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Am I alone in worrying about Saturday

DrJC

Well-Known Member
May 29, 2001
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I know Pitt is not a powerhouse. But I am concerned about the performance against a tough competitor of our OL and DL. I am also worried about the ability to run through the middle of our defense. This bodes ill for our matchup with Maryland and other tough teams. Thoughts?
 
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Our offensive line is better than their defensive line, and our defensive line is better than their offensive line. The latter is more pronounced than the former, but both are true all the same.
 
Not worried in the least - we match up better in nearly every position, I don't know about their kickers though. The only thing they have more of is a-hole fans. Franklin is going to give them a going away curb stomp. No slow start this week - over by 1/2 time.
 
Anything can happen but I'm not extremely worried because Dooz is wound tighter than a golf ball and is terrible at getting his team into a competitive mindset. For example, he isn't allowing media access to his team this week. I guess he thinks it'll make them focus better. To me it seems it'll make them as uptight as Dooz when game time arrives. I'd let them talk to the media and enjoy the days leading up to the game. It'll build anticipation and get them even more pumped up to play on Saturday.
 
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If you're worried based on the Buffalo performance, don't be. Once we stopped tinkering with personnel, it was game over. Buffalo got to the red zone, what...maybe 3 times? People look at the stats. We took with UB was giving and got pass happy, giving Buffalo a LOT more chances on offense.
 
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Have zero concern about this game; as another poster said, I truly believe Buffalo is a better team than Pitt. With this said, I do have some moderate concerns about the upcoming Maryland game.
 
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Not worried in the least - we match up better in nearly every position, I don't know about their kickers though. The only thing they have more of is a-hole fans. Franklin is going to give them a going away curb stomp. No slow start this week - over by 1/2 time.
I'm glad someone isn't worried about a slow start because I am. It would sure be nice to hit the ground running on Saturday. Early momentum represents just about the only scenario in which I can see Pitt not just generally getting outclassed in this one.
 
Have zero concern about this game; as another poster said, I truly believe Buffalo is a better team than Pitt. With this said, I do have some moderate concerns about the upcoming Maryland game.


PIL - hopefully your place survived the recent visit by Dorian?
 
Sure, I'm a bit worried. I know we have better top to bottom talent. The Buffalo game, despite all the rationalization about a lot of subbing, still was frustrating. Other than the QB, we were not able to run the ball on them and they ran consistently against us. Pitt is a solid team with a good secondary that plays aggressive [constant holding and PI] so passing won't come quite as easy as it did against Buffalo.
 
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I worry if Coach Pry will be ready for the................shovel pass? Oh, I hope that RR............will stop running the..............WRPO. Perhaps the .......Worst RPO of all time. I don't care about scoring points against Buffalo. His scheme is ...........NO Bueno!
 
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Not worried at all about this game. We have big boy talent. pitt has MAC level talent. We will easily blow them out. Coach Franklin will be able to pick the final score he wants. It will be fun to watch Narduzzi tear his cloths on the sideline.

I am a bit concerned about Maryland.
 
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Anything can happen but I'm not extremely worried because Dooz is wound tighter than a golf ball and is terrible at getting his team into a competitive mindset. For example, he isn't allowing media access to his team this week. I guess he thinks it'll make them focus better. To me it seems it'll make them as uptight as Dooz when game time arrives. I'd let them talk to the media and enjoy the days leading up to the game. It'll build anticipation and get them even more pumped up to play on Saturday.

Did nardoozie announce this decision before or after morrissey made his stupid statement? I'm guessing after, unless morrissey is dumb enough to disregard his coach's mandate. The point is that morrisey's stupid statement could have led to nardoozie's decision (though he did the same thing last year).
 
I think Buffalo is better than Pitt.

Not sure if overall they are better, but on their OL they are definitely better than Pitt. If Pitt had not made the change to Whipple’s pass first offense, were still committed to a power running game and had last year’s OL this game would worry me. They have none of those things going for them this year. This should be a comfortable PSU win.
 
Hey, thanks for your concern. No word from our property management company, which should mean no signs of any damage. I know there was a fair amount of downed trees in our neighborhood there, but appears that was the extent of it.


It’s an absolutely beautiful home. I’ve told Fonzie it’s on my bucket list to visit someday and sorry, you get to stay at your local kennel (“pet resort”). Glad it appears all is well.

My brother’s place on St. John (USVI) also fortunately dodged the bullet this time around.

Mother Nature seems to be getting more and more cranky in her older age!
 
I watched both Pitt games and their OL is not very good. Buffalo's OL is MUCH better. I think we will be able to get pressure and force some mistakes. If we muster 28 points we win easily.
 
Not speaking about pitt in particular, but I never really "worry" about home games in which, IF we bring our "A" game and the other team brings their "A" game, then we still win handily. In other words, as long as we bring our "A" game, then what pitt does is irrelevant. The only way a "pitt" type of team can beat us at home is if they bring their "A" game, and we show up with our "C" game..... and that would be 100% our fault.

