I’d call the perspective from the local papers mixed but towards the positive. Gene Collier was probably the roughest with an analogy that he worked hard to jam in there.
Though it had been evident for more than a month, Pitt and South Florida got together yesterday to demonstrate beyond all contradiction that they are two teams who have no idea what’s going to happen when the ball is snapped.
They’re both the offensive equivalent of those claw-drop amusement games. You might hit it just right and come up with a stuffed animal, but probably not. Better luck next time.
Combining for five turnovers, a blocked punt, a half-dozen dropped passes and three giveaways in their own half of the field in the first half alone, the Panthers and Bulls strung together 147 supposedly offensive plays, some of them even swerving toward competence.
But somehow, despite using something like 27 different offensive line combinations, Pitt stalked out of half-empty Heinz Field with a pivotal, 31-17 Big East Conference win, pivotal in the sense that it’s the win that gives them a reasonable shot at legitimate mediocrity.
But even he seemed to think that there was some progress.
… Generally, the Panthers’ most notable accomplishment was the one Wannstedt described rather aptly. They were “able to mentally not come apart.”
Well, that’s something.
Beat writer Paul Zeise was far more upbeat about what he saw.
There have been times this season that Pitt, despite losing four of its first six games, has shown glimpses that it could be a good team. The Panthers would play well in spurts, for a quarter or a half, but never had they put together a complete game.
That is until yesterday, when they met the South Florida Bulls, a team that came into the game as the Big East Conference’s darling because it had knocked off Louisville a month ago.
Pitt played its best offensive game of the season, beat the Bulls in every phase and came away with a 31-17 win that was, if not a thing of beauty, highly satisfying.
I wouldn’t go that far. The first quarter was shaky to be kind. The offense by committing 2 quick turnovers put the team in a real hole. Special teams in this game was anything but. A blocked punt, some unremarkable return efforts and lousy coverage (covered up by some dumb penalties by USF).
Still, the offense did enough and the defense executed the game plan it should against a one-dimensional offense like USF: stop the run and make them throw the ball. I admit freely to being unsure that Pitt would follow that plan or execute it. They did. USF got one big play from Andre Hall on a short pass that he blew by everyone for 76 yards — about 1/3 of USF’s total passing yards.
Hall was mostly neutralized by Pitt forcing USF to throw. He had 75 yards on the ground on only 18 carries. He had 145 more yards on 8 catches. Hall had 220 of USF’s 368 yards of offense.
Minimizing those big plays and tackling well were among the Panthers’ top priorities yesterday, and it showed as they shut out the Bulls in the second half and held the speedy Hall, the conference’s second-leading rusher, to 80 yards on 19 carries, including a long run of 9 yards.
“We’ve played pretty solid on defense the past few weeks, but we’ve been hungry for turnovers.” said Blades.
“You saw how they can change the game in an instant, and that’s why we, as a defense, feel it is our job to create them. We just needed to change the momentum of the game, and turnovers are an easy way to do that.
“Then to have the offense score touchdowns, that just made us even more hungry.”
Wannstedt’s summation was succinct.
“We didn’t make many mistakes,”
“I thought our tackling was, for the most part, good. We gave up one score, the quick slant to Hall, but, other than that play, I was really pleased with our defense today.”
113 of USF’s total yardage came in the last 5+ minutes. Aside from those, USF had only one sustained drive of more than 7 plays and 30 yards. That resulted in a missed field goal.
LaRod Stephens-Howling made his return noticeable ripping off 92 yards on 13 carries — 41 on one play.
“It felt real good to get back out there,” Stephens-Howling said. “I feel real good now. You don’t think about injuries when you’re in the game, only on the sideline, so I just want to be in the game as much as possible. I think I was in more pain sitting on the sideline, so I’m happy to be back.
“I think I did pretty well in my first game back, but I expect to get better every week. Hopefully, we can continue to improve as a team. It was encouraging to keep running, even when we got down, and that worked out pretty well for us. All of the running backs were glad about that.”
Pitt had a couple chances in the game to put the game completely out of reach but either stalled out the drive or in one case Kirkley had a bad fumble early in the 4th quarter. Pitt was inside the USF 20 and had driven 58 yards quickly when Kirkley just dropped the ball. He was being tackled from the other side, and the ball simply fell out of his hands.
Pitt never seemed to get stressed in this game. The fans were edgy — especially in the 1st quarter — but the team was confident in the way it was playing. Considering the way games have gotten away from Pitt at times this year, that is impressive and props need to be given to Coach Wannstedt for keeping the team even-keeled.
“We’ve just matured,” defensive end Chris McKillop said. “We kept our spirits up and did our jobs they way we’re supposed to.”
“A lot of young guys have grown up now,” linebacker H.B. Blades said. “We came into this game confident. Once you give a young guy confidence, he’s going to go out and rip it up.”
It began to slip away for South Florida on the first play of the second quarter. Palko tossed a screen pass to Lee, who burst 69 yards untouched for a touchdown.
South Florida’s next drive ended after just four plays when running back Ricky Ponton fumbled. Cornerback Darrelle Revis recovered the ball for Pitt at the 44-yard line.
It was the first of three turnovers by the Bulls, and the Panthers converted all of them into scores.
During film study sessions last week, Pitt’s defensive braintrust pointed out that USF had plenty of speed playmakers — but they often were careless when carrying the ball.
Josh Lay ran his mouth the most during the week.
Pitt defensive back Josh Lay, who earlier in the week said he wasn’t concerned about the Bulls’ receivers because they aren’t very physical, said he made sure to back up his talk with his performance. Lay intercepted a pass, was excellent in pass defense and had two tackles for losses.
“Coach told me he didn’t have a problem with what I said, I just needed to go out and back it up,” Lay said.
He was accurate in the statement, and backed it up — holding on to an interception this time.
“Last week, I started running before I caught the ball. This time, I definitely made sure I caught the ball first and then ran,” Lay said with a smile. “I wasn’t going to make the same mistake two weeks in a row. I heard about what happened last week too much from my teammates in practice all week.”
That series was the first and only appearance for USF back-up (and Auburn transfer Courtney Denson).
Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese was in Pittsburgh rather than Morgantown for the game.
More from Florida media later.
