19 UM at Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH The 19thranked Hurricanes (11) try to get back on the winning side of things by facing one of their former Big East rivals, Pittsburgh (11), for the first time since leaving for the ACC. Feel free to participate in our discussion below as you tune in.
REWIND: The Canes lead the alltime series 2191. The last time they met, UM came away with a 2814 win at Pitt. Jarrett Payton led UM offense rushing for 131 yards and a touchdown while Jonathan Vilma had a gamehigh 11 tackles as UM defense produced nine sacks and three turnovers. The Canes have won six in a row in the series. The Canes are looking for its 33rd consecutive win against an unranked, nonconference opponent in regular season play.
ABOUT PITTSBURGH: The Panthers opened the season ranked, but quickly dropped out of the Top 25 poll with a tough loss at Utah. The following week, they crushed New Hampshire on the same day the Canes lost at Ohio State. Pitt has compiled a 69 mark on Thursday night, its last appearance coming on Oct. 2, 2008, when the Panthers defeated No. 10 USF in http://www.officialchargersjerseyshop.com/56_donald_butler_jersey_authentic_black_limited_cheap.html Tampa, 2621. Pitt is 13 against Miami on Thursday night, the lone victory a 2117 decision in 1997 at Pitt Stadium.
Pittsburgh offense is led by Big East 2010 Offensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year Dion Lewis (58, 195), who has struggled rushing for only 102 yards on 35 carries (2.9 avg) in his first two games as a sophomore. Last season, Lewis lead the country in rushing with 1,799 yards. Utah held him to 75 yards on 25 carries. Ray Graham (59, 195) has had fewer carries, but has been explosive, rushing for 115 yards on nine carries. Firstyear starting quarterback Tino Sunseri has completed 65 percent of his passes for 459 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs in his first two starts. His top two targets in the passing game are big receivers Jon Baldwin (65, 230) and Mike Shanahan (65, 220). Baldwin is the experienced veteran with 15 catches of 40 yards or more including nine that have gone for touchdowns.
The Panthers defense was one of the best country last season, leading the country in sacks and ranking 17th in rushing defense and 23rd overall in total defense. But injuries have hurt them a little bit. Big East Defensive Player of the Year Greg Romeus (Coral Glades High) had back surgery and isn expected to return at the earliest until November. Junior defensive tackle Chas Alecxih (65, 280) could still present a huge problem for the Canes in the middle, especially after seeing the success Ohio State had creating pressure up the middle of Miami offensive line. Alecxih has three of his team six sacks this season. Right end Brandon Lindsey (62, 250) has two sacks starting in Romeus place. Strongside linebacker Greg Williams (63, 240) ranks second on the team with 11 tackles. The Canes are going to want to keep the ball away from sophomore free safety Jarred Holley (511, 180) who has both of the Panthers interceptions this season.
Interesting special teams stat for Pittsburgh: The Panthers have blocked 23 kicks under Dave Wannstedt since the 2005 season. In 2008, the Panthers blocked a schoolrecord and nationalbest 10 kicks. Six current players have blocked kicks during their Pitt careers. The Panthers blocked one in their season opener versus Utah.
FOR THE CANES, THINGS TO KEEP AN EYE ON.
> First and foremost, how quarterback Jacory Harris bounces back from what he called his worst week as a Hurricane following a loss. It wasn just the four interceptions against Ohio State for Harris, but the off the field issues racist Twitter messages, etc. The Canes need Harris, who was obviously bothered by it all, to prove he focused on football and zeroed in on his receivers. The smart thing for offensive coordinator Mark Whipple to do is take the pressure off Harris from having to make too many big plays with his arm. UM coach Randy Shannon said his running backs Damien Berry, Lamar Miller and Mike James would get at least 20 touches each this week between rushes, returns and receptions. If the Canes are smart, they do just that. Pittsburgh run defense isn at full strength and gave up 122 yards on 27 carries in its loss to Utah. The Canes should be able to run the football and then throw it pretty easily. The Panthers rank 94th in pass defense.
> All week long we heard about the amount of attention the Donald Butler Authentic Jersey Canes have spent in practice trying to improve their tackling and trying to create turnovers. It time to see if the hardwork paid off. Pittsburgh offensive line had to replace all three interior linemen from last season team a big reason the team has struggled running the football. There no reason the Canes shouldn be able to bottle up Pitt running game and put pressure on the Panthers young quarterback. Allen Bailey, who hasn had a sack since last Halloween (a stretch of seven games), will see more time at tackle this week. I guessing he be a big factor in this game.
> Heinz Field can be a tricky place to kick field goals because of the wind. After missing one in his last game and having another blocked, Matt Bosher can go a long way in improving his NFL stock with a good game in this one.
