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The "Vaunted Pittsburgh Defense"

ZombieHaitian

Well-Known Member
Gold Member
Dec 16, 2015
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On my drive home from work yesterday, I tuned in to ESPN radio to catch some of the Pitt game when I heard one of the announcers (never caught who they were) describe Pitt's defense as - get this - "vaunted." I nearly drove into oncoming traffic. Furthermore, I had to check on the definition of "vaunted" when I got home to make sure my vocabulary hadn't failed me.

Then I got to thinking about it and wanted to take a look at some numbers. It helps this is the slowest week of the year at work too. So, I thought I'd do my best @NittanyLogan'11 impression and crunch some numbers!

First, the easy ones. Pitt gave up 452 yards and 35.6 points per game, good enough for 98th and 109th in the country respectively. The ppg category may not be 100% accurate, as the 35.6 = the average of total points allowed per game excluding Northwestern (that is to say, it is only an accurate defensive statistic if there were no defensive/special teams TDs scored against Pitt. I have plenty of time on my hands, but not enough to go through game-by-game haha).

Now here's something I found very interesting. The following breaks down points scored against Pitt by opponents followed by a value above or below that given team's season ppg average:

Northwestern - 31 - +5
Nova - 7 - -17
PSU - 39 - +2
OK St. - 45 - +6
UNC - 37 - +4
Marshall - 27 - +4
G. Tech - 34 - +6
Virginia - 31 - +8
V. Tech - 39 - +4
Miami - 51 - +17
Clemson - 42 - +2
Duke - 14 - -9
Syracuse - 61 - +35

So... on average, Pitt allowed 5+ points per game above each teams' average ppg on the season. If you remove Syracuse as an outlier, Pitt still gave up nearly 3 points per game above the given team average. Now you may be saying that's not a very large number, and you'd be right. But it is interesting nonetheless that nearly every team they faced had an above average afternoon scoring points. In fact, only Villanova and Duke were held below their season average against Pitt. Another caveat to keep in mind, the numbers I just provided still do not account for DST scores against, but there's no question this still reflects poorly on Narduzzi the "defensive mastermind".

Vaunted? Hardly.
 
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