# 58 R.P.I. Pittsburgh @ #7o R.P.I. Virginia Tech:

Today’s word of the day is… puzzle.

puz·zle

(pŭz′əl)

Pittsburgh Defense: (starters back=7)

• 13th in Sacks and 25th in TFL!
• dLine and Lb Havoc Rate both=19th best, Db Havoc Rate=4th best; WOW!
• Havoc=TFL (including Sacks), fumbles forced, passes defended and Qb Hurries!
• …in other words? In other words this Pitt D tends to BLEEP you up.
• 3-4 base with some thirty-three elements and some 4-downlinemen as well. Will run-blitz any Lb from anywhere. Will crowd LOS (line-of-scrimmage) with Lb’s as well for variable 3, 4 or 5 man even/symmetric fronts. Assignment football is a must vs. this Flexing/red-dogging set.

  

• Lb’s do a LOT! Loops, Twists, zone-blitzing off the LOS, even double-Gap hits (2 Lb’s blitzing the very same hole!) VT Pass-Protect had better keep its head on a swivel here.
• Pitt will align 2 ILb’s a very deep 6 yards off the LOS at times, with a mutual over-shift wide-side look. Almost looks like Bud in a double Rover set. With press-man on edge and a more traditional Hi-Lo Fs to Ss toggle.
• the 2 Safeties showed more Even (balanced) looks that I’ve seen on film most of the time. Fs and Ss will align equally, at least at times. Both seem to have a few more run responsibilities or favoritism’s as well. Have a wider Fs to Ss lateral split here and there.
• will offer double coverage, in particular as a bait-n-switch off the Slot.
• Front-7 and the downlinemen in particular are a little mechanical or robotic, we should have an edge speed advantage if/when we can break East-West contain.
• short secondary: everyone <5’11”; if there ever was a breakout game for Bucky…
• NOT a good week to have poor coach Stacy hurting (Godspeed @him). Pitt’s front-7 is very very creative, lotta coaching to be done to prep vs. them, here.
• tackling: very very solid overall, one of the Safeties a little less so, however.
• a Gestalt Theory NO name stop-unit as only 1, that’s o-n-e Pitt defender got any preseason all-A.c.c. voting love; one! (#95, Dt, Adam Khaynin Mosley-Smith). (hence the higher Mode or final letter-grade overall)

Defensive letter-grade:

Pitt Offense: (returning starters=8)

• 115th in TFL allowed and 107th in Qb Sacks allowed!
• #23, Wr, Tyler “N.f.l.” Boyd has nearly 300% more receptions than anybody else; might wanna double him and take him away –as stars shine. ’nuff said.
• r-Fr. Tb Quad’ Ollson has taken over for Conner, at 6’2′ 233 lbs. he too is a load.
• O runs Gun-Spread single back Sets with a real in-line Te shortside.

  

• tough offense to Key, as C and G’s will pull Play-side or pull behind the play to create a lineman crossbuck look. I even saw the G’s pull OPPOSITE directions at the very same time away from each other on film! (and I’ve never ever seen that one, before)
• Will play-action off the single-back sets on a wannabe jet-sweep or read-option set. Seems to throw quick hitters on short to intermediary work more often than not.
• will old-school pull a G in pass-protect to kick-out the Te released De. I’ve not seen this one since the 1980’s.
• left-Ot = stud! Next level, and all-A.c.c. Academic team as well for a.Bisnowaty, watch Pitt run behind him #69 (and near all-A.c.c. G, #53 d.Johnson) in the clutch.
• #86 Te Holtz did some smart looking chip and Fly or skinny-Post release work. Gotta mind the store on him. This Te woof’s and runs smack, too!
• will go balanced oLine Elephant trips Te in red-zone and just Wham, Iso’, Smash play and simply bulwark the ball forward.
• Qb has a very odd wind-up with a very deep orthodox or right-shoulder extension backwards away from his body (see: pic). Not as slow of a release as that would connote or imply; however, there should be some opp’s to strip the ball from behind. Does have a kinda cool looking old-school whipsaw follow-through as a big time Tennessee Vol recruit gone Pitt Panther transfer.
• lotta zoning upfront, even a delay look or waiting to see where the defender(s) want to go.