Over the last 3 years, Franklin has shown he gets the team ready. I go back to the Program's turn-around game -- Minnesota Game of 2016 -- and since that MN game in '16 we've lost a grand total of 6 games, and all were to Top 20 programs: 2 vs. Ohio St., 2 vs. MSU, 1 vs. Michigan and 1 vs. Kentucky. 6 loses in 2+ years, and all to Top 20 programs. IMO, that's enough statistical back-up to feel good about Franklin having this team ready to play and win on Saturday.
 
If you're worried based on the Buffalo performance, don't be. Once we stopped tinkering with personnel, it was game over. Buffalo got to the red zone, what...maybe 3 times? People look at the stats. We took with UB was giving and got pass happy, giving Buffalo a LOT more chances on offense.
There's no analysis behind this thought, but have defenses sold out to stop the run? And is that why PF is having it so easy? Clifford should have a field day if this continues this weekend.

People like to complain about the OL and play calling, but I think they don't understand how the RPO works. We're no longer a team that methodically moves the ball down the field. Our offense is designed for explosive plays. No one can say it's not working. But we need (and have) a great punter. More importantly, we need depth on the defense to keep the unit fresh for an entire game.

Things didn't click for Trace until he started to run the ball. I was thinking about that right before Sean took off on his big gain.
 
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Over the last 3 years, Franklin has shown he gets the team ready. I go back to the Program's turn-around game -- Minnesota Game of 2016 -- and since that MN game in '16 we've lost a grand total of 6 games, and all were to Top 20 programs: 2 vs. Ohio St., 2 vs. MSU, 1 vs. Michigan and 1 vs. Kentucky. 6 loses in 2+ years, and all to Top 20 programs. IMO, that's enough statistical back-up to feel good about Franklin having this team ready to play and win on Saturday.

You're forgetting our Rose Bowl loss to USC at the end of the 2016 season.
 
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Not speaking about pitt in particular, but I never really "worry" about home games in which, IF we bring our "A" game and the other team brings their "A" game, then we still win handily. In other words, as long as we bring our "A" game, then what pitt does is irrelevant. The only way a "pitt" type of team can beat us at home is if they bring their "A" game, and we show up with our "C" game..... and that would be 100% our fault.

Over the last 3 years, Franklin has shown he gets the team ready. I go back to the Program's turn-around game -- Minnesota Game of 2016 -- and since that MN game in '16 we've lost a grand total of 6 games, and all were to Top 20 programs: 2 vs. Ohio St., 2 vs. MSU, 1 vs. Michigan and 1 vs. Kentucky. 6 loses in 2+ years, and all to Top 20 programs. IMO, that's enough statistical back-up to feel good about Franklin having this team ready to play and win on Saturday.

Need to add USC to your list. But your point still stands.
 
Not worried, but upsets do happen. Hell, Pitt beat Clemson on the road and Clemson went on to win the title that year. The big difference is that Pitt actually had a juggernaut of an offense that year and could score lots of points.
 
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Like 2017, I expect it to be reasonably close at half. I think PSU will pull away in the second half. If it’s in hand in the fourth quarter, Franklin will probably try to run it up.

I think PSU has to turn it over and make plenty of mistakes in order to lose. This is probably Pitt’s worst team of the four game series, and probably PSU’s most athletic and deepest team.
 
Pitt sucks. Don't be fooled by those first two games. They will come out fired up but by the 3rd quarter they will be quitters and this game gets out of hand quickly after.
 
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The only thing I'm worried about for this game is if I'll be able to get YouTubeTv to stream properly through a double hop VPN. I had good results the first week, but didn't get to watch the Buffalo game live, due to it not starting until 3am here. Other than that, it is Pitt, and they are horrible.
 
The first two games have been basically preseason games. We’ve played around with lineups, putting people at different positions, seeing if it can work. Heck, we haven’t named a starting RB yet. Now we’re getting into the meat of our schedule, so I think you’ll see more consistency. We will see subbing out for fatigue and situational, but I think moving forward, you’ll see our true number ones.
 
I have to think JF understands the magnitude of this game. Even while many here don't want to admit it - this is a huge game for us No way does he want to hear the incessant droll ...the last meeting with Pitt was a PSU loss (think the 2000 loss during the dark years) . After all he is from PA so he should have grown up with the rivalry. He chases the same in state recruits as Pitt and recruiting in state is much easier with a concincing PSU win.
 
I can certainly see Pitt keeping it competitive for the first half..They will come out fired up and adrenaline might spike their talent level early in the game. Then reality will set in as our talent and depth assert themselves and we dominate the latter part of the game.
Of course, I would like to see Penn State dominate early and often, but I'm not getting discouraged is we start relatively slow.
 
I am very worried about the weather.
ME too, if we don't have weather for the game, most likely the Apocalypse is upon us.

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