Friday, November 7, 2008

5 things to watch; Louisville Edition

5. The Panthers secondary vs. the Louisville pass game:

This is again a concern going into the game. Last week the Panthers did enough to get the win. However, they looked shaky at times throughout the game. I do expect the Panthers to play a little better in this area. They look to be gaining a little swagger back, which is important for a secondary. Berry made a nice play at the end of the ND game and hopefully he can build on this. Hunter Cantwell can throw the ball and is averaging nearly 200 yds/game passing, but I expect Pitt to come out with a chip on their shoulder and play well at home on D.

4. Louisville playing good sound gap defense

Louisville defense coordinator Ron English knows his team has struggled against the run for one reason. The guys aren't playing their assigned gaps and are getting selfish.
"We don't trust each other, and everybody wants to make the play instead of making their play," English said. "Trust is an action word."
The Cards are hoping to correct this especially because LeSean McCoy has excellent vision and can exploit these weaknesses. I expect the Cards have hammered this point home this week and will do a better job early in the game. If Pitt gets up early though watch out. If the Lousville players get behind they may feel the pressure to make a play, get selfish and get out of position. This can lead to big plays for Shady. I wouldn't expect it, a good way to see if the Cards are disciplined to play assignment football would be to use a little bit of option with Greg Cross. If the running game is working early, this won't be an issue.

3. Bill Stull's comfort in the pocket

It will be interesting to see how Stull bounces back from such a scary injury. I think most fans are excited to have him back running the offense. The Panthers need to do a great job of protecting the QB. It will be interesting to see if he has a little bit of happy feet or is in full comfort mode in the pocket. I expect Stull to sit in and make his reads, he seems to be a real tough kid.

2. The Panthers punt return game

This has been the scariest plays of the game over the past few weeks. First Aaron Berry had trouble and then TJ Porter made a bad decision last week on not coming up on a ball that he fumbled as well. This is an area that Pitt can't afford to make a mistake in because it is typically a 50+ yard swing.

1. The Student Section

Pittsburgh has one of the biggest hoops recruits in the nation visiting this weekend, Dominic Cheek. Cheek is a 5-star stud and would be a great addition to a class that already has one 5star in Dante Taylor. The Panthers look to be on the outside at this point but hopefully the student section can pull a little magic (a la LeSean McCoy checking his name off at the bball game) and sway the stud guard here.

No comments:

Post a Comment