Pitt replay scouting report

melloace

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
471
Trying to do these weekly for the upcoming weekly opponent. Still don't have a lot of data on each position and player as Pitt only has 2 games played one where they rolled and got rolled. Throw in the rain and my observations could be way off.

QB - Kenny Pickett - After a lot of struggles last year trying to settle on a player for this position Pitt finally settled on Pickett late in the year. Overall Pickett runs the offense well and is around a 60% completion percentage passer. Not the fastest QB we'll play but does a good job of tucking the ball and getting yards when they're available. Took on defenders to get the first down a couple times against Penn State.

RB - Qadree Ollison is a great runner. Not going to break a ton of tackles, but very adapt at finding space and hitting the open field. Going to have to watch for him on sweeps and player better sideline to sideline otherwide he can carve us up.

WR - Not as tall and athletic as last week against USF, but they block well on the edge and run well. Hard to judge too much as one game was a fcs blowout and the other a rain filled blowout the other directions.

OL - 4 senior starts anchor this oline. They play well sideline to sideline and block well. From what I've seen this is where a gap shooting defense will help out a lot. We need to be disruptive and fast as we probably won't out muscle them. Not a lot of depth with experience after the main group of guys.

Defense Pitt uses 4 linemen and 3 linebackers against us most plays. Usually lined up in a true 4-3 with 4 on the line. They have a lot of depth on in the front 7 with several guys on the line taking many snaps over the year. Their linebacker position has had a resurgence with the return of Wirginis who missed last year with an injury. The secondary is much like ours young and talented, but unproven.

Offensively with Pitt lining up in a true 4-3 against us the last few years the dive is going to be there all game long as long as we make our blocks. The video below shows every offensive play from 2017. If you watch the linebackers are 5-6 yards back and running forward at the snap which causes them to often not getting to dive defense till it’s 3 yards downfield and easier to catch in the wash when we go outside. Unless they drastically change their defensive scheme we should see a great day from the Bback.

Defensively we need to be prepared for the jet sweeps. Our linebackers are going to have to do a good job of following the play and running sideline to sideline. We’ll need our line to hold their gaps and not open wide holes for the qb to scramble through. This might be a game where we need to trust our young corners with single coverage and have safety help against the run though Pickett is good enough to hit the occasional deep throw if we do.

 

Deleted member 2897

Guest
Trying to do these weekly for the upcoming weekly opponent. Still don't have a lot of data on each position and player as Pitt only has 2 games played one where they rolled and got rolled. Throw in the rain and my observations could be way off.

QB - Kenny Pickett - After a lot of struggles last year trying to settle on a player for this position Pitt finally settled on Pickett late in the year. Overall Pickett runs the offense well and is around a 60% completion percentage passer. Not the fastest QB we'll play but does a good job of tucking the ball and getting yards when they're available. Took on defenders to get the first down a couple times against Penn State.

RB - Qadree Ollison is a great runner. Not going to break a ton of tackles, but very adapt at finding space and hitting the open field. Going to have to watch for him on sweeps and player better sideline to sideline otherwide he can carve us up.

WR - Not as tall and athletic as last week against USF, but they block well on the edge and run well. Hard to judge too much as one game was a fcs blowout and the other a rain filled blowout the other directions.

OL - 4 senior starts anchor this oline. They play well sideline to sideline and block well. From what I've seen this is where a gap shooting defense will help out a lot. We need to be disruptive and fast as we probably won't out muscle them. Not a lot of depth with experience after the main group of guys.

Defense Pitt uses 4 linemen and 3 linebackers against us most plays. Usually lined up in a true 4-3 with 4 on the line. They have a lot of depth on in the front 7 with several guys on the line taking many snaps over the year. Their linebacker position has had a resurgence with the return of Wirginis who missed last year with an injury. The secondary is much like ours young and talented, but unproven.

Offensively with Pitt lining up in a true 4-3 against us the last few years the dive is going to be there all game long as long as we make our blocks. The video below shows every offensive play from 2017. If you watch the linebackers are 5-6 yards back and running forward at the snap which causes them to often not getting to dive defense till it’s 3 yards downfield and easier to catch in the wash when we go outside. Unless they drastically change their defensive scheme we should see a great day from the Bback.

Defensively we need to be prepared for the jet sweeps. Our linebackers are going to have to do a good job of following the play and running sideline to sideline. We’ll need our line to hold their gaps and not open wide holes for the qb to scramble through. This might be a game where we need to trust our young corners with single coverage and have safety help against the run though Pickett is good enough to hit the occasional deep throw if we do.



Well Albany shut out Pitt in the second half.

I think the key to victory is the same as last week. We haven’t won a road game since 2016. Do we show up and play with s sense of urgency or not. 2 KO returns for TDS and 3 Turnovers last week. We can’t have stuff like that or Pitt can beat us. If we play a focused game and have no crazy calls by the Ref, we can win by 14.
 

4shotB

Helluva Engineer
Retired Staff
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5,132
QB - Kenny Pickett - After a lot of struggles last year trying to settle on a player for this position Pitt finally settled on Pickett late in the year. Overall Pickett runs the offense well and is around a 60% completion percentage passer. Not the fastest QB we'll play but does a good job of tucking the ball and getting yards when they're available. Took on defenders to get the first down a couple times against Penn State.


