Pittsburgh game week

[tech_wreck47]

 

[CuseJacket]

Tonight's CPJ Radio Show

 

[CuseJacket]

Pitt preps once again for Georgia Tech's triple-option run game

In the past three games against triple-option offenses, including a disastrous performance last season against Navy in the Military Bowl, Pitt has allowed 1,258 yards on running plays (7.2 per attempt).

Asked to explain what happened in the 44-28 loss to Navy, Narduzzi didn't want to get into specifics.

“Because I'll just be blabbering on,” he said.

The difference this year is Narduzzi will spread out the preparations, having spent several periods during August training camp working on Georgia Tech's offense, even though the game was two months in the future.

“I feel so much more comfortable coming into this game than we did a year ago,” Narduzzi said.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

CPJ was a bit peeved with the usual complaints during his radio show.

I liked it.

 

[BuzzStone]

What I heard from him is that he wants the school to commit to having a NC caliber team. I am not sure what the athletic department isn't doing that he wants them to do but there is something behind the curtain he is not happy with.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

What I heard from him is that he wants the school to commit to having a NC caliber team. I am not sure what the athletic department isn't doing that he wants them to do but there is something behind the curtain he is not happy with.

The end of his after practice interview definitely shows that. I think its more of a "If you want us to be world beaters you have to help us out" truth than anything else. Goes for fans as well.

 

[jwsavhGT]

I hope that CPJ's remarks are catching the attention of the proper people and a true dialogue can start to happen. My fear is that his remarks could p*ss those same people off & they make a move against him that would be bad for our FB program.

 

[gtg936g]

I hope that CPJ's remarks are catching the attention of the proper people and a true dialogue can start to happen. My fear is that his remarks could p*ss those same people off & they make a move against him that would be bad for our FB program.

I would hope CPJ has had some informal discussions with those folks prior to making the comments.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

I hope that CPJ's remarks are catching the attention of the proper people and a true dialogue can start to happen. My fear is that his remarks could p*ss those same people off & they make a move against him that would be bad for our FB program.

I can't see how that could happen. It's not like he's trashing the efforts by the school and the AA to help him out; he's just saying it's going to cost to get what everybody wants. Since Stansbury is, I assume, a Homer Rice disciple, then I doubt Johnson's remarks are falling on deaf ears. We are long past the time for a Homer Rice II to shake up the AA, and the school as a whole, and get some things done that will once again make us current in the world of college football.

 

[tech_wreck47]

 

[GTNavyNuke]

I hope that CPJ's remarks are catching the attention of the proper people and a true dialogue can start to happen. My fear is that his remarks could p*ss those same people off & they make a move against him that would be bad for our FB program.

I don't think CPJ is saying things publically to get the Hill's attention. The way to do that is privately. I would suspect that more likely is that the Hill (Peterson et al) haven't responded and CPJ is just frustrated.

But for the Hill, why worry about football? Most alum don't care. The GT Alumni Assn just got $129M in gifts and payments last year and $245M in commitments. Plus GTRI brings in a lot of grants every year ..... I remember >$500M. Follow the money.

For a school like Clemson, I doubt their contributions to the Alumni Assn are anywhere near what ours are. But Clemson's Athletic Assn gets a lot more. Just the culture of being an institute with a broader curriculum and mission.

 

[Jmonty71]

Roof said that Pitt's offense is really difficult? To Roof a pack of cub scouts playing yard ball is difficult.

Roof, seriously..... Stop playing this crap soft zone. Let these kids get aggressive. Let them get emotional and fired up. Stop holding them back and stop making them play scared.

How about something that confuses the other team? How about getting out of the same defensive set over and over? How about letting the DB's run some bump and run and take away those quick slants?

A good defense consists of two things. One... "smoke and mirrors" Show one thing, but do another. Force the other team into errors. Two.. Techniques and skills. Basic tackling, keeping your eye on the ball, playing smart, knowing your job and athletic abilities. It seems all we do is focus on the 2nd part. News flash!!! We aren't PSU and have a ton of 4 and 5 star recruits.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Roof, seriously..... Stop playing this crap soft zone. Let these kids get aggressive. Let them get emotional and fired up. Stop holding them back and stop making them play scared.

