USF is stunned to find itself with a chance to win the conference after the way it had lost in Pittsburgh.

The defeat at Pittsburgh 23 days ago might have been the darkest moment for the University of South Florida football team this year, but it also could be the springboard that lifts the program to its most successful season.

USF head coach Jim Leavitt still talks about the game and still finds himself apologizing for not giving Pittsburgh enough credit.

“I always expect our guys to play, which is why I was so disappointed at Pittsburgh. I was hurting,” Leavitt said. “We got home from Pittsburgh and our team met at midnight. We didn’t play at all. I should’ve given Pittsburgh credit, but I was so mad at our guys.”

After 21 days without a game since Pittsburgh, USF turned in one of its better efforts in a 45-31 win over Rutgers on Saturday. The offense didn’t turn the ball over unlike it did in losses to Penn State, Miami and Pitt. Pat Julmiste didn’t play like the 94th-rated quarterback in the country, avoiding any sacks or turnovers.

For Pitt, the season is down to two games and will decide whether the team extends the season or not.

The Panthers also have to guard against looking ahead to their annual grudge match against West Virginia on Thanksgiving. The players, however, don’t think focusing on the Huskies will be an issue.

“Connecticut is a good team; that’s what our focus has to be right now,” said linebacker H.B. Blades after Thursday’s loss to Louisville. “They beat us last year, so who are we to overlook them? We have to win two games, that’s what is left for us. We just need to put this one behind us and do whatever it takes to beat UConn and then worry about the last one.”

With Bonislawski out of the lineup, the Huskies’ offense has struggled. In the three games since his injury, Connecticut has averaged only 18 points per game. That’s about half of what the Huskies averaged the first five games of the season.

The Huskies, though, have been competitive in two of their past three games — the Mountaineers pounded the Huskies, 45-17 — because of their defense, which is one of the best in the Big East. The Huskies lead the conference in scoring defense (18.4 ppg), passing defense (148.5 yds per game) and are second in total defense (294.4).

One factor might be turnovers, which is not good news for the Panthers. Connecticut is second in turnover margin (plus-6), which is an area in which Pitt has struggled. The Panthers are ranked 72nd in the NCAA in turnover margin (minus-0.33 per game) and three of their five losses were largely because of turnovers.

Going back to the Louisville game, though, exposed Pitt’s run defense once again.

Wannstedt was not ecstatic about how his defense played in the second half. Louisville had just four possessions (not including when it recovered a fumble with 8 seconds to go in the fourth quarter), but it scored on every one of them and consumed more than 21 minutes of game clock.

Leading 22-20 at the start of the third quarter, the Cardinals moved 64 yards on six plays for a touchdown. Tailback Michael Bush, limping in and out of the huddle with a badly sprained foot, bulled in from 3 yards out.

That TD lunge with 12:41 left in the third was Bush’s final play of the game because of the injury. Yet, he finished with 115 yards on only 16 carries, including a 40-yard burst, and two scores.

“Yeah, he broke one or two (runs),” Blades said. “Things are going to happen. It wasn’t anything that he did special. It was people not being in the right gaps. That will kill you every time. He’s a big back, but he wasn’t running as physical as we’d seen on film, in my opinion.”

Imagine what it would have been like if Bush, who averaged 7.2 yards per carry against Pitt, had been healthy and played the entire game.

As it was, two backups — junior Kolby Smith and redshirt freshman George Stripling — filled in ably for Bush. They combined for 104 yards, all but 2 of it coming in the second half.

If you want something more to worry about, UConn has a solid 1-2 punch at running back in Cornell Brockington (who ran all over Pitt last season) and the now healthy Terry Caulley. UConn averages 191.6 yards/game on the ground.

A columnist at the Pitt News calls out Greg Lee to perform more consistently. He even makes the comparison to Chris Taft.

What wasn’t expected, however, was that the Panthers’ big-play receiver would disappear when it came time to make a big play in a big-play situation.