[/MEDIA]

Last week showed that you don't truly need speed at QB to exploit a wide open middle of the field. How do we correct that issue this week?
 

melloace

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
471
Last week showed that you don't truly need speed at QB to exploit a wide open middle of the field. How do we correct that issue this week?

From the CPJ interviews yesterday and today it sounds like players on our defense we're trying to do too much and ended up playing out of the system and leaving their gaps open. Gotta do a better job this week. Occasionally it will happen, but we need to reduce it as much as possible. Looks like BJS is a go this week which will give us a little more linebacker depth. Sadly we don't get Curry back till the 2nd half.
 

alagold

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Location
Huntsville,Al
Pitt has a 250 lb FB and big TB Ollison with running QB .They will line up to bash our run DEF . My guess is another usf game., MAYBE without the runbacks, we can outscore them.
 

takethepoints

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,144
I'm sure they'll try that, but I don't think it'll work. It wasn't as if we had giant D problems when USF was doing that in the first half. It was the second half when they started to work the short routes that we began to have difficulties. As usual, unfortunately. I don't know if Pitt can pull that off.

But perhaps the guys have learned from the last game and will quit trying to be Iron Man on every play. I sure hope so.
 

Dottie1145

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,217
I'm sure they'll try that, but I don't think it'll work. It wasn't as if we had giant D problems when USF was doing that in the first half. It was the second half when they started to work the short routes that we began to have difficulties. As usual, unfortunately. I don't know if Pitt can pull that off.

But perhaps the guys have learned from the last game and will quit trying to be Iron Man on every play. I sure hope so.
I have giant D problems...
 

Deleted member 2897

Guest
Mason already has what - 150 yards? He’s going to rush for 1300 yards and get 18 TDS this year.
 

1979jacket

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
652
From the CPJ interviews yesterday and today it sounds like players on our defense we're trying to do too much and ended up playing out of the system and leaving their gaps open. Gotta do a better job this week. Occasionally it will happen, but we need to reduce it as much as possible. Looks like BJS is a go this week which will give us a little more linebacker depth. Sadly we don't get Curry back till the 2nd half.

Agreed on over aggressive
From watching tape - namely longest cool guy tape, it appeared the outside rushers whether an end or linebacker, were taking very wide rush paths that many times went past the QB but regardless created hug gaps. Contain but not the point of creating huge gaps.

Also gap responsibility as you stated looked awful. It's one thing to get beat by a block but another when no one really filled the gap at all. Hard at times to tell who had responsibility given lineman was going one way and linebacker the other with no one in the gap. Know which way you are suppose to go on every play.

Finally bad angles when chasing. Charge the ball carrier but not so that you totally miss, at a minimum make him run through you.
 

iceeater1969

Helluva Engineer
Messages
9,775
Agreed on over aggressive
From watching tape - namely longest cool guy tape, it appeared the outside rushers whether an end or linebacker, were taking very wide rush paths that many times went past the QB but regardless created hug gaps. Contain but not the point of creating huge gaps.

Also gap responsibility as you stated looked awful. It's one thing to get beat by a block but another when no one really filled the gap at all. Hard at times to tell who had responsibility given lineman was going one way and linebacker the other with no one in the gap. Know which way you are suppose to go on every play.

Finally bad angles when chasing. Charge the ball carrier but not so that you totally miss, at a minimum make him run through you.
Excellent points.

I had hoped to often see the gaps filled or blitzed by lb or safeties- in a planned manner. I had hoped to see the line man go in one gap and at the same time the lb step up into the gap. The worst example is below. Super wide gap by dl, 1 lb goes into same gap as dl and is easily blocked; 2 lb and safety watching the TE (while ball being handed off). we were very concerned about the talented tight end (lb and safety).
Need some dl guy to get penetration if we are going to wait.
20180909_153053.jpg
 

g0lftime

Helluva Engineer
Messages
6,035
Isn't 30 or is it 38 being held. Guy has his arm wrapped around him. Guess you have to tackle someone now to get it called. The refs didn't do us any favors. Never like playing out of conference on the road with their refs.
 
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2,034
Both inside linebackers are out of position. %! and 30. I have said many times that our weakness has been that position since we lost PJ Davis. Maybe BJS will show out.
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,725
Why are 51 and 40 covering the same gap in that pic?
We've got some really interesting stunts, but this one looks like the front 7 aren't even on the same two pages--looks more like 3 different calls being executed.

Advanced S&P+ Stat profiles are out. You can navigate to Georgia Tech or Pitt.

GT:
#21 Offense
#62 Defense
#91 Special Teams (amazingly not as bad as you'd guess)
#26 Overall

Weak spot on defense--rushing defense--and those QB runs killed us last week. Giving up too many points and too many conversions.

Pitt:
#88 Offense
#66 Defense
#127 Special Teams (how can they be ranked lower than us?)
#75 Overall

On offense, they move the ball and don't get points (like the Atlanta Falcons). On Defense, they get in the backfield a little more than we do, but they give up rushing first downs at about the same rate. They're bad on Field Goals and bad on kickoff returns. Crossing fingers these numbers aren't all about Penn State.
 
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