I’m not going to recap every article from Sunday. You can check them yourselves. I will single out a couple that I think were interesting or even disagreed with me.

Joe Bendel’s notebook, totally disagrees with my thoughts that the punting wasn’t bad. He did have a couple that weren’t great, but I think Bendel may be overstating it a bit. Look at the drive chart and consider from where he was punting. Most of the game he was punting from near the 40 yard line. He was hanging most of them high, as evidenced by the fact that OU could only return 3 of the 11 punts. The notebook asked the more important question of where was Joe Flacco? Harris had promised he would play, but he never did much other than hand the ball to Furman for the final series.

Joe Starkey did a refreshing piece on Sunday. It was partially to reign his own impulses in, but mostly to remind Panther-nation not to panic over Palko’s first game.

It might have been the shakiest opening-night performance since Lisa Guerrero’s on Monday Night Football.

But I won’t do it. Not again.

I won’t bury a quarterback after his first college start, especially not when Pitt went into its opener Saturday against Ohio University with nine new starters on offense. I sat in this seat two years ago and ripped Rod Rutherford after he was intercepted three times against Ohio U. in his first start.

To my beyond-eternal regret, I called for freshman Tyler Palko to start the following game. The next day’s headline — “It’s Palko Time” — is branded onto my psyche like some horrendous tattoo.

So, even though Palko’s first start made Rutherford’s seem worthy of the College Football Hall of Fame, you won’t see an “It’s Flacco Time” headline today. Nor would there be an “It’s Getsy Time” headline if Luke Getsy had stuck around.

Rather than just tell the fans they need to chill, he uses himself as the example. It comes off very effectively in making the plea for a little patience.

Gene Collier had some fun with the sloppiness of Pitt’s play, pointing out that Lehigh-Villanova was televised but this game wasn’t — and that was probably a good thing.

Now for todays stories. The troubles on the offense. Some key numbers to make you cringe: the wide receivers had 3 catches for 35 yards; Pitt was 2 for 15 on 3rd down; and 49 yards passing was the lowest passing yardage since a 44-0 humiliation against ND in 1993. Kirkley was the only positive, and Greg Lee gets singled out.

The only bright spot was the running of junior tailback Raymond Kirkley, who might be the focal point of the offense until Palko finds his rhythm and sophomore wide receiver Greg Lee (two catches for 24 yards with a score) proves he can be a go-to guy. Lee failed to hold onto a 30-yard sideline pass early in the game and later had the ball ripped from his hands for an interception.

Lee is considered the Panthers’ top offensive playmaker, but he failed to meet expectations on Saturday night.

I didn’t think I was the only one that saw that, but when I was looking over the Sunday stories there wasn’t much mention of Lee’s disappointing play other than allowing the cornerback to rip the ball from him on the first pass of the second half. Pitt and the passing game, need Lee to step up his game. Without him leading the WRs the team has no chance on offense.

The defense, though, did a good job. There was one warning, that should chill the blood a little.

Ohio managed just 88 rushing yards, but it should be noted that Kent State ran for only 73 in the 2003 opener before the run defense suffered an epic meltdown, allowing 2,332 yards the ensuing 12 games.

Pass the Maalox, please.

Darrelle Revis, gets some additional praise. The freshman cornerback earned a start and played very well. Revis was expected to be the biggest impact freshman on Pitt, and it looks like he will meet those expectations.