Too many times this season — about two or three per game — fans have been left stunned, standing in their aisle with their hands above their head, questioning what just happened.
…
You can’t argue against Lee’s numbers, because they are there. He’s caught 41 passes for 805 yards and five touchdowns, but his inconsistency reminds you of a former Pitt athlete that also put up the numbers — Chris Taft.

And you know how many times we questioned Taft as to whether he was going to show up last season.

Well, the same goes for Lee. There are two games left, and Pitt needs to win just one to become bowl eligible. That’s tough to do without your top receiver.

He’ll have his chances. Palko, Dave Wannstedt and the rest of the team have not lost confidence in him. At least they haven’t stated that, and Wannstedt believes Lee just had a bad game.

It’s time to forget about the bad games and move on. It’s also time to forget about Fitzgerald and Bryant comparisons if you haven’t already.

For Pitt to be successful, Lee needs to start playing to the level of at least a Latef Grim or R.J. English, who were both very solid, dependable receivers — and I stress dependable.

Always great when you can sneak in a mention of R.J. English.

Give some credit to the O-line in the loss to Louisville. They may not have opened up much in the way of running room for the game — why break a tradition for the decade — but they did a good job in providing pass protection for Palko. Keeping Dumervil almost the entire game without a sack is a feat no one else can claim this season. I think it might have been the first game where he didn’t tally a sack in the first half.

The bad, of course, was the offense as a whole — though the focus was on the drops from Lee.

It was the sound of a running game that never quite got in gear. It was linemen taking penalties at crucial times. Mostly, though, it was the sound of passes thudding off receivers’ hands.

The offense managed just a touchdown and two field goals, and it was shut out in the second half. The Panthers twice moved the ball inside the 40-yard line, but they came away with nothing.
…
Louisville (6-2, 2-2) began the third quarter with a snappy, six-play TD drive to build a 29-20 lead. Pitt tried to counterstrike, but its drive fizzled at the 37 with three straight incompletions.

Wideout Greg Lee dropped passes on second and fourth downs. On Pitt’s next possession, after the Cardinals tacked on a field goal, Lee came up empty on the next two balls thrown his way.

On a sideline timing pattern, he never turned around to see the pass thrown by quarterback Tyler Palko. On second down, Lee failed to hang onto what could have been a 25-yard pass play.

Lee finished with seven catches for 95 yards, but nearly all of that came in the first half. After halftime, he made one grab for 10 yards.

“He had a bad night,” Wannstedt said with a shrug.

The drops were especially costly, since Louisville was able to put up field goals both times after getting the ball back.

“It was very frustrating,” offensive tackle Charles Spencer said. “We had a bunch of three-and-outs, and you can’t have that against a great team like Louisville. It definitely hurt us.

“But everybody makes mistakes. He’s got to keep his head up. We can’t let ourselves get down on each other.”

Lee was second-team All-Big East last season, when he made 68 grabs for 1,297 yards and 10 touchdowns.

This year, he was a preseason All-American selection, but he has not lived up to the hype. Lee leads the team with 41 catches for 805 yards and five touchdowns, but he has been plagued by drops and mental mistakes.

The entire team from the head coach down is willing to cover for Lee, but at this point, his drops have become glaring. Whether he has his head in NFL dreams already or is just not responding to the support, something needs to change. He is the #1 receiver on a team that is not shown to be particularly deep at the position. Pitt has no chance against WVU in 2 1/2 weeks. If he doesn’t snap out of the funk the team is toast.

Finally, the ugly goes to this piece from Paul Zeise regarding the team for the season. I’ve been a fan of what Zeise has to say about the team — especially in his Q&A — but he is wide of the mark here. He is ostensibly pointing out the problems of the team this season — where individual players have underachieved and where overachievement last year hasn’t been matched. Yet, he quickly glosses over the problems and mistakes from the coaching staff this season. In fact, he again, passes it back to the players.

