This strikes me as desperately looking for some different angle to take on the team in an early bye week.
The result is skewed statistics in the run-pass balance in the offense.
Pitt has been passing more than almost any other team in NCAA Division I-A. Only three quarterbacks among 117 others in Division I-A have attempted more passes than Pitt junior Billy Stull.
Case Keenum of Houston, Graham Harrell of Texas Tech and Ryan Lindey of San Diego State have attempted 104 passes each. Stull is next with 84 attempts.
By contrast, Pitt has 66 rushing attempts and sophomore LeSean McCoy, who led all freshmen with 1,328 yards last season, has not gained more than 100 yards in either game against Buffalo or Bowling Green.
Of the Division I-A teams that have played two games, only 32 have attempted to run less than the Panthers.
I’m sorry, after two games there’s just nothing to judge here. That’s interesting that Stull actually ranks 3d nationally in passing attempts, the actual % of passing to running is only 56 to 44. It’s higher than the 50-50 you know Wannstedt and Cavanaugh state as the goal, but not by too much to be worried.
“I would do that, too, if I were a defensive coordinator, put 9-10 guys in the box against a first-year starting quarterback and an inexperienced offensive line,” Stull said. “We do whatever a defense allows us to do. They came up to try to stop Shady (McCoy), so we saw that and we had to throw the ball to loosen them up.”
So +5 to the coaches for realizing that you have to throw a bit more to try and open things up. That said, minus -200 for sticking with screens and 5-yard tosses that far from making the opposing defense pay, gives them time to recover and stop much of a gain. That isn’t going to loosen them up.
Of course, Wannstedt thinks they are close.
Wannstedt said the Panthers are close to breaking some big plays in both phases of the offense. When that happens, opposing teams will begin to change their game plans.
“We’ve been close a couple of times,” Wannstedt said. “Maybe it’s been the read of a back or someone slipping off a block. It hasn’t been three or four guys who have cost us from being successful. It’s usually been one guy. We’ll get those [big plays]. We’re getting closer.”
Roughly translated, “I see no reason to change a damn thing.” Sigh.
No surprise that Wannstedt wouldn’t be freaked by finding out he’s 0-5 off of bye weeks at Pitt.
“I wasn’t aware of that,” Wannstedt said. “I don’t know who we played after byes, but I think every year is different, every team is different, every situation is different. It’s helping us. I walked off the field (Tuesday) and said, ‘You know what? We got a little better as a team.’
“That’s all that’s important.”
Yes, but the coach and his philosophy is unchanged.
Rutgers looks pretty bad too now that they don’t run the ball too well.
Very interesting to me. I thought he was just keeping the seat warm for Doc Holliday, but apparently that’s not the case.
I don’t know what to think about Stewart as a coach. They obviously looked great against Oklahoma last year, but that was a different team. They looked great against Villanova in the opener this year, but that was Villanova. When I was watching that game against ECU last week, I got the sense that 1) maybe replacing Slaton and Schmitt wasn’t as easy as WVU thought, and 2) maybe teams were finally figuring out how to counteract that spread option offense.
I want to see more downfield passes also, but understand the coach’s philosophy of bring that along in parts.
At the very least give Stull & co. some credit for moving the ball downfield and getting first downs on a consistent basis in this last game. 6 of 8 passing on third downs isn’t too shabby, and in the second half TD drives Stull was 10/11 out of 20 total plays. Whether you like how it looks at this point or not – that is effective football.
The passing game was better in the second game than in the first one, and should it keep progressing game to game we won’t be having this conversation.
What’s on the coach though is to get the best personnel out there that will allow us to open it up even more, and IMO that means making sure the right side of the O line is dependable and Baldwin gets more touches.
Marty, I hope you are right but I cannot see this team doing any better than 6-6; I hope I am wrong but our coaching staff is just too “vanilla”.
I also wonder what our overall score has been after halftime the last few seasons–I don’t recall a whole lot of game where we make significant HT adjustments to rally and/or pull ahead.
I saw TWO teams with lesser talent than Wanny has that have made themselves into consistently ranked, solid football programs.
And I realized why, Leavitt and Mangino both know how to make IN GAME ADJUSTMENTS!!!! Both teams made adjustments and were both able to come 14 and 17 point deficits. You will NEVER see that out of a Wannstache coached team.
BTW, off topic but that game also made me realized that if Grothe or Reesing got hurt, Kansas and USF’s seasons would go into the crapper REAL fast.
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York
17 Penn State 55
Syracuse 13
Very nice outing for the Orange… let’s see: Robinson @ SU v. DW @ Pitt? Choices, choices…
As bad as it is — and it is VERY BAD — DW’s a GD genius, Thanksgiving Day float in comparison.
Neither HC is remotely popular, but I’m amazed – AMAZED – at Robinson’s “staying-power.” Which is to say that whereas Orange admin might have foregone the conclusion that he’s gone at season’s end, do they dare leave him HC for the next game and/or the one after that..?
How Robinson’s “presence” helps anyone remotely associated with this program is kindergarten. The situation demands immediate change. My point, though, is less SU football as it is (and concerns) the respectability of our conference.
If you haven’t heard the references to our conference as the “little east” a dozen times this week, tune in. (The media is really keying into us — they love it; they are having a field day; they cannot be entirely disproved, either, in their analysis.) So in the very GD least, thank SFU for keeping the BE competitive today in a close W over KSU.
For some very personal reasons I hate the Bulls more than WVU & PSU combined — but still gotta root for them in this. Albeit, if JoePa dies tomorrow, is buried and forgotten the next, that’d be truly high-times.
link to pittsburghpanthers.cstv.com
“If you watched the Buffalo game you saw Cav rolling him out to the right because that is the only way to buy time …Throwing deep balls will do nothing more than get Stull killed.†Comment by enuffsenuff 09.13.08 @ 3:06 pm
“…will do nothing more than get Stull killed.†>>>>>>>>>>>
I’m okay with that, really. It’s football, not beach volleyball or Italian lawn bowling. So Enuffsenuff
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Comment on this, too? Sure, why not? “Right or wrong the wildcat offense has been kept under wraps to surprise Iowa, with Cross at the helm the wildcat will have much more for the defense to handle than when Shady took the direct snaps. DW is to blame for the coaching staff …and Cavanaugh will be dispatched … allowing DW to hire a more competent … Comment by Marty 09.13.08 @ 8:39 am >>>>>>>>>>>
I agree, Marty. I think you’re very much on target here — the Panther’s will, in fact, use Cross in the “Wildcat Package†v. Iowa.
And it’s PRECISELY because the “wildcat offense has been kept under wraps to surprise Iowa†(or whomever the F-else) that we should be very concerned and worried about it debut.
Is it just me, or do others, too, have a HUNCH that this “package†is like a magicians’ rabbit to DW & Cav?
Cav: “Nothing up my sleeve… How ‘bout you Coach? DW: “Nope, no rabbit, here, either.†[Uh, Dave, nobody said anything about a rabbit]
Okay, if not a rabbit, how about a Greg F*ing Cross?†(Cross and Dorin Dickerson share a bunk up this sleeve, incidentally.)
And this is where everyone but Greg Robinson sees-gets it; if I were competing against Pitt tomorrow, I’d have watched every yard of GC’s JUCO career & prepared my D accordingly. (See Cav’s very recent and ‘seemingly’ benign replies to PG-Trib Qs calling attn (and criticism) to the use-misuse of the scary “wildcat†package and draw your own conclusions — or just bet your house on its very predictable debut Sept. 20th.)
What do I know?
Do I write for a sports column, a paper, host a blog? No. My credentials however include witness to nearly every game coached under DW &Co.
I’m an authority at this point.
This year is going to be extremely difficult on all of us, because expectations were set high and DW just cannot deliver.
If you examine his historical W-L record as time goes bye there are more “L”s; I fear Wanny will disappoint everyone this year.
“Stull may only have been starting his second game, but he is in his fourth year in the system. There is no reason to treat him with “kid†gloves. Of course, DW and Cav are not doing so in their minds, they could havd a combination of Dan Marino and Steve Young at QB and they would run the exact same offense…and that is the frustrating part of it!”
And I agree, and wasn’t treating him with kid gloves at all. But I was pointing out that after two full games Stull has done what has been asked of him at the QB spot. We all know that Stull does not have the physical traits of a Marino (and your point applies that even if he did we’d see the same thing out of Cav). But Stull does have the physical traits to run this offense, and he’s doing it.
I’ve paid very close attention to the sacks given up by PITT this season, mainly because I felt that the offensive line got a bad rap last year. In 2007 almost every time our QB was sacked it was because he held the ball way too long in trying to make a decision on where to throw. That isn’t happening this season. Stull has been sacked six times and maybe one of those was his fault, he backed up instead of stepping into the pocket – the other five were jailbreaks of the opponents DL through our OL. He’s getting the ball away quickly and, for the most part, delivering it well.
The venom should be directed to the staff and WRs for our loss against BG, the fact that Stull missed on a couple of deep passes really had no direct influence on the outcome. But five dropped passes and a fumble after a caught pass did. Any QB that is tasked to throw like Stull was and completes 29 passes (maybe 34 if you factor in the drops) is doing his job as asked.
Jump forward to the Buffalo game and Stull was very consistent and accurate, especially on third downs – which is what this offense lives on, and exactly what we did not have at any time last season.
My point was that PITT fans seem to need a QB that is Marino-like befopre they give him any credit at all, and I believe Stull has delivered what the OC has asked him to do. Can he improve? Yes, of course and I saw improvement in the passing game between week 1 and week 2. Now the job at hand for both Stull and his receivers, and the OC is to keep that improvement going into Iowa.
I think what Frank is saying is that NO matter who we have in this “system” it is the system itself that sucks and if we had Tyler Palko back he would be tossing 5 and 6 yard passes which allows the defense to load up the line of scimmage and blitz with no repercussions.
Our average yards per completion last year was 5.6. That sucks. This year verus two crappy teams 6.01 yard per completion. That sucks only slightly less.
I don’t want to hear that “we are passing the ball much more this year” When the longest completion of the day is in the tailgate section of red lot 5 to an 11 year old from his father.
Please anyone tell me of another team that runs this type of offense that sports a winning record in the last ten years. We are running PSU’s offense from the 70’s and they don’t even run it anymore.
I wonder though how much is Cavanaugh and how much is DW keeping a lid on the offense for fear of turnovers – not that it matters in the long run.
