Louisville vs Pitt Notes
I watched Louisville play at Pitt on Saturday. For your sake, I hope you didn’t. It was not the most entertaining game of the day.
There was a lot I took from the game, though. These are two programs who Notre Dame is scheduled to play this season and they are considered two of the better teams the Irish are going to face. That says a lot more about the status of the ACC as a whole than it does about these two teams.
Both programs clearly have talented players who could compete with the best in the country. Both programs also have holes on their roster. They played a sloppy game on Saturday with neither averaging over 5.0 yards per play.
Pitt Notes
- The strongest part of Pitt’s team is the defensive line. It might be the best group in the ACC. They absolutely dominated Louisville up front. Just about every running play had a defensive lineman disrupting the play.
Pitt pressured Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham on 50% of his drop backs and that was largely based on the pass rush from the front four. Minus a couple of bad plays, the defense as a whole whooped Louisville’s high-powered offense.
They finished with seven sacks on the day, 12 tackles for loss, and a Havoc Rate of 35.3%!
- The guy who stood out the most to me was defensive end Rashad Weaver. After missing 2019 with a knee injury, it’s clear he is back to the player he was in 2018 (18 TFLs). He had two sacks and generally seemed unblockable.
Weaver might have jumped out more to me, but Patrick Jones had three sacks from the other end spot. These two are going to be a problem for Notre Dame. If the Irish had to pick who to give extra attention to in protection, I would make it Weaver, but Jones is also a great player.
- While the secondary was good, they relied on the pass rush. They had some receivers running deep that would have had some big chunk plays if the quarterback was more accurate. So that 5.1 yards per attempt Pitt gave up is a little bit misleading.
They have quality players across the board, but Jason Pinnock is their best corner and he is someone who I believe should be tested deep quite often. He is big and physical, but I think he can be attacked vertically.
- On offense, they were pretty much who I thought they were other than running back Vincent Davis being a much more elusive player than I believed he was. He made several tacklers miss and his numbers (3.7 YPC) are more of a reflection of the blocking than his level of play.
- Quarterback Kenny Pickett is okay.
He can escape the rush and is a good athlete. He has above average arm talent and will surprise you with some zip on some intermediate throws as well. He also handles the blitz pretty well and generally makes solid decisions with the football.
To me, though, I saw the same guy who I saw when he played Notre Dame in 2018.
When Louisville didn’t blitz and played coverage, he often went to his check down option. He rarely pushes the ball vertically and finished with 5.8 YPA. Even that number is a bit misleading because his longest pass play of the day came on a Taysir Mack touchdown when Louisville thought they had him on the ground and he kept running for a touchdown.
Pitt is average at best up front and I think Notre Dame can put pressure on Pickett with only four rushers.
- I was impressed with freshman Jordan Addison (7 for 77). He’s a go-to guy for them already and they look to get him in favorable matchups on 3rd down.
- I don’t know how playing heavy will work when playing Pitt because their strength is their front. I still believe Ian Book will have to hit the deep ball to put points on the board.
Pitt’s offense does not match up with Notre Dame’s defense very well. I think the Irish have a huge advantage there.
Louisville Notes
- Louisville had so many chances to win this game, but it really came down to their O-line just getting destroyed. Cunningham did not play well, but he was being harassed all game long. He rarely had a clean pocket to throw from and even when he tried to escape, there wasn’t much room for him to do it.
They miss left tackle Mekhi Becton (first round pick) a lot. His replacement is Adonis Boone and he was eaten alive by Weaver. Boone gave up three sacks and numerous pressures.
- Cunningham was seen as potentially the third best quarterback in the conference heading into this season. This game showed he still has room to grow to get there.
His awareness in the pocket is not where it should be and that didn’t help with the sacks. He was 1 of 6 when pressured (not counting sacks or scrambles). When Pitt blitzed him, he really struggled to make the right reads and was 2 of 9 for only 26 yards. He threw two picks when blitzed.
He finished just 9 of 21 (42.8%) for 107 yards and had three interceptions. The biggest problem is that he couldn’t hit the long ball missing TuTu Atwell repeatedly on plays which could have been touchdowns.
He finished 1 of 7 on throws of 20 yards or more.
- Atwell is frightening on every play. He is so fast and is a nightmare for anyone who has him in man coverage.
4 for 37 could have been 7 for 130 with some more accurate throws. Atwell did drop a touchdown pass in the end zone, though, so at least one of those big plays was on him.
- Javian Hawkins is an electric back when he has space. Just look at this 75-yard touchdown as an example. He had a huge hole and he was gone for six.
Outside of that one carry, he carried the ball 12 times for 3 yards. That pretty much sums up Louisville’s running game against a superior front seven.
- I don’t think Pitt’s offense is very good, but I have to give Louisville’s defense some credit. They were disruptive and finished with a Havoc Rate of 25.6% (11 TFLs, 3 forced fumbles).
Their front is not great for them. They have some athletic linebackers, but their secondary wasn’t really tested. I’m not going to make any snap judgements on their defense being improved because of the opponent, but they gave their offense plenty of chances to win this game.
This loss was not on Louisville’s defense.
- This team is a bit smaller and I think Notre Dame will run for a lot of yards on them if they continue to play with heavy formations.
Although Atwell and Hawkins are dangerous, I do believe Notre Dame should be able to pressure Cunningham. I won’t be surprised if their offense looks similar to how they looked against Pitt when Louisville plays Notre Dame.