The coaching staff also had a period of adjustment, but, to their credit, coach Dave Wannstedt and offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh admitted that the transition from the NFL to college was a little tougher than they had anticipated.

The two also have taken far more than their share of the blame for some things that have gone wrong and for some weaknesses that existed before they arrived.

And that leads to a point that is tougher to quantify, but one some players believe is a big factor in the team’s struggles — some players have not been able to raise their own bar to meet the lofty expectations of the new coaching staff.

Wannstedt has brought a “championship mentality” to the program and has forced the players to dig deeper in order to reach their maximum potential. He has demanded a higher level of mental and physical toughness, and that has taken some players out of their comfort zone. He has made it an open competition at almost every position.

While most players have responded to and welcomed the change, a handful, mostly upperclassmen, have struggled with it. But Wannstedt has made it clear he wants to take the Panthers to the highest level and has committed himself to making it happen. He expects the same from his players.

Now I’m the first to admit I’m not there in the practices and seeing what happens from week-to-week, but Coach Wannstedt hasn’t had much of an open competition at most positions since the spring practices — go ahead try and explain why TE Eric Gill remains the starter.

He doesn’t exactly get into how the coaches have made mistakes or had problems other than to say that they have had issues with the transition. Gee, thanks. Instead he lays most of it on the players — especially the upperclassmen who have gotten comfortable.

You know, a cynic might think that Zeise is playing a bit of an access game. At this point, with 2 games left, the senior players are as good as gone. It might be best to play up to the underclassmen who will be back, along with the coaching staff. That will provide more and better stuff for next season. Better to lay more of the problems at the feet of the players who are nearly out the door.

Honestly, I’m uncomfortable saying that because Zeise has been so good in his communications and talking about the team, but this piece was just that bad.

Last week, I broke down how to win the Big East for 4 teams. I excluded USF because they had only played 2 BE games. Mistake. They actually are the only team aside from WVU that can win the BE without help.

WVU and USF presently hold tie-breakers if finishing with the same record over Louisville and Rutgers.
Rutgers and Louisville hold a tie-breaker over Pitt.
Pitt holds a tie-breaker over USF.

I’m not going to bother with potential 3-way (or more) ties because that would then fall to BCS rankings to decide who goes to the BCS game

Big East Standings and Games Remaining
WVU 4-0 (Cinci, Pitt, @USF)
USF 2-1 (@ Syr, Cinci, @ UConn, ,WVU)
RU 3-2 (@ L-ville, Cinci)
Pitt 3-2 (UConn, @ WVU)
L-ville 2-2 (RU, Syr, @ UConn)

What Each Team Needs To Do And Have Happen

WVU: They have the easiest path. Control of their own destiny and crap.
Win out
Win 2 of 3, including USF
Win 2 of 3, losing to USF but USF loses at least one more game
Lose 2 of 3, but beating USF and Pitt loses to UConn
(It can get more absurd, but I think the point is made.)

USF: They do control their own destiny, but with less room for error than WVU.
Win out
Win 3 of 4 including WVU and WVU loses one additional game as does Pitt

Pitt: Lots of help needed, as everyone must lose.
Win last 2 and have WVU, RU, L-ville and USF all lose at least one additional game

RU and L-ville: The exact same path, so the match-up this Friday pretty much ends one team’s very outside hope.
Win out, while WVU goes on an 0-3 skid and USF goes 2-2.

Bottome line, the WVU-USF game in December could be winner takes all.

Or perhaps not. Perhaps it is a continual drumbeat on sportstalk radio in Pittsburgh, that I don’t hear. I am just astounded with Bob Smizik’s ongoing need to bring up former coach Walt Harris at every turn — and to usually revise history. There was his column on Friday that nearly floored me.

There was a great deal of satisfaction on the part of Pitt partisans when the Walt Harris era ended last season with the coach forced out by upper administration. And there was a great deal of rejoicing when Harris was replaced by Dave Wannstedt, a Pitt man with an outstanding resume who came to town and wowed the alumni and the recruits.