> MY PICK: This Pittsburgh team was picked to win the Big East in the preseason and as upset and focused as UM might be, I don see a blowout happening. Including its seasonopening 2724 overtime loss at Utah this year, Pitt last four losses have come by an average of just 3.5 points per game. The Canes are 812 alltime under Shannon away from home. This won be easy, but they find a way. UM 26, Pitt 17. the late game start, I won be doing any live chat this week. Feel free to discuss the game below.
Can we please quit babying Jacory Harris! I am sick and tired of hearing about how he is crying about these racist comments. As bad as they might be, if he doesn play like dog sit against OSU than I am pretty sure he would never have received them. Get a back bone! Whipple needs to take pressure off of Harris? Are you kidding me! This guy is a junior and should need more pressure than less. If this guy cannot deal w/ being the starting QB at a major D1 school and all the ups and downs that go w/ it than go to Furman and play there. Get a soild pair of balls and go out and play football and win, plain and simple. Manny quit babying this kid, for the love of god! Tell Harris to get it together in the head b/c not only is he looking like a mediocre QB who cannot throw the ball to the correct team, he is also becoming a head case.
With all due putting Jacory in the same sentence with Dorsey is just wrong, example Dorseys season (soph) he threw like 6 ints . all year, (JR) he threw I believe 9, we all know how our boy did last year , if you don think he have 9 by the fifth game you got some big brass stones on you. , Tech, and clemson, and Fsu coming up. The strength of this team should be wr but they keep dropping the ball. Lets face facts he had 2 passes dropped into ints against osu. That said i kept wanting miami to run on osu and they didnt. berry, miller and james give us a 3 headed tailback monster. Berry has speed and power james can pound u and miller is the most explosive back miami has had since gore. So run the ball cause its the teams strength not to take pressure off jacory and open up the play action deep game. ps Curse of art kehoe and all his other alts is a racist gator troll. We dont call him that for any other reason then its true.
Why is it that when the Canes lose a game everyone has nothing but bad things to say. I don call these people fans I call them Closet football fansonly out when we win. I have followed the Canes since back in the last 60/early 70 and have seen them go from worse to best and best to bad. Okso Miami beat Miami last weekwe lost to ourselves and we CAN rebound to a win tonight. Let be positive and not negative about a team we love. RememberIT ALL ABOUT AND ONLY ABOUT THE Corey Liuget Elite Jersey U!!!!!!!!!!!! Lets do it Canes!!!
Doug, and I couldn agree w/ you more on the fact that Jacory is not in the same league as Dorsey. Jacory is not worthy of even holding Kenny jock! Please mperry1, do not even go there! When Jacory can lose but 2 games as a starter in 3 full seasons than we can talk. And let me take it one step further, Dorsey was ONLY a sophmore when mperry1 says he had this awful game at Washington. Kenny never lost another game until the title game in 2003. Jacory played as a FR, and alot, played his Soph year and he is still playing like he is Freshman. Dorsey improved each and every game and thats why we have a throttling of www.officialchargersjerseyshop.com/94_corey_liuget_jersey_authentic_black_limited_cheap.html Florida in the Sugar Bowl in 2001, a national title in 2002 and played for another title in 2003 to our credit. Jacory has given us nothin and the talent on this team is better than what they are showing. It starts w/ the head coach and goes to the QB. Both at this point are very questionable as to how good each are.
I am just sick and tired about hearing all these excuses for why a team w/ the talent we have continues to lose and why Jacory Harris continues to throw INTs. When does someone start to take some accountability and when does a guy like Manny, who covers the Canes, start calling a spade a spade. I know you want continued access to UM Manny but lets call it as we see it and not pretend its not happening and hiding our head in the south beach sand. Its always someone else fault like a twitter message. Maybe if JH guy was not on the phone 1 hour before kickoff and rather focusing and planning on the game he would not get all this hate mail. This kid is bringing it upon himself. Can you imagine if we lose tonight the excuses? Should we lose? NO, we should win by 3 TDs. But w/ this team and w/ Shannon and Jacory at the helm, who knows whats goign to happen. But when you play like dog sit for a major program on national TV this is what happens in the world of the big business that is college in football in 2010. If you focus on the whole scheme of things it the whole team. We not running the ball effectively, not getting the turnovers that we accustomed to, Lb are playing decent, secondary is not at the top of their game, but yet and still it J12. Remember defense wins championships. You have to have balance throughout the whole team. (Ex. 80 49ers, 90 cowboys, college teams: our old school miami teams, all of the champions this decade, especially alabama!) It a balance attack! BTW, the last time I checked old Dorsey boy wasn breaking any records or winning championships in the NFL, he wasn that good, he was surrounded by superior talent! Which brings me back to balance, balance, balance!!
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