The great advantage to a short week, is there isn’t a lot of time to stew.
Well, Palko has a bruised right hand (his non-throwing). It’s no real shock that the players are hardly ready to toss the season in the crapper.
Palko’s injury is the result of a crunching second-quarter hit, and he spoke defiantly about the season ahead.
“Our spirits aren’t going to be crushed,” he said. “We’re not little girls. … We figured out last year you’ve got to learn the hard way sometimes.”
Lee, the Panthers’ leading receiver last season who caught a 39-yard touchdown pass from Palko to give Pitt a short-lived 7-0 lead in the first quarter, agreed with Palko’s assessment but was a bit more diplomatic.
“We just need to stay optimistic,” Lee said. “It’s a big loss, but we’ve got a full season ahead of us. We’ve still got a lot more games to win; 10-1 is a good season.”
Blades, the Panthers’ outstanding linebacker who led them in tackles with a game-high 13 against Notre Dame, sat in a corner and stared at the floor long after the game had ended.
“I can’t describe the feeling right now,” the junior said. “They just came out and beat us. They wanted it more than we did. It’s a wakeup call.”
While his teammates and coaching staff all had different ways of coping with the loss, Palko remained constant.
“We got our tails kicked,” he said. “There’s one of two ways you can go from here — put your tail between your legs and crawl and run away from it and hide, or face it like a man. We’ve got 10 games left.”
Blades is also not ready to let the defense get away with the excuse that ND’s O-line was bigger and more experienced.
“Nobody wants to hear excuses. We need to play football. You have to deal with [a team that is bigger and more experienced]. You can’t complain, just go play,” Blades said. “It is just that simple. This isn’t rocket science. We just have to make plays. That’s it. This is one game. Our season isn’t lost, our season isn’t over, but it will be if we, meaning all of us on defense, don’t do a better job of stepping up and taking care of our business.”
The Big East as a whole did not have a good opening weekend. In terms of types of losses, though, I think I’d take the blowout to ND over blowing a 20 point lead to a bad Illinois team.
The national reviews for Coach Wannstedt’s debut were not positive.
