Pitt was going to win that game. Of that I am not questioning. Pitt had a blowout because the Cards couldn’t hold on to the ball. Five turnovers, plus Aaron Berry had an interception one bounce off his hands. 17 of Pitt’s points came from turnovers. Bad, sloppy, careless effort by Louisville.

Heck, the Louisville offense wasn’t even given a chance with the two turnovers by special teams in the first half.

The Cards won’t like what they see when they review this game tape, and it won’t take long for them to start flinching from their mistakes.

U of L forced the Panthers (7-2, 3-1) to punt after their first three plays netted minus-2 yards. Sophomore returner Doug Beaumont waved for a fair catch but misjudged the ball’s flight. He came close to touching the ball, but at the last instant he stepped aside and let it hit the ground and bounce downfield.

With players on both teams pursuing the ball, U of L’s Bobby Buchanan tried to pick it up but never secured it. Pitt’s Jovani Chappel recovered at the U of L 19-yard line, and the turnover led to a field goal.

Beaumont mishandled two other punts on fair catches. The Cards recovered the first, but the Panthers fell on the second. Although they didn’t score on that possession, they had altered the field position and soon scored on a 47-yard drive.

Add in the two defensive scores in the 4th quarter that were all about listless, stupid Louisville play. Ricky Gary scooped up an incomplete backwards pass while Louisville players stood around without realizing anything. McKillop’s interception was a take-away when the Louisville receiver juggled it, trying to turn upfield. The poor effort was noticed down in Louisville.

This season is much the way Jurich said it would be. Rebuilding, he said. It will take awhile, he said. Seven wins would be great, he said. He was the original caution light on this one.

But he can’t have pictured it the way it was yesterday. It’s one thing to lose to a ranked team on the road. It’s another to look inept and uninspired doing it.

The road signs are not encouraging. These were some of U of L’s better players not getting it done on the most basic of plays, short passes, fielding punts, covering loose balls. The Cards have won just four of their past 11 Big East Conference games.

I’m not downgrading this win. This has been precisely the kind of game Pitt has blown, and as frustrating and maddening as it would have been many would not have been shocked if Pitt had lost. Instead, they never trailed. Were always in control. Even if McCoy was being stopped cold, the offense kept things going.

That brings the accolades back to OC Matt Cavanaugh.

Not long ago, it seemed Cavanaugh’s offense was modeled after the Academy Award-winning film, “Sideways.” Baldwin helped to change that. In the upset over South Florida, the 6-foot-5 phenom emerged as a game-breaker.

He’s been breaking games ever since.

Louisville was determined to stop McCoy, which it did, holding him to 39 yards on 17 carries. But that left an open prairie and all kinds of one-on-one matchups in the passing game.

Stull capitalized, completing 15 passes at better than 14 yards per attempt. Baldwin’s two grabs netted 80 yards.

Way too conservative.

Be serious. Ever since the Bowling Green debacle, for example, Wannstedt has been a fourth-down demon. Pitt has converted 10 of 12 fourth-down tries since then, six on passes and several in situations where the old Wannstedt would have been only too happy to punt.

Example: On its first drive of the second half, leading 17-0, Pitt faced a fourth-and-1 at the Louisville 43. Not only did Wannstedt go for it, but Cavanaugh dialed up a Stull rollout and a pass to Derek Kinder.

“His play-calling kept their defense from focusing on one thing,” Kinder said.

He’s been due to get some positive stuff. I hope it is finally figuring out that in the college game, you can’t just wait for the players to learn and develop in full. You have to take the chances with inexperience and even mistakes.

Having a playmaker in the receiving corps makes a difference. Even with a stud running back, having a serious deep threat helps.

What ought to be motivating Pitt right now, literally and figuratively, is the space Baldwin is creating in opposing secondaries. With the defense suitably stretched, Stull and Cavanaugh look a lot more accomplished and the Panthers look downright dangerous to someone other than themselves.

“From Day 1 we’ve wanted to win the Big East championship and go to a bowl game,” senior wideout Derek Kinder said. “I just feel so good for all these guys. We haven’t been to a bowl game since I was a freshman.”

Really?

Seems like since Wannstedt was a freshman.

The headline of this article sums things up well: Pitt does what a ranked home team should — win

Yep.

McCoy was stopped by a Louisville team that completely sold out to stop him.

McCoy said the Panthers proved they have a lot of reliable weapons and that they no longer are a one-trick pony. He said he expects more defenses to employ Louisville’s defensive strategy, and, in some ways, he hopes they do. Why? Because that would allow the Panthers’ passing offense to make big plays and score lots of points.

“Their defense played good today, they boxed us in,” McCoy said. “You could tell their mind frame was ‘We are not going to let LeSean do anything’ and they did a good job of it, but, when you do that, you leave your secondary man-on-man with one guy at safety.

“I mean, with our wideouts and Bill Stull, you can’t do that. Last year, I still had to run the ball for us to be successful, but now we can score in a lot of ways.”

And at long last, Pitt has its first winning record and clinching a bowl berth in the Wannstedt era.

The Big East Conference championship is within reach, and Pitt revealed its intentions to claim it by hammering Louisville, 41-7, Saturday afternoon before a crowd of 44,055 at Heinz Field.

“We were going out to do something we’ve never done before,” Pitt sophomore tailback LeSean McCoy said. “We want to get to a bowl and win the Big East. Every game is important to us.”

The defense also stepped up with a bit of redemption. They went into this game giving up 27 points or so per game.

“I thought our defense really came together,” Linebacker Scott McKillop, who led Pitt’s defense with seven tackles, said. “We knew in order to win the entire team had to play well in all three phases of the game, offense, defense, and special teams, so we definitely wanted to hold up our end.”

McKillop helped the defense hold up its end by intercepting a pass and returning it 18 yards for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. That put the finishing touches on the scoring and gave Pitt a 41-7 lead.

“I never intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown in all the years I played football,” McKillop said. “When I grabbed the ball and started running it back, the end zone looked a mile wide.”

The upshot is this.

S is for Sexxxxayyyy. Who is your Big East title winner and BCS berth holder? One sexy clue:

Dave Wannstedt and the 7-2 Pitt Panthers are poised to roar off into the sunset in a cherry-red Ferrari if they win out over West Virginia and Cincinnati in the next two weeks. Mock the Wannstache at your own risk, cynics. You might get embarrassed by them as Louisville was on Saturday.

I’m still not ranking Pitt in the BlogPoll. If there is even a chance that it’s a jinx, I’m not taking that responsibility.