Books got caught throwing a bad # out and now they are gonna pay both ways. Opened Pitt -3, shot all the way to USF -3. Now settling in around -1/-2.
Stat that stands out
146.5
That's the difference between what USF rushes for in a game (228.5) and what they allow (82). For comparison, Pitt rushes for just 2.3yds/gm more than that. DOMINATION. USF ain't playing the big boys, but they are doing what the big boys are supposed to do when they play the sisters of the poor. That much domination on the ground is about attitude. It takes the heart out of a team to be rushed on that much and to completely stop them. Its how blowouts are made. When u go into half down 24-7 and the other team already has 20 carries and 110yds it totally takes away ur will to win.
On the Ground
Just touched on it but damn, USF wants to run the ball on u (43att/gm), they do it well (228.5/gm), and they stop u from doing it (39.75att/gm, 82yds/gm). From the moment the whistle blows they come to take heart out out. Its all attitude, they say to u, Imma kick ur ass and u can't do shit about it. PERIOD!!
USF runs it with basically 3 folks: Darnell Scott (53att 348yds 6.6avg 5td 87/gm), BJ Daniels (38att 215yds 5.7avg 2td 53.8/gm), Demetrius Murray (42att, 188yds, 4.5avg 2td 47/gm). Its a non stop onslaught, they run, line up again and run some more. Astonishing is that Scott (2) and Murray (9) have only 11 yds lost on runs. WOW. They just get positive yds every play.
Defensively ur not gonna make a living running against USF, 82yds/gm on 31carries is 2.6yds/att. In otherwords its futile. The big tacklers on the rush defense are Mike Lanaris LB & playmaking machine DeDe Lattimore. Look for them to be keenly focused on Ray Graham.
Now Pitt's run Offense:
Its Ray Graham, Ray Graham some more, and a lil bit off Tino Sunseri (148.8yds/gm as a team). Graham the bellcow has 100att, 508yds, 6tds and 127/gm. Noone else is within 6p carries of him. Stop him stop Pitt period on the ground. Pitt runs the Tulsa offense, but instead of the QB (GJ Kinne) being the rushing focus its their talented RB Graham. Problem is Pitt has I form prostyle players learning on the fly to play spread football. They run some nice plays with their system, the triple option with a Flanker hitch being the 3rd option can really hurt undisciplined teams. Problem for Pitt is vs actual FBS level teams without a complimentary back they are making themselves predictable.
Defensively Pitt is STOUT, just not as stout as USF. They are only giving up 105yds/gm. Take away a 79yd run by ND and they only gave up 103 on 31att. They have yet to face a team with the commitment to running the Bulls have though, that could be a problem. I feel Pitt is talented on the Dline, just don't know if they are ready for the barrage that is coming to them. They will need to use a lot of depth in this game, becuz by the late 3rd all those runs will mean tired linemen.
I give the run game edge to USF by a good margin. While they don't have that 1 guy to just keep giving it to, they have 3 diff runners they can keep fresh and continue to bludgeon u with. I expect in the 2nd half Skip Holtz employs some hurry up scheme and begin to lean on the Panthers, tiring out the DLine.
Through the Air
Has BJ Daniels been tamed by Skip? Its still early in the season and not much real competition, but he's completing 66% of his passes. Its not like he's only completing dinks either, he's got 8yds/att, and has already thrown 124 passes. I feel he's maturing as a passer, not a finished product but he's not the raw passer he was. There is 1 main man he looks to pass to: Sterling Griffin (22rec 248yds 11.3avg 1td 62/gm). The next closest guy is 9rec. What's special is 11ppl avg at least a catch a game. That's the truest testament to growth as a QB, the ability to feed ur star Wr AND distribute the ball all around.