We are currently #21 in scoring defense and #28 in total defense in the nation. And don't give me the weak schedule blather because our current SoS is #23 in the nation. And don't give me the "our O reduced possessions for the opposing D" argument because we want a style of D that compliments our O, that's the goal. Also, our O hasn't been world beaters so far, anyway.

Our D is not amazing, I get that. In fact, they need to play a lot better, but I do think we are improving week to week. I think our current production is in line with our current talent level, not above and not below. Our D has given our O a chance to win in each and every game, that's it's job. Can it make it even easier on the O, yes it can. But it's been doing it's job so far.

http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category10/sort01.html

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other

 

[YlJacket]

We are currently #21 in scoring defense and #28 in total defense in the nation. And don't give me the weak schedule blather because our current SoS is #23 in the nation. And don't give me the "our O reduced possessions for the opposing D" argument because we want a style of D that compliments our O, that's the goal. Also, our O hasn't been world beaters so far, anyway.

Our D is not amazing, I get that. In fact, they need to play a lot better, but I do think we are improving week to week. I think our current production is in line with our current talent level, not above and not below. Our D has given our O a chance to win in each and every game, that's it's job. Can it make it even easier on the O, yes it can. But it's been doing it's job so far.

http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category10/sort01.html

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other

Everyone loves the idea of Tenuta's defense. pressure, take the other team out of the game - all that. Hell I had fun watching it. But you have to have the guys to run it (not sure we do yet) and you have to be ready to live with both the good (sacks/plays for loss) and bad (long plays) that come from it. Also remember Tenuta used to play a soft corner with his pressure so even he didn't always play the way we visualize the GT version of the Steel Curtain playing.

In the BC game at halftime CPJ made a comment in his brief halftime interview that we needed to put more pressure on the BC offense so we could get them off the field. Early in the second half we blitz the LB and the BC kid runs right through where he vacated for a long TD run. Back to a more contain D and we win the game.

You can see the DBs playing closer to the WRs as the year progresses. Yes we still give some cushions I wish we didn't but we also play some bump and run coverage now. Did that with Clemson and some with Miami. things we were not doing at the start of the year. If you look you can see the progression of the D. Not to a juggernaut but to a good solid D unit. It reflects the stats you put forward. And I agree it has done its job.

This week is a different challenge in that Pitt wants to run the ball down your throat. While we don't have monsters on the DL and LB, run D has been our strength so far this year. We won't shut down their running attack but if we can keep them from long TD drives I like our chances. I don't think they can pass enough to win - even against our soft invisible corners.

 

[AE 87]

If a D gets one stop in a game, it has done enough to win because the O could score on every possession.

If the O scores one TD, one FG, it has done enough to win because the D could get a stop on every drive.

Obviously, these are nonsense assertions in the real world. You have to look at the competition and what's reasonable.

I do not think we are playing good enough or up to our talent on either side of the ball yet.

 

[MWBATL]

Everyone loves the idea of Tenuta's defense. pressure, take the other team out of the game - all that. Hell I had fun watching it. But you have to have the guys to run it (not sure we do yet) and you have to be ready to live with both the good (sacks/plays for loss) and bad (long plays) that come from it. Also remember Tenuta used to play a soft corner with his pressure so even he didn't always play the way we visualize the GT version of the Steel Curtain playing.

In the BC game at halftime CPJ made a comment in his brief halftime interview that we needed to put more pressure on the BC offense so we could get them off the field. Early in the second half we blitz the LB and the BC kid runs right through where he vacated for a long TD run. Back to a more contain D and we win the game.

You can see the DBs playing closer to the WRs as the year progresses. Yes we still give some cushions I wish we didn't but we also play some bump and run coverage now. Did that with Clemson and some with Miami. things we were not doing at the start of the year. If you look you can see the progression of the D. Not to a juggernaut but to a good solid D unit. It reflects the stats you put forward. And I agree it has done its job.

