Pitt will be just the 3rd BCS team to venture into Athens.
Tyler Palko isn’t worried about the defense. He just wants to see the offense cash-in better.
Palko said the frustrating part of the 42-21 loss to Notre Dame game was that he believes the Panthers could have scored more were it not for some misfortune or miscommunication. The Panthers dropped two possible touchdown passes — one by Greg Lee and one by Derek Kinder — and had a number of plays that just missed for a variety of reasons.
He’s confident those miscues will be corrected and that the offense will run like a well-oiled machine because of the talent of its personnel.
“We have good players at every position,” he said. “There is no reason we shouldn’t be a good, productive offense. We should be able to beat teams in a lot of ways and we will. The key for us is to watch the film, which we did, and learn from our mistakes.”
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“We just missed on some big pass plays, but those will come,” Palko said. “We need to be able to pass the ball well because I think our running game is coming along well. Once we’re able to do both, we’ll be very dangerous, and I really believe we are very close.”
The offense looked rusty last week, but there is a general belief that it will be okay. I think Palko pretty much echoed the sentiment of the fans though in a more forgiving manner. It’s the defense that’s the issue. Especially on the line.
It would appear at least one columnist is tired of seeing the defense suffer the slow death out of fear of giving up the big play and wants to see some blitzing.
Still, it’ll be up to Wannstedt and Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads do what must be done to avoid Notre Dame repeats.
“The obvious answer is, can you blitz ’em?” Wannstedt said. “Or, do you defend? We defended (against Notre Dame). We weren’t getting there, we didn’t want to take a chance of the big pass play, so we rushed three and we covered everybody. Twice (quarterback Brady Quinn) had no place to throw the ball, and he tucked it and ran for 15 yards.
“That’s your choices, you either defend and cover, which we did and we can do well. Or, you blitz, and you take those chances.”
Sending the house from here on out is really Pitt’s only alternative.
Even with a healthier, more productive Thomas Smith, the Panthers have a much better chance of out-numbering opponents than they do of overwhelming them.
On passing plays, they might generate a rush if they’re coming.
On running plays, they might at least get in the way if they happen to blitz the right lane.
Failing that, it’ll be up to the secondary, the strength of the defense, to keep the big plays allowed down to a manageable number.
But even a big play against beats being systematically bled to death.
The Panthers have already endured enough of that to realize any alternative is more appealing.
Pitt is supposed to have one of the better secondaries in the country. The coaches have all said that the secondary is a strength on defense. At some point, they are going to have to trust them if this team is going to get better on defense. Simply put, the line needs more help.
The questions right now are with the defense. While playing Ohio might help the defense feel better, it will be more important to see how they do with fundamentals. Not simply using superior physical tools to beat Ohio. Nebraska is in a week and while they may not be the force they were in the ’90s, they still have a strong and beefy O-line.