Pitt might be heading in the right direction with Wannstedt, but, on the field of play, the Harris era is looking pretty good.

In a must-win game for the Panthers last night, they came up short in almost every phase and were dominated by Louisville, 42-20.

The Panthers fell to 4-5, which means they are guaranteed to have their worst season since 1999, Harris’ third year, when they were 5-6. It’s entirely possible the Panthers will do no better than 5-6, with conference leader West Virginia still on the schedule.

The 25 wins Harris’ teams achieved over the previous three seasons look awfully good today.

Smizik writes as if he wasn’t part of the crowd itching to toss Harris. He conveniently seems to forget he was happily there knifing Harris from the first day of the 2004 training camp.

On the first day of practice in the eighth season of his coaching reign, Walt Harris came clean on a subject that has clouded his reputation for much of his time at Pitt.

He is not, he insisted, a serial quarterback manipulator.

During a 34-minute interview session, for which he was 12 minutes late, Harris steadfastly maintained he does not stay awake at night plotting ways to jerk around quarterbacks.

His life’s mission, he said, is not to make miserable the players at the very position he most cherishes.

Could have fooled a lot of people.

I know I’ve pointed this out before, but this was the classic in petty, vindictive column writing. That Harris was a little late to a press conference was worth mentioning? It was part of what he did all season, up until the Fiesta Bowl when he suddenly writes an homage piece to Harris — complete with this half-truth admission of his own.

Whatever the reason for Harris’ fall from favor, and it might be none of the above, it most certainly was not an issue that usually costs a coach his job. Under Harris, Pitt was winning, its players were graduating and its players were staying out of trouble.

This column was a frequent and harsh critic of Harris long before such a stance became popular. We’ll stand by those criticisms of his game-day blunders, of his record of beating cupcakes and losing to mostly everyone else and of his penchant for placing blame on his players instead of himself and his assistant coaches.

“Frequent and harsh” only went together against Harris in the final season — when he was well behind the curve. Of course, right after the Pitt loss to Utah, Smizik reverted to type with shots at Harris.

Stanford folk probably were taking a close look at the Fiesta Bowl last night, where Harris coached his final Pitt game against Utah. They probably wanted to see this offensive brilliance for themselves.

They had to be mightily disappointed if they watched. But no less so than Pitt people.
…
If there was a offensive genius on the sideline last night, it was Utah coach Urban Meyer, who, like Harris, was in his last game. They’re going to love Meyer at Florida, where he is headed. He will put points on the board just like Steve Spurrier did.

So, now in the first season for Coach Wannstedt, Smizik just can’t help bringing up Harris everytime he writes about Pitt football.

Apologists insist the problem is with that most convenient of scapegoats: Harris. They insist Harris left the cupboard bare. These people will tell you Harris never recruited good linemen or either side of the ball and that’s the reason Pitt is in trouble this year.

By most accounts, Harris did not recruit great linemen or even good linemen. But he won with who he recruited — 25 times in his final three seasons, eight times in his last season.

Three starters on the offensive line returned from last year’s team. That’s three starters from a team that won eight games. That is, at worse, a decent foundation.

Harris is not to blame for the 4-5 record, as much as some people would love to believe that.

It seems pretty obvious now that there have been problems in transition from Harris to Wannstedt. That’s frequently the case. A coach comes in with an idea of what he wants and what he expects from his players and it’s often difficult to mesh the two. Rich Rodriguez, for example, had a difficult first season at West Virginia when he succeeded Don Nehlen, but quickly righted the situation.

You know, at 9 games into the season, there are very few still trotting out anything about Harris and what he left behind. Maybe the readers who comment here are different from the majority, but there is barely any talk of Harris.

At this point, the excuses seem ridiculous and only being brought up by Smizik. The only one who can’t seem to let go of Walt Harris. Come on Bob. Time to let it go. He’s gone. He can’t hurt you any longer.