Offensive  letter-grade:

Panther Special Teams: (both return)
Pitt place-Kicker and Alexandria, Va. native Chris Blewitt is perfect on P.A.T.’s and yet 60% on FGA’s this year. Which is an off year from a guy who has been 76% or 78% in his two years prior to his current Jr. campaign. Chris has a good leg with a career long of 55 though maybe not quite a bionic leg. KO return defense is 86th and Punt return defense is 39th and yet Pitt is a pedestrian 75th in Net Punting. Very nice looking return teams however as the Panthers check in at 27th in Punt returns and 21st in KO returns with one KO return taken to the house and likewise one Punt return brought back for 6! Beware, Pitt has blocked 1 kick and 1 punt already this year; wow! Punt return Set did have massive internal G-ls-G Gaps in it. Might could try an Up-Back right up the gut on a fake to slow this punt-block unit down. (i.e. Pitt tries to create a blocking overload L or R outside the G-ls-G at the expense of the middle)

Pitt Special Teams letter-grade: (yah; FG would really make this complete, maybe even a little longer punting; however, this is a very dangerous team in return and/or block: the lowest possible A— for being so game-changing, already)

X–factor(s):

1. weather: RAIN rain go away, category II storm come again another day. Better o and d-lines have the edge along with Wr’s who know where they are going, here. (minor Pitt advantage, at least on paper)
2. health: Pitt, both with critical injuries, although Pitt may have 1 or 2 fewer.
3. motive: seems awash to me, both need this win
4. penalties: HUGE edge Pitt as Pitt is 4th in fewest penalties (VT is 118th, you do the maths)!
5. surface: push, both now scrum on natural grass
6. cleats: whomever packed the longest, wins! (don’t sleep on how much difference this can make)

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

the takeaway:
The takeaway here is… I truly had this one penciled into the O&M W column. Even more so with the Conner cruel cruel knee injury. So May St.James bless him, his M.c.l.,  and my hometown of Upper Saint Clair –a so.-side or southie suburb of metropolitan Pittsburgh proper. As yah; I’d have to say that Pitt is gonna miss a 1,764 chain moving big ole X-chromosome powerfully low-geared runner who was only averaging 9.6 yards per carry this year. So this game really should be VT’s to L, right?

‘rong!

As the @E.c.u. version of Virginia Tech can still L this gridiron contest every bit as much as the @Purdue version of Virginia Tech would surely win it. And yet if you like offense? You Sir or madame have prolly come to the ‘rong place… as Pitt is…

• 122nd in 1st-Down O
• 1o9th in Total O
• 1o4th in Passing O
• 79th in Rushing O
• 17th in Total D!
• and 7th best in 1st-Down D!!!

Can you say: “…points at a premium” or even more succinct: “…a race to 20 points”? Because whomever gets there first? Wins. As this one has ugly written all over it, all the more so if the New River Valley is underwater and we play this one in Duck Pond this weekend down in the 24060.

That being said, Tech has a very curious lifeline shot here, as our beloved Hokies are a aggregate +2.75 in Turnover Margin entering this one between these two teams’ head-to-head to the great! As the Panthers have a thorn in their Turnover prone paw at 1o6th best whereas Frank and company have a whole lotta ball security checking in at 4th best. Presuming Bud Lyte can at least turn the Panthers over in Lane, in the rain, you’d have to like our chance to win a dullard of a game in our own backyard.

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And yet again for any game not named Furman, I remain puzzled in who these film-study match-ups favor to actually or eventually as this football game goes. Nevertheless, I do feel I have the straight edge pieces connected properly and that at least tells me that the framework for this one avers a low scoring game in soupy New River Valley weather. Something in league with 20-13, either way. As anything and everything can and prolly will happen to a slick and soggy oblong spheroid in this much precip’.

***

So how did I finally make my prediction in something of a 4 recent prognosticinti mental soup myself? It is actually the Pitt left-side o-Line, their rushing Qb who is built like a Will-Lb, their pretty good sized Tb, and a Panther defense that just somehow manages to play better than it should. That and the lack of Virginia Tech tackling last week which was nearly appa(w)lling, if you will.

Ergo, to wit, therefore… I expect a coarse, hard-grinding game down in the pigskin version of the squared-circle or bone-on-bone crucible of truth. Two teams enter, one team wins.

Except, and unfortunately, I ultimately expect Virginia Tech to out-gain Pittsburgh, in a early autumn finish that leaves most of the TSL.com message board posters, puzzled again.

12.noon:BEGIN:puzzle
rain.puzzling
3:30pm.outcome.puzzlement

upset Index=47%

Virginia Tech=16, Pittsburgh=21

“LETS GO!“

“HOKIES!“

bourbonstreet**