Practice Makes 'Close To' Perfect

Senior linebacker, Ray Michel was all business on Monday when he met with the media to talk about a defensive unit that has been utterly dominate through three games this season, and who are looking to make a major statement on Saturday when they take on Big East bigshot, Pitt. Coming into the season it was the Wolfpack defense that had people asking whether this team could truly contend in a very balanced and talented ACC. Mike Archer's defensive unit has answered the call early this season. The Pack has been downright stingy, giving up only 28 point through 3 games, the best mark by a Wolfpack defense since 1991. Add that to the fact that this unit is allowing a miniscule 198.7 yards per contest through 3 games, good for 2nd in the nation, and you start to wonder, can this unit really be this good?

So far the answer has been yes...but how do they do it? How does the Pack defense prepare to stop a team that plays hard-nosed, smash mouth, run the ball up the gut type football? Ray Michel has a theory...

"I would say, Coach Archer came up with a tackling drill we been doing the past couple of weeks. The main thing is focuing on tackling. We've watchid our last games and we've have the guy in the backfeild tackled but nobody seems to come up with it. He just breaks through and gets more yards. So we talked about it and realized that it was the tackling. " Said Michel, when asked about how the defense has been able to stop the run so well. And just what is this drill? "Basically, somone with the ball runs runs as hard as they can and we tackle them." he said with a smirk

It's small things like these that have this defensive unit on a serious roll. However, this weekend the Pack will face a hungry Pittsburgh team that recently walked away from Navy with a 27-14 victory after gaining 369 yards of total offense, led by quarterback BIll Stull and his favorite target, Jonathan Baldwin, coupled with the run first attack headed up by Dion Lewis (who through 3 games already has amasses a monterous 398 yards and 5 TDs). This will be the Wolfpack defense's first challenge since they dominated the South Carolina front line, allow a single (but game deciding) touchdown more than 2 weeks ago. South Carolina has now gone on to score 75 points in their last two games, including 37 against the #21 ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

The Wolfpack defense has been able to put up this kind of performance three weeks in a row, thanks to a defense who's motor never stops. Look back at the game film, this team swarms. Every single one of them is around the ball within seconds of first contact. When asked how they practice this, Michel answered:

"That's another one of Coach Archers drills. It's called the two-whistle drills. After a guy makes a tackle, you have two seconds to get there and get your hand on the ball....or else you do up-downs till Coach gets tired of blowing the whistle."

It's this type of stress on the little things that has an entire defensive unit playing together on the same page. "We've come together as one." said Michel when asked what the most important thing has been early on this season. However, their toughest challenges are still ahead of them. So can the Wolfpack sustain this nationally ranked defensive performance they've shown so far. "We don't worry about stats, we just worry about winning. Actually I didn't even know that (we were ranked.)"