As disappointing as the underneath coverage for Pitt’s pass defense has been, the most surprising thing about Pitt’s defense has been the lack of turnovers. That’s the thing that Pitt’s new and aggressive defense is supposed to be producing. It flat out hasn’t happened.
The run defense has stuffed teams, but no fumbles forced or stripped. The corners — well they just aren’t being aggressive. That reduces interception chances when they aren’t trying to jump routes.
Now Pitt faces an Irish team that has simply been a turnover machine. 13 turnovers in 3 games. The simplest reason for them to be sitting at 1-2, with excruciatingly painful losses. Honestly, if Pitt can’t get at least 2 turnovers against ND — regardless of the outcome — then this could be a really painful transition season.
For those prepared to jump on the transition statement and contrasting the words of Coach Graham about winning now — chill. The two are not mutually exclusive. You can’t have a coaching change without a transition season. Doubly so when the style of play is radically shifted. The only question is how successful the team will be in that season.
It’s also worth pointing out that a great opening season in transition does not mean everything. Just ask some of the Notre Dame fans you see on Saturday about the first seasons of Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis.
But I digress.
My big fear with ND remains the pass defense in the underneath coverage. I don’t know what the over/under is on amount of receiving yards Michael Floyd will have by the end of the game, but 150 seems like a good figure.
Offensively, Notre Dame is led by wide receiver Michael Floyd, who has caught 31 passes for 397 yards and two touchdowns in three games. In Notre Dame’s 23-17 win against Pitt last season, Floyd caught seven passes for 59 yards and a touchdown.
“As far as Notre Dame goes, like I said, offensively they are extremely talented and have one of the best receivers in country, Michael Floyd,” Graham said. “They also have several talented players around him as well. The thing I see different about this team is how they’re running the football and distributing the football.”
As for facing ND. Pitt players are familiar, very familiar with Kelly’s offense and of course faced ND last year. Kelly is familiar with Pitt from last year and when he coached Cinci. Plus he faced Graham’s Tulsa team last year, so he has some idea about what Graham likes to do.
“Coach Graham comes in, obviously, from Tulsa,” Kelly said this week. “He knows us quite well from last year. We’re familiar with his system. Now, he essentially put in his philosophy and his system of offense and defense at Pittsburgh.
“When you’re watching film, you’re seeing a lot of similarities to his Tulsa club. We’ve done a lot of film study on their games this year, but we’ve also looked at last year as well in terms of how the games played out, and also the things that we need to do better than last year [against Tulsa].
“So, from our standpoint, it’s being more familiar with coach Graham’s philosophy as to what he did at Tulsa, and we’re really preparing for that kind of offense, vs. what Pittsburgh ran last year.”
Now a brief word on Tino Sunseri’s words. Ugh.
To beat this dead horse a little further, a recap.
“I would say it was my best game I played yet,” he said. “I was very pleased with all my reads. Even the interceptions were the right reads. I just have to put more air on the ball.”
Sunseri’s passing efficiency rating is 122.0, 73rd among the top 100 quarterbacks in the nation. He has four interceptions and three touchdown passes.
But he said he’s getting a better understanding of Pitt’s new offense.
“The first couple of games, I was a little bit cloudy on some of the reads and some of the looks,” he said. “That is going to happen whenever you are getting into a game situation and you aren’t getting the same look as you are in practice, and you have to make adjustments. We were able to make the adjustments, and we were able to go down the field.”
When I saw that, all I could think was, “Oh. Tino… Noooooo.”
Coach Graham of course defended him, and the explanation of the statement is that he was speaking more of his understanding and comprehension of what he was supposed to do. Not the execution itself.
The execution matters, though, and it just points out further the deficiency of Sunseri as the QB. God knows there were plenty of smart college QBs that just didn’t have enough raw ability to execute in the NFL.
While I was watching the Iowa game at The Cage on Saturday, the thing that was driven home to me was how often Sunseri’s passes lacked any touch. Forget the issue of getting air under the ball on those interceptions. Or the woeful miss of the open receiver on the 4th and 3, 4th quarter play. The passes just were all the same — flat.
