Noon start. Haven’t finished the coffee yet. We’ll see how quickly I have to hit the Scotch.

Must win game for both. Louisville isn’t denying it.

“It’s kind of do or die now,” running back Brock Bolen said. “Our backs are to the wall.”

The top Big East teams are lined up to keep them there. A trip to No. 6 West Virginia awaits on Nov. 8, followed by a Nov. 17 game at No. 11 South Florida and the season finale Nov. 29 at home against No. 25 Rutgers.

Pitt is the only team with a losing record remaining on the Cards’ schedule. Any hopes of earning their 10th straight bowl berth rests largely on beating the Panthers.

“It’s a game we have to win if we want to reach some of the goals that are still out there for us,” linebacker Malik Jackson said.

Urrutia is expected back for this game. Louisville still wants to win the Big East even with 2 losses in conference.

Shocking, I know. Wannstedt wants to control the pace of the game. Even as I questioned the whole Time of Possesion (ToP) stat value, Gorman kind of follows up and kills it for Pitt and Louisville.

Let’s hope there are no more injuries to the O-line.

Q: With Joe Thomas hurt, Bachman landed on the starting lineup. If someone else is hurt, who would be the next lineman who would be tapped to play? Would that player be ready to play at this level? Or just another body thrown to the wolves?

Zeise: Good question. Thomas is out with his injury, which means the Panthers are probably stretched to the limit in terms of their depth chart at offensive line. If one of the guards gets hurt, they still have Dom Williams and if a tackle goes down, they could move Bachman to tackle and bring in Williams at guard. They could also turn to Chase Clowser at tackle. Williams and Clowser have both played in games and are both veteran guys so they wouldn’t be thrown to the wolves as you say. Now, beyond those two, yeah, pretty much you are getting into true freshmen so that wouldn’t be a good thing.

Then it will be true freshmen. Seems to be almost a given now that Pitt will have to recruit some JUCO OLs at this point.

Game time coming up.

12:08: Weak. 3 and out. Looks like a series intended to give Bostick some confidence on the road.

Bad snap on the punt, just got away and a favorable roll for Pitt. Phew.

12:12: Surprisingly conservative play calling from Louisville. 3 and out as well.

12:17: McCoy bounces it outside on 3d and 3 with the direct snap and gets 14 yards.

12:19: And now two straight runs right up the middle for a total of 2 yards. Creative.

Nothing on a blatant bubble screen. Blitz came and Mo Williams had no chance on the catch. No blocking either.

12:21: According to my TV program guide, the game is on MSG, MASN, ALT (Altitude Sports & Ent. [Denver?]).

12:24: Louisville moving with the pass. Running game looks bad. Expect run to be mostly abandoned soon.

Barnidge got free while Brohm scrambled. Damn.

12:26: Almost (was?) intercepted on a tip, but pass interference by Scot McKillop makes it inside the 20.

12:29: Easy TD to Harry Douglas. Wide open. Shane Murray trying to stop him? Yeesh.

7-0 Louisville 3:30 in the 1st quarter.

12:32: Looks like plenty of seats available for this game. Not that Pitt can say much about fan attendance this year.

Mo Williams dropped one that would have been 6 yards even if he was stopped immediately.

Stephens-Howling gets his first run for 3 yards. 3d and 7. Yay.

Nothing on the delay to Stephens-Howling. Too slow developing.

Brytus with a decent punt. Muffed by Trent Guy, but he got it back.

L-Ville starting at the 33.

12:36: Anthony Allen gets a huge hole up the middle for 9 yards. Allen again for the 1st down.

Phew. Brohm just plain overthrew a wide open Douglas. Hurried a bit as Pitt actually got someone behind him.

12:38: End of the first quarter. Louisville driving. Pitt defense looks typical. Offense looks lethargic. Not promising.

12:42: What kind of coverage and tackling was that on Douglas? Jeez. Douglas is their best receiver but missed tackles and just ugly. Over 20 yards. Inside the 30.

Now a screen to a guy with more speed than Pitt on the right and gets the first to the 16.

12:44: Douglas over the middle for the 1st and goal at the 6. Urrutia seems to be mainly decoy as he is still not fully recovered. Might want to think about double coverage on Douglas.

12:47: After the false start, Anthony Allen drags plenty of Pitt defenders for 10 yards to the 1. Then Louisville with an easy 1 yard pass to Allen.

Sims and Congemi are using the phrase “too easy” to describe what Louisville is doing way too often. I’m not disputing the truth of it. It’s just not good to hear.

14-0 Louisville early in the 2nd quarter.

12:53: Pitt starting at the 25.

Late, late, finally a flag as the Louisville defender jumped over the back of Porter. An actual forward pass.

Now encroachment by Louisville. That’s 14 yards on penalties for the Cardinals on 2 plays. That’s one way for Pitt to get back into it.

McCoy gets stuffed for -1. 2nd and 6.

Geez. Right at Bostick. O-line let him loose. BUt a flag. Unsportsmanlike as Whitehead essentially celebrated right over the top of Bostick.

Replay also shows a throat slash gesture. Dumb.

29 yards in penalties. Minus many more yards in actual offense in this drive.

12:59: Bad throw by Bostick. Not near Turner. Wow. This is not pretty.

Punt only 34 yards. Brytus isn’t doing great at punting today.

1:00: The whole team looks bad today. Offense. Defense. Special teams. Coaching. Name a facet, and there is nothing so far other than complacency because they actually won a game against a 1-A team last week.

1:01: Good interference by Cox. Save a TD to Long.

1:02: Gosh. A sack with Malecki getting some real pressure.

I guess if you have a really valuable franchise, you are willing to wear really ugly pleather red, green and white jackets.

1:05: Meanwhile, in between the free Papa John’s informercial, Louisville is inside Pitt’s territory.

1:06: Greg Romeus with a 12 yard sack. You think Wannstedt might have realized something again up in the box.

1:07: Holding now. A false start a couple plays before. The Cardinals are killing themselves on this drive.

Again with the false start? 2nd and 42.

1:08: What? Did Louisville channel Pitt’s. A draw for 4 yards?

Prevent defense to keep it short. About the only time it makes some sense.

1:10: Pitt will start at the 37. T.J. Porter gets a carry that gets a first down.

1:15: Turner was overthrown or did he turn in too soon on the post pattern. On replay it looks like Turner misjudged and stopped to jump too soon.

Nothing on 3d and 10. McCoy was the outlet but only a few yards. Still not crossing midfield.

Five. Count them. Five punts. Then Cox, muffed downing it inside the 5. He had it and let it bounce past him. Again. Bad play all around today.

1:16: Holy crap. Berry jumped in for the interception at the 28.

Make it count.

Strong to McCoy on the fake screen!!! Touchdown!!!

14-7 Louisville, 2:30 in the half.

Converted the turnover. Huge.

1:20: What? You mean bringing some pressure up front is actually producing results? Keeping Brohm from just sitting back and looking downfield is helping. Poppycock.

1:24: Punt taken by Berry for 20 yards just short of midfield. 1:21 left in the half.

1:25: Can’t take that sack, Bostick. I know that the line failed to hold, but he has to throw it.

Now, Pitt is going to run it out rather than take a chance. Ugh.

What the hell? Pitt let 20 second run and then took a TO. Shot of Wanny in the box and he was animatedly pissed.

25 seconds left and 3d and 18.

Bositck is playing poorly today. Not to go cliche, but a true freshman QB on the road…

1:28: Six punts.

Louisville takes a knee.

Pitt in better shape than they should be. Only down 14-7.

Stats are going to speak of complete domination by Louisville except for that interception.

The defense will need to keep playing aggressive and with pressue. It only took Rhoads and Wannstedt a quarter and a half to realize they had to do that. Way to swallow some pride.

Offense looks hideous. The O-line has nothing so far. Not in run blocking and not in pass protection. Bostick is not playing well either. His passes have been errant today.

1:50: Sideline reporter says that Paul Rhoads claims the schemes didn’t change in the half. Just that he changed the mindset of the Defense. I’ll say it. Bull-f******-s***.

1:53: Um, guess Rhoads needs to work on the mindset again. The defense is giving things up. Sure looks like the defense is reading and reacting again. Of course, it isn’t the scheme. Just the mindset.

1st and 10 from the Pitt 23 for Louisville.

1:56: 1st and goal from the 9. Harry Douglas loves playing Pitt.

Well, Pitt held them to the FG attempt by stopping at the 1.5 yard line.

The ultimate bend-but-don’t-break.

17-7 Louisville 9:50 in the 3d quarter.

2:03: Let’s see if the offense can pick it up. Especially Bostick.

Pitt starting at the 29. McCoy bounces it outside for 8 yards. Notice that Louisville had 8 men up front. Ready to stuff the run. McCoy again. On a pitch outside for the 1st.
Bostick sacked. Whitehead practically untouched and right on the side where Bostick was looking to throw. Loss of 8 yards.

