Iowa is 1-1 and coming off a draining loss to instate rival, Iowa State in triple OT, 44-41 (the Hawkeyes won their opener over Tennessee Tech, 34-7).
Let’s get right down to it. For a long time now, Iowa has been coached by Upper St. Clair graduate, Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz has always run a well balanced, physical football team. This year’s Hawkeyes are not much different, however, they were hit hard by graduation and also a bizarre weight room incident that made a few members of the team quit. The loss is being felt the most on the defensive line for Iowa. The word around the cornfields is that they have not replaced stellar graduates, Adrian Clayborn, Karl Klug, and Christian Ballard the way the black and yellow faithful would like to see. However, Mike Daniels does seem to be up to the task more than most. Despite this, I am willing to bet that it will still be a step up in competition for Pitt’s offensive line, which still has tons of question marks.
Iowa’s defense has had some problems with spread offenses, but mostly with mobile QBs. Tino is not the most agile QB in the world, but he can tuck it at times. I have read a good amount of reports showing indications that a package could be in for freshman, Trey Anderson. He looked comfortable running the High Octane offense last week. I don’t think this will turn into a Greg Cross situation and I can see Anderson getting more than one play (of course, that was a nice play by Cross). Hopefully that, plus Pitt getting more comfortable with the philosophy could exploit this and score some points. They have shown flashes, but as we know, those have also included some lows.
Don’t forget, that Anthony Gonzalez’s suspension is officially over and look for him at the H back position. He is very athletic and will rotate in at that position. He made a lot of good plays in camp, but how much he will play this week remains to be seen.
On offense, Iowa’s offensive line is strong. Pitt may employ a different type of defense and of course, the big news is that Brandon Lindsey will move to defensive end, and freshman, Ejuan Price has moved to starter at Panther linebacker. The defensive line may see a little bit of last year’s defense and have two tackles at times, which would play to a strength of Pitt, thanks to the depth of the defensive line.
Iowa’s passing attack was a question at the beginning of the year, with the graduation of Ricky Stanzi, but junior, James Vandenberg and receiver Marvin McNutt have calmed those fears in the first two games, as they have been strong. McNutt has 10 catches, despite some double teams early on. The running game is handled well by Marcus Coker. Make no mistake, if Pitt cannot buckle down and play better than they did against Maine and Buffalo, it will be a VERY LONG DAY.
One thing that may scare you if you are a Pitt fan is the inconsistency of kicker, Kevin Harper. Iowa does not have that problem, as Mike Meyer is 6 for 6 with a 50 yarder to his credit. Pitt needs to improve this part of the game….I don’t know if it is all Harper or maybe something else (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afViRNSr5wg ).
I do expect Pitt to play better then the first two weeks. I want to believe Pitt will put it together enough this week, but I think they suffer their first loss of the year. The first road game of the year will test the offensive line and I believe there will be enough mistakes made to give Iowa the edge, 30-21. I am hoping I am wrong.
Don’ t forget to sign in to the Post Gazette tomorrow at noon for Paul Zeise’s chat. It is very informative and has great insight on the team.
Two keys to the game:
ReplyDelete1. Better QB play. Tino needs to make quicker reads and better throws.
2. The LB's - The LB's need to prove they can cover the underneath routes.
Keep up the great blog Bruno. Enjoy reading it each week.
ReplyDelete