On pass defense numbers can be decieving, they give up 231.2yds/gm not bad not good, but Notre Dame GASHED them for 391yds on 31-49 passing (though they did get 3ints). Alarms should be going off, a good passing team *cough* West Va *cough* will exploit the **** outta that. USF has 7 diff players with an Int, so they as a team are ballhawks. Pitt shouldn't try and thread to many needles it could end up in USF's hands. The bulls have 2 guys with 3 sacks: Julius Forte & Claude Davis. As a team they have 12 sacks and have only given up 5. After seeing ND sack Pitt 6x, I'm gonna venture to say the Pitt Oline has trouble ahead.
Pitt has another coming of age QB in Sunseri. Within this spread style system Sunseri seems to be a better fit and more mature. He's completing 65% of his passes, but with a 6.5/avg a lot of the work is done on short stuff. His leading receiver is...........Guess Who, Ray Graham again. Follow Graham and you will find the ball. If they wanna hit u up top for something big it will be Devin Street, the guy has good speed and nice hands. Mike Shannahan is a good #2 target when teams go 2 deep, look for him to win his matchups crossing on digs and outside on comebacks/outs. He's just not gonna leave u in his dust though.
Pass Defense for Pitt is awful. Even after a pretty good game defending the ND pass offense, they allow 306yds/gm. No they weren't playing Houston, Hawaii, Okie St and WVU. They played Maine, Buffalo and Iowa. 3 teams NOONE would confuse with chcuk & duck teams. The scheme they brought for ND was excellent and effective. Problem is that won't work vs USF. USF isn't a pass by any means neccessary team AND they have a highly mobile QB that makes what they did difficult.
What I see
Its gon be physical. We gon see some slobberknockers, ppl get earholed and more than 1 person will be injured. Home field ain't exactly been some super advantage for Pitt. 2 str8 2h leads that turned to losses may be indicative of a larger problem. DEPTH. I expect USF to run the leather off the ball and for BJ Daniels to reintroduce himself to the world as a dynamic dual threat QB. Pitt will have a TO or 2 or 3 and Ray Graham will be a marked man.
USF 27 Pitt 20
Stat that stands out
146.5
That's the difference between what USF rushes for in a game (228.5) and what they allow (82). For comparison, Pitt rushes for just 2.3yds/gm more than that. DOMINATION. USF ain't playing the big boys, but they are doing what the big boys are supposed to do when they play the sisters of the poor. That much domination on the ground is about attitude. It takes the heart out of a team to be rushed on that much and to completely stop them. Its how blowouts are made. When u go into half down 24-7 and the other team already has 20 carries and 110yds it totally takes away ur will to win.
On the Ground
Just touched on it but damn, USF wants to run the ball on u (43att/gm), they do it well (228.5/gm), and they stop u from doing it (39.75att/gm, 82yds/gm). From the moment the whistle blows they come to take heart out out. Its all attitude, they say to u, Imma kick ur ass and u can't do shit about it. PERIOD!!
USF runs it with basically 3 folks: Darnell Scott (53att 348yds 6.6avg 5td 87/gm), BJ Daniels (38att 215yds 5.7avg 2td 53.8/gm), Demetrius Murray (42att, 188yds, 4.5avg 2td 47/gm). Its a non stop onslaught, they run, line up again and run some more. Astonishing is that Scott (2) and Murray (9) have only 11 yds lost on runs. WOW. They just get positive yds every play.
Defensively ur not gonna make a living running against USF, 82yds/gm on 31carries is 2.6yds/att. In otherwords its futile. The big tacklers on the rush defense are Mike Lanaris LB & playmaking machine DeDe Lattimore. Look for them to be keenly focused on Ray Graham.
Now Pitt's run Offense:
Its Ray Graham, Ray Graham some more, and a lil bit off Tino Sunseri (148.8yds/gm as a team). Graham the bellcow has 100att, 508yds, 6tds and 127/gm. Noone else is within 6p carries of him. Stop him stop Pitt period on the ground. Pitt runs the Tulsa offense, but instead of the QB (GJ Kinne) being the rushing focus its their talented RB Graham. Problem is Pitt has I form prostyle players learning on the fly to play spread football. They run some nice plays with their system, the triple option with a Flanker hitch being the 3rd option can really hurt undisciplined teams. Problem for Pitt is vs actual FBS level teams without a complimentary back they are making themselves predictable.
