Before the season started, I think this is the kind of score I would expect from Pitt games. The defense shutting teams down and the offense scoring just enough. Of course, before the season, this was presumed to be an easy win (hence why it was set for homecoming), so things change.

A 20-3 win over Louisville was a good win. I fully believed Pitt could blow this game. Playing a team that was feeling good, had  the offense going and an underrated defense. Pitt just starting to get its confidence back. Having rolled up big scores in two straight games to make them laughers. Easy time to get tripped up, especially in the Big East of 2010.

Instead, Pitt played the same way they did against Rutgers — for good and bad.

The offense continues to struggle in the first half at finishing drives. That has moved to highly disturbing trend. That has been a season long issue and I don’t know how it is going to change.

When Pitt led only 6-3 at the half, I was a lot calmer — and it seemed that the crowd was as well — than with the Rutgers game. That’s even with a missed FG. Almost a resignation/acceptance that Pitt would struggle to score in the first half.

The defense was outstanding. They held Powell in check and made Froman jittery by the second half. Suddenly the efficient JUCO senior couldn’t hit anything and was rushing his delivery out of fear of the hits. Sacked 4 times including a backbreaking fumble when Sheard got him. Caragein picked it up and rumbled down to the 5. Pitt was able to punch it in to put the game out of reach.

Louisville never threatened after that.

Every story cites that as the turning point of the game, and there is no disagreement there. The score had been too tight.  With a three score cushion, it was obvious to both sides that there would be no comeback.

Pitt’s offense never really found itself. It wasn’t atrocious, but it was shaky against Louisville. I really was impressed by the Cardinal defense. Very sound and good tackling.

Now a bye week and prep for a Thursday night in Connecticut.

Homecoming edition.

Luke has the reins once more. I’m getting this set up now, because I’ve struggled to do it right before leaving.

Moderated chat. Behave yourselves.

I can’t bring myself to gloat over the WVU loss to UConn. Especially with the way Pitt has been this season. Nothing makes sense in the Big East except that it really looks like the conference is as bad as anything the ACC has trotted out the last few years in terms of putrid parity. The wheel of destiny spins in the Big East this year.

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The wife signed up to run both kids’ Halloween parties, which meant I was signed up to help with both parties. That’s been the main headache in getting any spare time to post this week.

Early run to Pittsburgh tomorrow for the game. Noon games are hell for driving from out-of-town, but Pitt earned them with the start to the season.

/extra bitter feelings when driving into the sunrise

Running through a few of the stories. Yes, Zack Stoudt’s tale is kind of weird. What stands out to me, is how gun shy he was about any QB competition. He was a 3-star recruit at QB. He may have the size and “look” of a pro QB, but when you aren’t even a top-ranked recruit you cannot expect to be the only QB in a recruiting class and feel entitled to the job. If he makes it to the pros, good for him, but I’m not too bothered one way or another about his saga with Pitt.

The good news for the game is that the defense is ready for a run-first team. The bad news, dealing with a mobile QB

Kind of bogged down today. This is rushed as I have only a few minutes during a break.

Louisville has a balanced offense. They run a bit more than they pass, but it isn’t too far out of whack (especially coming from Pitt fans). So as expected both papers had stories leading on the running game and Bilal Powell.

As all in the blog debate for Pitt said, the running game is the big concern from Louisville in this game. I also made not that Anderson is back and healthy at last for Louisville. The kid was newcomer of the year in the Big East a couple years ago. Then got hurt. He’s healthy now, and like the Lewis-Graham combo can change things up with the ‘Ville running game.

Well, it looks like a good chance that Nasir Robinson will miss most of it. At Monday’s practice, Robinson tore the meniscus in his right knee. He had surgery to repair it today — he is apparently doing fine.

Robinson will be out three to six weeks. At the short end, he misses the first few games of the season. At the full six weeks, he wouldn’t return until maybe Maryland — Eastern Shore.

Robinson may be challenged offensively at times, with a shot that had many last year screaming, NO!” That said, he was one of Pitt’s most aggressive defenders and would get after things. Being undersized at power forward did not diminish his overall effectiveness in Pitt’s game.

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You can bet this is going to get beaten into the ground during the many national appearances Pitt will have this season, so this is probably the last time I will post about Coach Dixon helping at the scene of the car accident.

Here’s the video of Coach Dixon’s ESPN First Take appearance talking about the accident.

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It’s been a while since Louisville has won a conference road game. Over three years and ten games, in fact. That’s an effective summary of the Steve Kragthorpe era. New Coach Charlie Strong is using that to motivate his team this week.

“Coach Strong does an excellent job at finding something that will just itch at you all week,” left guard Josh Byrom said. “Every week he has something.”

Strong gave the Cards a similar nudge going into their game at Arkansas State. Before that 34-24 victory, they had lost 10 straight road games since a 35-28 win at Memphis in 2008.

It’s his way of keeping them focused on the task at hand. With five games left on the schedule, Strong admits stressing the clichéd one-game-at-a-time approach. He has resisted using the league’s parity as a motivator.

It’s early, but I get the feeling that Strong’s Louisville tenure is going to make a lot of other programs that passed on him have some buyers remorse.

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Coach Dixon spoke about the incident, and in a completely unsurprising way, downplayed his involvement or that he did anything special.

“I did what anybody else, I think, in Pittsburgh would have done in given the situation,” Dixon said at a news conference at the Petersen Events Center in Oakland. “I think a number of people would have done the same thing. In fact, I know they would have.”

In fact, he said that he others did pull over to help. It was just that he was the first there because he it happened right in front of him.

“I was driving home around 9:30 or 10 p.m. from the office after we practiced and watched film when I saw a car in front of me going in the fast lane and then veer to the right and hit the wall,” Dixon said of the crash. “It flipped a few times. There weren’t a lot of people on the road.

“I pulled over and ran to the car. There was smoke coming out, which I was later told by the firemen … was from the air bags being deployed,” Dixon said.

Coach Dixon also did an interview about the incident on ESPN’s painful to watch “First Take.” I’m sure they will post the clip in time.

The first half was depressing and frustrating. Pitt made mistakes all over the field and just let Rutgers stay close. Then in the second half, Pitt completely dominated and Rutgers never truly threatened. Honestly, it was the complete opposite of what I expected.

I believed the game would be one where Pitt led early, while both teams would struggle on offense. Then in the second half Pitt would do just enough to hold off the Scarlet Knights as they tried to come back.

Instead, Pitt was very careless with the ball, but aggressively moving most of the game (except inside the redzone). There were at least two other fumbles by recollection that Pitt got back.

By the end of the first half, the frustration in the stands was palpable. Booing at the end of the half as Wannstedt essentially wanted to run out the clock and get into the locker room. Rutgers and Greg Schiano, instead called timeouts and got the ball back late in the half. Luckily Pitt’s defense held.

Still Pitt could have had a chance to at least add a field goal late when Lewis nearly busted a run. The fact that Pitt was moving the ball despite conservative plays seemed to catch Coach Wannstedt off-guard and the final 1:17 was a waste.

It actually took awhile for it to be a laugher. Two more trips inside the redzone and only FGs to show for it. It remains a huge problem that Pitt cannot finish many drives. That simply cannot be ignored. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it already cost Pitt two wins this season.

Other than that, though, the second half was completely dominated by Pitt. Rutgers was overwhelmed and Pitt’s D-line treated Rutgers O-line like the rice paper it was. Dodd ended up with happy feet and by the end Tom Savage returned to lead the Knights to a garbage touchdown that didn’t even cover the spread.

Sunseri finally connected with Baldwin as the play calls essentially demanded him to put it up and let Baldwin get it. Dion Lewis had the big game everyone was waiting for. Hynoski was the safety valve all game to keep Pitt drives from stalling out.

Next up, homecoming with a surprisingly tenacious and aggressive Louisville team.

Seriously, at the very least he has already lapped the field.

State police said a vehicle flipped over while travelling outbound on I-279 North near the Mcknight Road exit.

The car hit a jersey barrier and landed on its side in the road.

Two people were inside the car. One person fled from the scene while the other remained trapped inside.

Jamie Dixon, head coach of the Pitt men’s basketball team, witnessed the accident and pulled over to help get the victims out of the car.

The story has “raw video” from the accident. A little more than halfway through you see the back of Coach Dixon’s head in the ambulance. Then he emerges, walks out –looking fine — and gets to his car and drives off.

He was treated for minor injuries he received while assisting at the scene.

Noon start. That means leaving before 6:30. Ugh. Supposed to be a surprisingly beautiful day for late October in Pittsburgh. Bringing my daughter with me, assuming I can drag her out and pile her into the car in time. She was excited when I asked her about going. Not so sure about that enthusiasm when I get her up around 6.

Of course that means I definitely stay sober. Always changes the texture of the game.

Luke has offered to run the liveblog from a remote location. Somewhere near Nepal, I believe. He’s been on the run for a while since the incident. He still claims that he was set up to take the blame for that hooker’s death and that it involves a global conspiracy to control the beet sugar market.

I’ll be tweeting throughout the game — which will be on the liveblog. That’s a mostly one-way communication. I’ll try to field some questions at half-time when I can check them.

The liveblog is below and starts around noon.

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The ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll tabbed Pitt at #4. That’s nice.

Villanova by the Numbers compiled some Big East predictions, and surprise: the consensus is Pitt #1, ‘Nova #2. DePaul is still 16th.

Seth Davis from SI.com tweeted his top-25 ballot. Pitt is #7 (behind ‘Nova and Florida?).

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For whatever it is worth, Pitt is ranked #21 in ESPN.com/Scouts, Inc. latest rankings (Insider subs) for the 2011 football recruiting class.

Pittsburgh’s class is not composed of a lot of headline names, but the quality retained in state and plucked out of neighboring New Jersey by coach Dave Wannstedt is impressive. Four-star athlete Bill Belton (Atco, N.J./Winslow Township) is the top-rated player in this class and one of the more intriguing. This ESPNU 150 member is a productive dual-threat quarterback who likely will move to receiver for the Panthers and move the chains effectively with his excellent quickness and elusiveness once he gets in space. The Panthers have their future workhorse in the backfield with Jameel Poteat (Harrisburg, Pa./Bishop McDevitt). He lacks elite speed but is a strong, between-the-tackles grinder who should be able to carry the load if Pitt continues to pound the rock.

So there’s that.

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For a round-up of some of the media day, Pitt-centric stories head over to Pitt Script for the link round-up. If I can get back to it, I want to comment on some of the stories.

For now, let’s take a look at the Coaches’ preseason predictions.

Here are my thoughts on the rankings.

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Rutgers on Saturday. Before getting into anything, it is important to wish the best for Eric LeGrand. Hoping that he can beat the odds regarding the severity of his injury. Scary, scary stuff. Pitt is showing support for LeGrand with a banner at the game signed by the team, students and Pitt employees.

Moving to Rutgers, as much as Pitt has had injuries this year, Rutgers has had just as much. They are down another linebacker with Manny Abreu out for a few weeks with a knee injury. Add in the loss of LeGrand and the Scarlet Knights have had a tough season with injuries.

Abreu, who was playing the best football of his career, joins Jimmy Dumont, Edmond Laryea and David Milewski on the sidelines. Dumont, Laryea and Milewski are out for the season with knee injuries.

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