It’s been a month since there has been anything to report on former Pitt standout Bob Buczkowski, but, and this may not be a shock, he was not the brains behind the operation.

According to an affidavit, informants told police that Buczkowski was the muscle behind the illegal sex and drugs, while Schifano is described as the owner of Buckwild.

Schifano is charged with keeping apartments where she arranged for prostitutes and clients to have sex and buy drugs.

Former employees say Buczkowski drove the women to their appointments, stayed nearby to protect them and sold drugs, according to the affidavit.

It isn’t the pimping, it’s the drug dealing that will land him the long prison sentence. If he’d have stuck to just the sex part, he would have been fine.

As for his girlfriend, well, it’s obvious where she stores her brains.

Well, that was easy. Pitt beat Slippery Rock 100-42. DeGroat, Gray, Krauser, Graves and Young all scored double digits. None played more than 19 minutes. Levance Fields played 23 minutes and dished out 9 assists to go with 8 rebounds and 5 points.

I’m not sure how much you can judge based on playing a Div. II opponent that went 7-20 last year and lost all 5 starters from the team.

Well, that was easy. Pitt beat Slippery Rock 100-42. DeGroat, Gray, Krauser, Graves and Young all scored double digits. None played more than 19 minutes. Levance Fields played 23 minutes and dished out 9 assists to go with 8 rebounds and 5 points.

I’m not sure how much you can judge based on playing a Div. II opponent that went 7-20 last year and lost all 5 starters from the team.

Now, as a blogger, I know it is supposed to be a birthright to bash the MSM — reflexively, instinctively. If anything, writing about college sports has exacerbated that tendency with respect to national coverage because it becomes so obvious that they have limited knowledge of teams once they get past the AP top-25. Actually, they generally don’t know that much of those teams, but they know where things are supposed to sort.

This syndicated BE preview is that sort of example. In it, Pitt is ranked #8. Well within the normal range of predictions for this season, and in and of itself not unspectacular.

PITTSBURGH: Entering his third season with the Panthers, head coach Jamie Dixon has been to the NCAA Tournament twice and has an incredible record of 51-14 with Pittsburgh. Losing Chris Taft and Chevon Troutman, who combined for 28.3 points and 15.5 rebounds per game in 2004-05, means more of the load in the Steel City is going to be dumped on senior guard Carl Krauser and his 6-2 frame. Last year Krauser was the top scorer for the Panthers with 16 ppg, added almost five rebounds per contest and was also the most consistent passer with just under six assists each time he hit the hardwood. As one of only two seniors on the roster, the other being John DeGroat (4.8 apg), Krauser can’t exist as the only reliable force for the Panthers, which means Dixon has to find suitable playmates for the young man. In all likelihood, Pitt is going to run with a three-guard offense as much as possible, taking advantage of its speed and trying to get away with limited height. Joining Krauser in the backcourt will be Antonio Graves (7.8 ppg) who has shown the ability to knock down the three (46.2 percent), while sophomore Ronald Ramon (6.8 ppg) will get more chances to boost his perimeter accuracy from 33.6 percent. As the tallest player on the team, Aaron Gray won’t be able to hide his seven foot frame from the rest of the Big East, but will need to use it better inside.

Now, what is noticeable is no mention of any of the prospective freshman talent that could help. In fact, if you read the entire BE preview, there are only 3 freshmen mentioned for the entire 16 team BE (and 2 of the 3 come from Oak Hill Academy). Kind of suggesting not particularly deep work on the preview. Of course the writer spreads himself a little thin, and anyone who is willing to slurp Phil Collins shouldn’t be trusted.

I really wanted to get to this before the game was actually underway, but Pitt is kicking off the exhibition (sorry, calling it preseason gives these games too much legitimacy) season. The interesting thing about the game, are the expirements in this game.

Moving the 3-point line 1 foot behind the current line to 20 feet, 9 inches.