Defensively Pitt is STOUT, just not as stout as USF. They are only giving up 105yds/gm. Take away a 79yd run by ND and they only gave up 103 on 31att. They have yet to face a team with the commitment to running the Bulls have though, that could be a problem. I feel Pitt is talented on the Dline, just don't know if they are ready for the barrage that is coming to them. They will need to use a lot of depth in this game, becuz by the late 3rd all those runs will mean tired linemen.
I give the run game edge to USF by a good margin. While they don't have that 1 guy to just keep giving it to, they have 3 diff runners they can keep fresh and continue to bludgeon u with. I expect in the 2nd half Skip Holtz employs some hurry up scheme and begin to lean on the Panthers, tiring out the DLine.
Through the Air
Has BJ Daniels been tamed by Skip? Its still early in the season and not much real competition, but he's completing 66% of his passes. Its not like he's only completing dinks either, he's got 8yds/att, and has already thrown 124 passes. I feel he's maturing as a passer, not a finished product but he's not the raw passer he was. There is 1 main man he looks to pass to: Sterling Griffin (22rec 248yds 11.3avg 1td 62/gm). The next closest guy is 9rec. What's special is 11ppl avg at least a catch a game. That's the truest testament to growth as a QB, the ability to feed ur star Wr AND distribute the ball all around.
On pass defense numbers can be decieving, they give up 231.2yds/gm not bad not good, but Notre Dame GASHED them for 391yds on 31-49 passing (though they did get 3ints). Alarms should be going off, a good passing team *cough* West Va *cough* will exploit the **** outta that. USF has 7 diff players with an Int, so they as a team are ballhawks. Pitt shouldn't try and thread to many needles it could end up in USF's hands. The bulls have 2 guys with 3 sacks: Julius Forte & Claude Davis. As a team they have 12 sacks and have only given up 5. After seeing ND sack Pitt 6x, I'm gonna venture to say the Pitt Oline has trouble ahead.
Pitt has another coming of age QB in Sunseri. Within this spread style system Sunseri seems to be a better fit and more mature. He's completing 65% of his passes, but with a 6.5/avg a lot of the work is done on short stuff. His leading receiver is...........Guess Who, Ray Graham again. Follow Graham and you will find the ball. If they wanna hit u up top for something big it will be Devin Street, the guy has good speed and nice hands. Mike Shannahan is a good #2 target when teams go 2 deep, look for him to win his matchups crossing on digs and outside on comebacks/outs. He's just not gonna leave u in his dust though.
Pass Defense for Pitt is awful. Even after a pretty good game defending the ND pass offense, they allow 306yds/gm. No they weren't playing Houston, Hawaii, Okie St and WVU. They played Maine, Buffalo and Iowa. 3 teams NOONE would confuse with chcuk & duck teams. The scheme they brought for ND was excellent and effective. Problem is that won't work vs USF. USF isn't a pass by any means neccessary team AND they have a highly mobile QB that makes what they did difficult.
What I see
Its gon be physical. We gon see some slobberknockers, ppl get earholed and more than 1 person will be injured. Home field ain't exactly been some super advantage for Pitt. 2 str8 2h leads that turned to losses may be indicative of a larger problem. DEPTH. I expect USF to run the leather off the ball and for BJ Daniels to reintroduce himself to the world as a dynamic dual threat QB. Pitt will have a TO or 2 or 3 and Ray Graham will be a marked man.
USF 27 Pitt 20
For the reading challenged, please have someone help u out here mmmkay......
Dozer you try so hard too look sharp its ridiculous.You might be right with your pitt pick for once, but saying Pitt played some tough unreal schedule is a Joke Maine Buffalo and IOWA arent some great football teams combined record of the 4 teams they have played is what 8-7? Saying a Pitt team is the better play because USF was dominated in their game against ND the FIRST week of the season is just stupid and a game in which they won.