Reed posted yesterday about one of the issues is that Sunseri may have never legitimately competed for the starting job the last two years. I’m not so sure about that. Let me offer a different theory that I have been tossing around in my head for a while.
Sunseri is a great practice QB. I think back to even his true freshman year, when people were talking about how good he looked right at the start of the training camp. He tailed off, later into camp, but he stood out in a good way. The beat writers who cover Pitt have all said in the past that Sunseri has often looked like the best overall QB in practice.
I won’t lie. I don’t have much faith in Sunseri. I am also bothered that as much as I don’t like the way he throws the ball, my distrust of Sunseri as the QB seems so much more intangible. Things like his presence in the pocket. The way he carries himself. I would much rather have concrete reasons/proof for my support or distrust.
Tino may be a great practice QB, but he simply does not cut it on gameday as has been documented here and on the field. And who did he ever compete with as far as 1st team snaps? not Bostick. Not Myers or Anderson.
I will be there SAT and will not boo when Tino starts, but if Trey does not get playing time in the 1st half and we are getting pounded then I will be pounding them in the Club in the 2nd half. HTP
Anyone paying attention knew coming in that TG brought his college roommate as DC with a poor statistical record. That glaring red flag is still flying at full mast.
We don’t have the talent level at LB and in the secondary to compensate for the lack of coaching and appropriate defensive gameplans to fit what talent we have. We aren’t going to hold anyone to less than 3-4 TDs, let alone shut anyone out. Mr. Floyd and co. will lay 28+ on us SAT. At the risk of being Mr. Obvious, we will need to outscore ND like Michigan did to win. I just don’t think Tino is up to the task. Drink early and often.
Hoever, the point I’m trying to make is the difference in transitioning to these new systems.
Graham’s offense is a proven success; his defense is NOT. I can be patient on the offensive side, but cannot on the defensive side since it has no proven track record. And the fact that experienced players are missing assignments left and right IMO shows the ineptitude of the defesnive coaching
Here’s why I say that. I went to some spring and fall practices in 2010 and then spring practices in 2011 and never once saw anyone but Sunseri take snaps with the first team. During that 2010 training camp I talked with a returning offensive starter (not a QB) and he said the same thing – that no one but Sunseri was even considered for the starter’s spot.
Dave Wannstedt said “It’s Tino’s Time!” more than a few times over the 2009-10 off season, the first being right after the Sun Bowl. Paul Zeise wrote about Sunseri taking all the 1st string snaps in training camp last season.
This link below is from the beginning of training camp in 2010 but if you’ll remember Sunseri had been talked about as the starter since 2009 and took 1st string snaps all though the 2010 spring practices.
link to pittscript.wordpress.com
So, yes, I believe he wasn’t given any formal head to head competition for the starter’s job over the last two years. And I believe in doing so it was counter productive. Hell, even going through the paces with two QBs in that spring of 2010 would have sent a positive message to Sunseri and the rest of the roster.
That isn’t to say I don’t think he was the best choice for the starting position – I do, but that is a different issue than not having an actual competition for that job.
Anyway, it’s a dead horse that I’m beating I suppose.
I wouldn’t be shocked if we went out and won on Saturday but I really do think it has to be the offense that carries us… at this point I have very little faith in our pass defense.
Put it this way; I think Sunseri could come around faster than our pass defense… and there’s no guarantee that either will happen.
My counterpoint to your counterpoint via Paul Zeise in the chat today.
“Imma Man! Im 40!: From multiple accounts, Tino is a good-to-great QB in practice. I don’t get to watch practice, so I see something else in games — and same was true last year except ‘Cuse. Sorta like me, I’m Tiger Woods (the former) on the driving range, TW (the current) out on the course. How can the coaches get into his head, get him to perform in games like they see in practice?
Paul Zeise: You know this is funny because I was thinking the same thing this morning as I watched him effortlessly throw some balls down the field to Devin Street and company – he really does throw the ball well in practice. Now, has it always translated in the games? No, it hasn’t and he needs to get better in the games but some guys are more comfortable when the lights aren’t on. I think his main problem is this – he tries to make plays when there aren’t plays to be made and that leads to him holding the ball too long.”