This week is a different challenge in that Pitt wants to run the ball down your throat. While we don't have monsters on the DL and LB, run D has been our strength so far this year. We won't shut down their running attack but if we can keep them from long TD drives I like our chances. I don't think they can pass enough to win - even against our soft invisible corners.

Just a compliment to say I agree with this analysis. I do prefer the aggressive defense, but I also fully concede that we would be yielding more big plays had we played more aggressively than not. And (to be honest) it is not clear that playing the style I would prefer to see would actually be more effective.

I have a friend who argues that we simply don't have the speed on defense (yet) to play press coverage in the secondary. And this lack of speed is why we are playing such a conservative defense. Their argument is that Roof is actually doing an OUTSTANDING job of covering up a huge weakness in our defensive skills (lack of speed) which would ordinarily kill a defense. He may be right. You may be right.

I'm just expressing the fan's opinion that I prefer watching the high risk/high reward defense instead of this one.

 

[Jmonty71]

We are currently #21 in scoring defense and #28 in total defense in the nation. And don't give me the weak schedule blather because our current SoS is #23 in the nation. And don't give me the "our O reduced possessions for the opposing D" argument because we want a style of D that compliments our O, that's the goal. Also, our O hasn't been world beaters so far, anyway.

Our D is not amazing, I get that. In fact, they need to play a lot better, but I do think we are improving week to week. I think our current production is in line with our current talent level, not above and not below. Our D has given our O a chance to win in each and every game, that's it's job. Can it make it even easier on the O, yes it can. But it's been doing it's job so far.

http://www.cfbstats.com/2016/leader/national/team/defense/split01/category10/sort01.html

https://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other

Yes, and if you look at overall defense, we're 45th. You can spin numbers all kinds of way. You looked at points per game. I saw that. We played 2 inept offenses, 1 FBS, Clemson (who let up in the 2nd Qtr) and Miami. If our offense didn't control the TOP against Miami that score would have been much worse. You can say we did good on 3rd down against, I can come back saying yeah, when they got them into a 3rd down. Roof is playing a scheme that requires the plays to read and react. So, saying it covers up the lack of speed isn't that valid of a statement.

The point is, we do little to make the other team confused. It takes 0 talent or skill to fake a blitz. It takes 0 skill or talent to mask your defense. It takes a DC that is smart enough to implement it. Half of playing defense is deception. It's a smoke and mirror game. It's throwing the offense into making mistakes. We don't... We play the same set up over and over. Too simple for college.

 

[JacketFromUGA]

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Yes, and if you look at overall defense, we're 45th. You can spin numbers all kinds of way. You looked at points per game. I saw that. We played 2 inept offenses, 1 FBS, Clemson (who let up in the 2nd Qtr) and Miami. If our offense didn't control the TOP against Miami that score would have been much worse. You can say we did good on 3rd down against, I can come back saying yeah, when they got them into a 3rd down. Roof is playing a scheme that requires the plays to read and react. So, saying it covers up the lack of speed isn't that valid of a statement.

The point is, we do little to make the other team confused. It takes 0 talent or skill to fake a blitz. It takes 0 skill or talent to mask your defense. It takes a DC that is smart enough to implement it. Half of playing defense is deception. It's a smoke and mirror game. It's throwing the offense into making mistakes. We don't... We play the same set up over and over. Too simple for college.

No, we're #28 in total defense.

Our SoS is #23 so that contradicts your other point I highlighted. This is important because the first number is relative to other teams around the country whose competition has been worse than ours according to this ranking.

 

[AE 87]

No, we're #28 in total defense.

Our SoS is #23 so that contradicts your other point I highlighted. This is important because the first number is relative to other teams around the country whose competition has been worse than ours according to this ranking.

I don't know what he means by "overall defense," but we are #68 in yards/play defense. That's why Total Defense is such a great stat for saying our defense has improved. By decreasing the number of plays through our offense, we decrease the yards/game ... especially when teams like UNC and LOLvle are increasing plays/game.

I think he's saying that your reference to strength of schedule fails to appreciate the distinction between the team on the one hand and the offense or defense on the other. I think that he's suggesting that we've played some highly regarded defenses which makes the team more difficult (tough strength of schedule) even though the offenses aren't as strong.