Coming off a bye week, Syracuse will face a suddenly hot Pittsburgh team in its Big East opener. After losing their first two games to Youngstown State and Cincinnati by a combined score of 65-27, the Panthers have rebounded with consecutive wins over Virginia Tech and Gardner-Webb. The teams will square off in the Carrier Dome at 7 p.m. Friday. The Daily Orange spoke with Sam Werner, who covers the Panthers for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to examine some key storylines and matchups heading into the game.

The Daily Orange: Pittsburgh started off 0-2 and had that loss to Youngstown State before turning it around the last two games. What was the key difference after the 0-2 start?

Sam Werner: I think the biggest thing you have to look at first is the improvement of the rush defense. In those games against Youngstown State and Cincinnati they were giving up over 200 yards a game on the ground, and they really sort of turned that around against Virginia Tech and Gardner-Webb. I think a lot of that is just a matter mostly of guys understanding their assignments a little bit better because you don’t usually give up 50-yard runs because you’re just getting pushed around. At least Pitt won’t because they’ve got some talented guys on defense. Those guys were just missing assignments and not knowing where they were supposed to be and those problems really got corrected in the last two games.

The D.O.: Would you say Pitt is closer to the team that has gone 2-0 and looked really good the last two weeks or the team that got off to that sluggish start?

SW: It’s hard to say at this point because the Virginia Tech game was obviously a big win and there’s not too much to take from the Gardner-Webb game because Gardner-Webb is not even that great of a I-AA opponent, but if I had to guess, I would say they’re probably a little bit closer to the team of the last two games just because you could see after those last two games sort of the confidence building, and the players will always say that they were buying into the new coaching staff, but once you get a couple of wins under your belt, it gets a lot easier to buy into what the new coaches are selling.

The D.O.: You had mentioned Pitt’s ability to stop the run as a key factor in its two wins. How do they match up against Syracuse’s passing attack in the secondary?

SW: I think that that could be a little bit of a problem for them. They haven’t really faced a team that has that sort of passing ability yet. Logan Thomas of Virginia Tech was sort of touted as a really quality quarterback, but he threw a couple of bad interceptions. The one thing that they were able to do against Virginia Tech that if they could do against Syracuse would help them out a lot, is that they got a lot of pressure on Thomas, so if they can get pressure on Ryan Nassib, that will make the secondary’s job a lot easier.

The D.O.: How does the Syracuse defense match up with Ray Graham and the Pitt rushing attack?

SW: The biggest thing for the Pitt rushing attack, especially the last few games is just its versatility, and it’s been very well evenly spread out between Ray Graham and the freshman Rushel Shell — he had the big game against Virginia Tech especially. And then Isaac Bennett is a third down, mostly used in passing situations type of back, but he can get in there and make things happen too. That’s sort of where it all starts. Paul Chryst came in from Wisconsin, sort of famously a couple years ago had those three running backs almost go for 1,000 yards, and I think that’s sort of — maybe not the numbers, but the style he wants to employ at Pitt and then from that. That makes the rest of the offense flow too. When you’re able to run the ball, it makes everything else a lot easier.

The D.O.: With Pittsburgh’s running backs, what different running styles do they bring out of the backfield?

SW: The two guys you’ll probably see on Friday are Ray Graham and Rushel Shell. And obviously Ray Graham had the ACL injury last season coming off ACL surgery. He had a long touchdown run against Gardner-Webb that he showed some of the explosiveness of old Ray. I don’t think he’s there 100 percent yet, but he’s certainly getting back to that explosive playmaking back that he was last year, and every game I think he’ll continue to get better. Rushel Shell is a little bit more of a downhill guy. He’s only a freshman, but he’s not afraid to run guys over, so he’s sort of the more physical back of the two whereas Graham is the more explosive, big-play guy.

Published on October 5, 2012 at 2:57 am

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu