So, let’s see. Ron Cook warned everyone and sure enough goes with it.

Bad, bad, bad.

Two big dropped passes. A lost fumble. Five sacks. Eight penalties. One bad coaching decision. A defense that broke down at the worst time. A bunch of missed tackles. A whopping 268 rushing yards for Rutgers, including 225 by superb tailback Ray Rice.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt didn’t even try to find the silver lining, probably because there was none.

“If we do those things against The Citadel,” he said of the many blunders, “we’re going to be scrambling around to win.”

The game showed that the 6-1 record Pitt lugged in was an illusion, built against weak competition, an opening-night win against Virginia aside. It also showed how far Pitt has to go to become an elite program. There’s no question it’s better than it was last season in Wannstedt’s first season. But it’s just as evident that it has been surpassed by Rutgers and isn’t on West Virginia’s or Louisville’s level in the Big East Conference. It won’t catch up until it starts taking care of business at Heinz Field.

It’s very hard to write about this game without getting negative. Mainly because so much of it was so familiar.

Rice joins a growing list of recent-era 200-yard rushers against Pitt that includes West Virginia’s Pat White, Virginia Tech’s Kevin Jones and Notre Dame’s Julius Jones. Rice finished seven yards short of Terrell Willis’ school-record 232 yards against Temple in 1994.

It’s also frustrating because there is a gameplan to beat Rutgers. Everyone knows it, but Pitt couldn’t do it.

The Panthers entered the game with the idea that if they could get a lead, they could force the Scarlet Knights out of their comfort zone and make quarterback Mike Teel, not the running backs, win the game.

But Pitt couldn’t get any momentum on offense early, and as a result, Rutgers didn’t have to take many chances. The Scarlet Knights were content to wage a field-position battle the entire first half and it led to a 20-10 win.

Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said the Panthers’ lack of execution on offense early in the game was frustrating.

No pressure on the QB. No stopping the running game.

Teal only threw 18 times, a stat Wannstedt felt was one of the telltale stats of the game.

“We played right into Rutgers’ hands because the way to beat them is to jump on them early and make them throw, but they had the luxury of only needing to throw when they wanted to,” Wannstedt said. “We have a bye coming up and we’ll need it to regroup and get ready to play at South Florida in two weeks.”

The first half saw both offenses make plenty of mistakes which is why it was only 6-0 Rutgers at halftime. Rutgers, though, was moving the ball. They couldn’t score, but they kept the defense out there and was able to put Pitt deep.

The Panthers had horrendous field position in the first half, while giving Rutgers excellent starting drives, but held the Scarlet Knights to Jeremy Ito field goals from 32 and 21 yards. Ito also missed wide right from 38 yards and led 6-0 at halftime. Pitt had several chances to make plays in the first half, but dropped two passes, saw two other plays wiped out by penalties and had quarterback Tyler Palko harassed throughout.

“They were able to do some things that we just weren’t able to stop,” Pitt center Joe Villani said. “I don’t think it was as much physical as it was mental, but we have to be able to keep them off our quarterback.”

Ah, yes, the lack of protection for Palko. Five sacks allowed, and Palko had to escape several others.

The Scarlet Knights rushed for 271 yards and limited the Panthers to 67 yards rushing. Both totals were indicative of the way the Scarlet Knights physically manhandled the Panthers on both sides of the ball. As another measure of Rutgers’ physical superiority, the Scarlet Knights had five sacks while Pitt had none.

That doubles the amount of sacks the O-line allowed through the prior 7.

Still, despite that. Despite a defense that had coaches paying lip service to stopping the run, while refusing to stuff the box, bring the linebackers closer and bring up a safety. Despite all of that, Pitt was never out of the game because Rutgers struggled to finish drives.

And Pitt finally put together a drive that could go without penalties, overcome no running game and dropped passes. Going no-huddle and moving, Pitt even overcame the lack of pass protection with Tyler Palko providing a highlight reel scramble and evade before throwing a perfect strike to Oderick Turner in the back of the endzone.

That put Pitt only down 13-10 with nearly an entire quarter left to play. The crowd was fired up and ready for the roaring comeback. Pitt may have been outplayed for 3 quarters, but the game wasn’t out of reach.

On the ensuing kickoff, Rutgers’ Willie Foster fielded the ball in the upper corner of the end zone but was drilled by linebacker Clint Session at the 10. The crowd came alive, cheering wildly and giving Pitt an opportunity to take over.

Then, Rice took the handoff from Teel and bolted through the middle, slipping through the grasp of free safety Mike Phillips until cornerback Darrelle Revis chased Rice down at Pitt’s 27.

The Panthers, Wannstedt said, were “in shock.”

“That hit us in the heart,” Turner said. “We had them pinned down there and thought the momentum had changed.”

Added linebacker H.B. Blades: “It’s frustrating, because we had all the momentum at that point, and that just switched everything.”

And with that run, Ray Rice joined those tailbacks that have absolutely killed Pitt. Credit, though, also has to go to the Rutgers O-line. They opened up a gaping hole right up the middle for Rice to get through and build up a head of steam to blow through the stunned secondary.

“Everything just fitted right,” Rice said of the long run. “It just parted and I just burst through it. That was the turning point in the game. That did it.”It was a regular base call. We knew they were having problems with it. If the linebacker doesn’t take a direct angle, it parts. I was hitting it all game, but this one was a big one. I was just running out there.”

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano told his star back to prepare for a heavy workload in the second half, as the Scarlet Knights held on to the lead.

“About four minutes into the second half, I said, ‘Hey, you got it in you. We’re going to ride you,’ Schiano said. “He looked at me and said, ‘I got it in me.’ “

Rutgers ran 66 plays. Rice had 39 carries and the other backs had 9. That means Rutgers ran the ball 71% of the time. And yet, Pitt wasn’t consistently stuffing the box against the run when it was a hell of a good chance it would be a running play.