Widening the free-throw lane by 1 foot on each side.

Placing a restricted area arc, which is to be 3 feet from the center of the basket ring.

This is part of the internationalization of the game.

The article also notes that a top recruit, Small Forward Tyler Smith, came to Pitt for a visit yesterday. Not sure if he will still be there for the exhibition.

I really wanted to get to this before the game was actually underway, but Pitt is kicking off the exhibition (sorry, calling it preseason gives these games too much legitimacy) season. The interesting thing about the game, are the expirements in this game.

Moving the 3-point line 1 foot behind the current line to 20 feet, 9 inches.

Widening the free-throw lane by 1 foot on each side.

Placing a restricted area arc, which is to be 3 feet from the center of the basket ring.

This is part of the internationalization of the game.

The article also notes that a top recruit, Small Forward Tyler Smith, came to Pitt for a visit yesterday. Not sure if he will still be there for the exhibition.

From an interview with Pitt great Tony Dorsett:

Your alma mater, Pittsburgh, is going through tough times. Do you see the Panthers improving?

I hope for nothing but the best. I spoke with [Pitt coach] Dave [Wannstedt] right before the Notre Dame game. He told me he had a concern about the defensive line being a little undersized. It showed that evening when they played Notre Dame. If we give Dave a chance to recruit his own players — he’s a Pittsburgh guy and knows what it’s about, and he knows Miami — I think he’d do well recruiting in Western Pennsylvania., Ohio, West Virginia, and down South. He’ll be able to recruit some players. He’s been in the pros, so he knows what the game is all about. He could have some influence. It’s like when I came out. If you want to be a part of something new, Pitt is the place to go. I think he’ll get it done if we give him time to get the players in there.

As both Pitt and UConn played mid-week, they have extra time off. This means filling the gaps in the normal cycle for stories. Add in the recent passing of Rosa Parks, and there is a story about Bobby Grier.

A month before the game, Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin asked Georgia Tech to boycott the game unless Grier was banned from playing. A group of students at Georgia Tech, and people across the nation rallied against the idea. And Grier’s teammates voted to play only if Grier played.

The game was on. But Grier still had to deal with discrimination in New Orleans.

“I stayed at a hotel in the black area of town and my teammates were at the team hotel,” he said.

Grier said he wasn’t thinking about his place in history when Pitt took the field. He was proud, he said, because the Panthers had earned a bowl bid.

“All I was thinking about was playing the game and my responsibilities,” Grier said. “It wasn’t like today, where there are like 25 bowl games. Back then there were five or six. And if you got into one of them, it was a huge accomplishment. That’s how I felt.”

Georgia Tech won 7-0, the only touchdown set up by an interference call against Grier. To this day, he insists he committed no infraction.

“The ball was three to four feet over my head,” he said. “I was on the ground where the receiver had pushed me down. And the official threw the flag.

“Who knows, maybe the ref saw something else.”

You mean other than skin color?

Grier’s story tends to get overlooked in the annals of desegregation. In college football, far more is made of Bear Bryant taking the USC running back into his team’s locker room after a loss and announcing that, “this is what a football player looks like.”

That may have heralded the end of segregation of college football in the South, but Grier was a trailblazer for everywhere else in the country.

Well, Mike Tranghese will stay as Big East Commissioner until at least 2010. This is something of a no-brainer on so many levels. While I fault the Big East for not being forward thinking, myopic and not seeing the problems that were looming with basketball only schools interests conflicting with football schools — Tranghese not only found a fix for the short-term, but he preserved the BCS bid for the BCS and secured extremely favorable methodology to keep the BCS bid for the BCS.

Probably the biggest news, and that could have the furthest reaching effects in the next few years: CBS is acquiring CollegeSports TV.

