 86 offensive plays or 4 yards per offensive snap - PSU had 312 Offensive yards on 52 offensive plays or 6 yards per offensive snap. Not only that, but PSU averaged 6.2 ypc on the ground (24 carries for 148 yards). ASWP averaged 3.4 ypc (45 carries for 155). Using one of Phil Steele's favorite stats ASWP needed 24.43 yards per point scored while PSU only neeeded 9.45 yards per point scored.

Only in your absurd opinion and mind did ASWP outperform PSU in any area that a knowledgeable football person understands.

 

[HazletonLion]

If you told me PSU would beat Pitt 33-14 any year, i'll take it. O u was going to pass us even if they beat OSU by 1, and the press loves USC and Sam Darnold.
It's just the way it is , a lot of football to be played by everyone. Stay tuned.

 

[Will68]

I attended every game home and away in 1994. Most games were laughers starting with Minn. Then the laugher that looked close at Indiana which gave voters a chance to screw over PSU. But no matter how good you are, there will still be an Illinois game to test you. A scary game that produces "The Drive" and melds a champion. Some years you pass the test some don't work out. That is why fans show up for more than two big time games a year. Compared to that '94 Ill. game this Pitt game was a cake walk to the nth degree.

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

Greg McElroy said he thought PSU was a mid-level team w/o Barkley.

actually our OL is more stable this year, but many of the same players. it is not good enough to hold off run blitz when we run slow developing plays. SB has alot of negative yardage plays that get absorbed in his long gains. that is a feature of this offense. The OL would probably look better in a pro-I running game. pass blocking is better.

the DL/LB results depend on who is on the field. many different players, so you have to watch who is getting pushed around. Shaka Toney is way too small to have much impact vs a running team. Simmons similar. watch the DT combos - some dominate.

McElroy is a dunce. FYI.