Not saying I’m completely right or you are completely wrong. I just think it isn’t as simple as being entitled to be the starter
Not whether or not Tino deserves to be playing but as to why he is getting all of the blame on this site for the Iowa collapse.
He’s been lambasted on this site for the 4th quarter. But it needs to be noted that at least he moved the offense down the field — to the 3, and to the Iowa side before the 4th and 3, and finally got a couple of 1st downs before the final INT.
Conversely, the defenses offered no resistance whatsoever. Iowa, not known for its explosive offense, went right down the field 3 times in a row without even having to execute a 3rd and long.
BTW, did you know that Webster just updated its online sports dictionary? After “matador defense” they linked the video of the 4th quarter from the other day!
No one is forgetting the problem with the linebackers. The issue there is that there really isn’t anyone else to play that hasn’t. Underneath coverage was a problem last year as well, so I’m sorry you can’t hang the problem entirely on the new defense and DC. Unless you forget how many times Max Gruder was spotted trying to chase down a receiver.
As to our QB’s practice v play – no kidding! I watched him in the spring practices and the spring game and was convinved that he’d do very well in this offense because he seem so comfortable executing it. He understood the play calls from the sideline, got the players to the LOS quickly (within 15s mostly) and completed a ton of passes.. and ran often also. This offense plays to his physical strengths and covers some weaknesses if he could run it correctly.
That was what I based my pre-season projection of his play on. But what we are seeing now isn’t what I saw then. He is getting better over the three games when there is no pressure though – its when he has ta little bit of pressure is when he’s faltered so far.but he’s stuck in second gear and has been since the season started.
Zeise has it only half right and he’s being kind to the QB – there have been too many plays where Sunseri has almost frozen out there. He’s missed open receivers because he gets tunnel vision when the heat is on.
Fumbling at the goal line isn’t caused by the new system; neither is under throwing the receivers for interceptions, completely being unable to throw a deep pass with any accuracy, skipping passes off the dirt to his wide open receivers, throwing an eight yard pass when its 3rd & 13 or running out of bounds for a two yard loss when all he had to do was toss the ball into the bench…
Those aren’t shortcoming because he’s in a new system – they are mistakes he has made all on his own.
Look, the defense sucks, but really, what is the fix for that right now? However, a singular player can either bring his game up to snuff or be sat down. In other words we can see that there is a real possibility of a fix at our QB position.
That is why its a topic of conversation.
He has yet to play well in an important game. That’s about as concrete as you’re gonna get.
But, his lack of consistency over 60 minutes is what drives me crazy. It isn’t enough to have a few good scoring drives and then whiff on possessions in the 4th quarter when we need one score to win…
I’m not saying he sucks by any means – I am saying that he better not be untouchable if he doesn’t progress.
However, we have the 119th ranked pass defense (out of 120) against the likes of Buffalo, Maine and Iowa with ND coming up.
But of course, it’s all Max Gruder’s fault … just ask your buddy Chas
Flailing like the reverse touchdown signal !
A bunch of ND turnovers will help.
All this analysis about your quarterback is a joke too. Here’s the actual analysis, he’s a “choker”! Every time he got pressured he gagged! We are going to eat your lunch on Saturday! Don’t quite know what you guys are going to do after your qurterback gets beat into submission from our pass rush all day. Do you know how to scream “uncle”?
Have fun in the ACC losers, Go Irish!
The empirical data is vey obvious. Graham has had a great deal of success on the offensive side of the ball, and statistics back that up with its high rankings in total offense. And I agree we should be patient here.
However, that is not the case on the defensive end where Tulsa ranked 111th last year. Is this what we have to look forward to … our defense improving from 119 to 111?
3 games in against reknown passing teams like Buffalo, Maine and Iowa and we rank 119 in pass defense. Yet, all of you on this site just want to criticize the QB.
I guess it’s alright for the coach to go through a transition but not his QB.