The new cable programming entity will be operated by its founder and CEO, Brian Bedol, who will report to Moonves. The acquisition includes:

· A digital cable network featuring 30 men’s and women’s college sports events and nearly 15 million subscribers by year end and growing; license deals now include numerous sports agreements with colleges, universities and conferences across the nation;

· Online properties consisting of a network of more than 250 official college athletic websites — each maintained and managed for its institution by CSTV — featuring full video and audio, news, scores, community elements and e-commerce for retail college sports-related products;

· A fast-growing website, www.CSTV.com, that supports the cable networks and other online properties. In its most recent analysis, Comscore Media Metrix ranked the CSTV.com network as one of the top ten destinations with the greatest prior monthly increase in unique visitors during the month of September 2005, with a 43 percent increase from August, and more than 7.5 million unique visitors;

· Regional College Sports Networks to be launched in 2006, featuring the sporting events of the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA, including Utah, Brigham Young University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, Marshall and others.
…
Moonves further noted that the new collegiate sports business would work closely with the Company’s existing operations at CBS Sports and CBS Digital Media, assuring that the new cable sports operations are fully integrated into CBS’s activities in those arenas. With this acquisition, CBS Corporation will have a larger sports Web audience than any other online medium — 19 million unique users.

The two have already had some alliances. Last year CSTV partnered with CBS to air feeds of all the NCAA Tournament games over the net.

This could be very big for the Big East with their TV contracts now only a couple years from expiring. CSTV now has the backing to make a bigger offer, and partnered with CBS could mean more national games.

Interesting that ESPN, despite it’s 800 pound gorilla status, is suddenly seeing a lot more competition than it is used to for the college sports. You have the Fox College Sports Channels. CSTV launching its own regional networks, now getting bankrolled by CBS/Viacom and of course lurking out there is OLN/Comcast probing for more openings.

Lots happening behind the scenes.

You know what the big difference for Pitt was? 3rd down conversions. Pitt couldn’t make them, and Louisville did. Louisville was 8 -15 while Pitt was 2-10. That’s why Louisville had those long clock-eating, demoralizing drives in the second half. Pitt was, once again, unable to make the stop to get off the field.

Yes, Pitt was shut out in the second half for the first time all year. There should be some questions about the line play — especially in the second half — and the receivers not exactly working hard at getting separation. And if anyone has spotted Eric Gill making a play this year, let me know (why he continues to start at TE is a mystery).

But the absurd time of possession was not all on the offense. Louisville did not punt in the game. In the second half, they had the ball only 4 times and scored all 4 times. They held the ball, though, for 21:03 in the second half. On 2 drives they consumed over a full quarter. They absolutely ate the clock.

So, yes, the Pitt defense was tired in the second half. The primary reason, though, was that they did it to themselves.

Louisville did it mostly on the ground in the second half, but had solid passing. 220 yards in the air and 247 on the ground. As usual, there was very little pressure up front on the QB to compliment the lack of run defense.

Maybe it’s just the hangover, but I’m finding very little to be positive regarding this game. Pitt is winless on the road, winless on national TV and now 4 – 5.

Zeise had it about right:

Pitt tried a new version of an old bad habit last night against Louisville at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, and the result was another easy score for its opponent.

In recent weeks the Panthers have had a lot of trouble in their punting game.

Pitt allowed a punt to be returned by a touchdown against Rutgers in the fifth game of the season. In the seventh game against South Florida, the Panthers had a punt blocked and they repeated the feat the next week when Syracuse’s Anthony Smith blocked a punt.

Last night, the Panthers completed the trifecta of “bad outcomes on punt plays” when long snapper Mark Estermyer snapped the ball high over the head of punter Adam Graessle and it sailed through the end zone for a safety for the Cardinals.

When you read in various accounts that Pitt had only 62 yards rushing, keep in mind that -20 came from that safety.

Graessle did not have a good night punting. I know there was some wind swirling, but he had some that just did not have anything. Louisville in contrast, did not punt once.

Josh Cummings was kicking fine, but didn’t get many opportunities as Pitt couldn’t get close in the second half.