McCoy on draw for a nice gain. 3d and 11.

Pitt delay of game. 3d and 16. Blitz was showing.

Now dropping into coverage. Tried to jam it into Pestano. Needs to look elsewhere. THere were 3 redshirts. Plus it was short of the 1st down marker.

Oh, good. False start before the punt. 4th and 21 now. Louisville charging. Punt away with good hangtime. Naturally the coverage sucked and Guy got it to the corner. Only reason it wasn’t a TD was he stepped out at the Pitt 37.

2:12: Louisville just trying to run more. Ends up not doing much. Punt. Pitt takes over inside the 15.

2:14: Porter with a great catch for a first down.

McCoy (or Stephens-Howling for that matter) can’t go anywhere straight ahead. The O-line is doing nothing against the Louisville D-line.

McCoy direct snap, the second time, completely misread the line and ran right into a tackle for a loss.

Punt.

Punt #8. Fair caught at the 38.

2:20: Louisville just passes midfield. For what it’s worth, Louisville’s offense hardly looks explosive. Even against Pitt. It just seems that there is a lack of passion from the offense. They still seem like a team that still believes their own press clippings too much.

End of the 3d quarter. Louisville leads 17-7.

Pitt has no offense. The defense isn’t going to win this game for Pitt. The big question. Does Louisville cover the spread?

2:25: Mick Williams gets a sack. 3d sack by Pitt. Forced a 3d and long. No conversion.

47 yard attempt by Carmody. Blocked. Carmody hasn’t had a great year.

Stunning stop.

2:30: You know, after 3 quarters, Pitt had under 100 yards of offense (50 rushing, 45 passing).

Great catch by Mo Williams. Even with defensive pass interference. Takes it to the Louisville 23.

Bostick just throws it at the feet of a receiver when the blitz was going to kill him without a chance. It was a screen allegedly.

35 yard FG attempt is good.

17-10 Louisville with 10:41 left in the game. Go figure.

2:37: Scott Long is a promising receiver for Louisville if he ever learns to make a catch.

Pitt takes over at the 24 with 9:07 left.

2:42: T.J. Porter has become Pitt’s #1 receiver with Bostick. Only Pitt’s 2nd (out of 11) conversion of 3d downs.

2:44: Give the screens a rest. Please.

Mo Williams with the catch over the middle for the 1st down on yet another 3d and long.

2:50: Pitt’s best drive of the day. A couple of big 3d and long conversions. It’s really happening through the air on this drive.

Why run up the middle when it hasn’t been there? WHY??? 4th and 1. Going for it.

Finally! A surge by the O-line and McCoy pushes beyond to get it in for the TD!!!

17-17 4:27 left in the game. Louisville has just fallen apart in the 4th quarter for the second straight week.

2:57: Notwithstanding the block of the 47-yarder, Louisville does have an excellent FG kicker. They don’t have to get too much further to be inrange. Time is still a concern.

The cards have passed midfield.

3:04: Two hideous penalties by the Pitt secondary (interference early in the drive and then Cox’s facemask) really made this easy for Louisville to drive it.

Still, the defense didn’t make the plays in the final drive by Louisville. The offense finally made things happen and the defense wilted.

TD by Bolen.

24-17 Louisville, 1:54 left in the game.

3:10: Good god, is McCoy good. And the Louisville Defense sucks.

Two big runs by McCoy and letting him get out of bounds. Takes McCoy over 100 yards.

Then a 3d run for 7 yards out of nothing and still gets out of bounds again.

Now at the 20. 45 yards on 3 plays.

TD Bostick to Turner!!!!!!

Good god, Pitt only did that in 31 seconds. 4 plays.

Sigh. Reviewing it. Oops. Looks like it will be 1st and goal from the 1. Louisville would now rather prefer that the score count. Give them more time. 1:23 left.

No TD. Now 1st and goal from the 1.

CRAP!!!! McCoy and Bostick fumbled the snap. Louisville got the ball back.

On replay, McCoy fumbled it out of his chest. Sims and Congemi were saying that McCoy was waiving the ball before.

Ugh.

3:18: This hurts.  Can’t say either team deserved to win.

Watching McCoy and the rest of the Pitt players agonizing on the sideline. Man.

Pitt doesn’t stand a chance without McCoy, but I doubt that is small consolation for him.

Louisville was just relieved. Kragthorpe in coachspeak said his team “just found a way to win.” Sure.