Louisville’s kicker, Camody, had a career game with 4 FGs, including that 47 yarder that barely cleared the upright to give them the halftime lead. I realize they blew it open steadily in the second half with long drives, but their kicking game really gave them a lift in the first half with that kick and the 46 yarder. It allowed them to get some points on the board when the offense stalled out. He was supposed to be reliable but not much beyond 40. Coming into the game he had only been 6 for 8 on field goals.

That 47 yarder just before the half was killer to me. It sort of reminded me of the UConn game last year (not for the “slide right” moment) when Pitt had managed to keep it together and at least have a tie. In both cases there was less than a minute on the clock, but the defense played soft and let the offense move the ball and get a field goal at the half to retake the lead. It seemed to establish the tone for the offense in the second half — go right at the Pitt defense.

Of course, Pitt pulled a shocker with that onside kick early in the second quarter. It was a good time for it, but Pitt needed TDs not FGs.

I don’t even know what to say about that opening 25 seconds.

The game started in wild fashion. Pitt’s Terrell Allen had the opening kickoff sail through his hands, and Louisville’s Deon Palmer recovered the football in the end zone.

“In a game like this, everything gets magnified and you can’t afford to make any mistakes,” Pitt head coach Dave Wannstedt said.

Allen quickly made amends, returning the ensuing kick 97 yards for a score.

Of course, Allen then did a dive into the endzone to get an unsportsmanlike penalty and helping field position for Louisville on the next possession by forcing Pitt to kickoff from 15 yards further back — Louisville ended up starting at their own 35.

The middle, left, and right.

I think it is, generally, very satisfying when “offensive geniuses” get their comeuppance for arrogant play calling. Unfortunately, Pitt gave Petrino and Louisville time to shake themselves from such in the first half. In the second half, they eschewed the “creativity” in favor of winning. Louisville went to just running the ball straight and continually at Pitt.

The Cardinals could have run for 350 yards against Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt’s arm-tackling defense but waited until the fourth quarter to grind the Panthers into submission.

The Cards moved the football — they just weren’t able to move it into the end zone the way they had all season at home. Averaging better than 7 yards per rush while rolling to 115 yards, Bush ran like the best player on the field until a sprained foot stopped him in the third quarter.

It was absolultely demoralizing to the defense, and you could practically feel and see the desperation on the offense to do something. No luck.

Although the Panthers were clearly overmatched, they still had opportunities to win the game and could have made it interesting had they not made some crucial mistakes in the third quarter. They trailed by two points at the half and by two scores going into the fourth quarter.

But poor execution, dropped passes by Greg Lee and procedure penalties by right tackle Mike McGlynn crushed any hopes. Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said the mistakes were frustrating, but he stood up for Lee.

“You have to take advantage of every opportunity given to you against a good football team like Louisville, and we didn’t do that,” Wannstedt said. “We had the ball twice inside the 35 in the second half and came away with no points. Our offense scored 13 points and you are not going to beat a team like that when that’s the case.

“Greg is the best receiver we got, he will make those plays for us, he has to make those plays and he will get back at it next week. He had a bad night, it happens.”
…
Palko also came to Lee’s defense but said the mistakes on the offense are not a coincidence.

“It is not one thing, it is a combination of things,” Palko said. “It is not good enough to come out and just be OK, it is not good enough. You have to have that kind of mentality and passion that Coach Wannstedt wants us to play with. I was always taught when you have high expectations, you better have the work ethic to match and our expectations are not going to be lowered, so you fill in the blanks.

“If we want to be a championship team and have those expectations, we need to work harder.”

Unfortuately, Lee has become consistent at dropping passes each game. It is something you see coming every game. All you can do is hope it isn’t during a critical point. Maddening as it was, there were plenty of problems on offense.

Still, the problem in this game was that the run defense was non-existent. That allowed Louisville to chew up more than 16 minutes on 28 plays in just 2 drives in the second half.

More in little.