Strictly speaking this wasn’t Pitt’s biggest win since the 2007 Backyard Brawl. In 2008, Pitt upset then #10 USF in Tampa. USF, as per their usual thing, did not finish the year in the top-25 — so it does not have quite the same lasting effect. I feel reasonably comfortable saying that VT will still finish in the top-25 by the end of the year so this one looms larger than other wins since 2007.

Here’s the list of games Pitt has won against top-25 teams in the last few years with the team’s rank at the time in parenthesis:

• 2007 – Cinci (23) – 24-17
• 2007 – at WVU (2) – 13-9
• 2008 – at USF (10) – 26-21
• 2011 – USF (16) – 44-17

And that’s it.

Worth noting, though, that since 2007 Pitt has only had 8 games where the opponent was ranked (and Cinci accounted for 4 of those games). So, I guess 4-4 isn’t that bad.

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We had you written off. You were done. Surely the time had come to change directions. We knew your story. We knew your strengths. We knew your weaknesses — god did we know your weaknesses. And then this.

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It sounds like you guys are pretty happy about the game last Saturday. I am also and can’t wait for next Saturday (Gardner-Webb; 3:30 @ Heinz Field) when we can really build on the mechanics of the systems to get ready for Big East football.

I’ve obviously taken a hiatus from The Blather for a bit.  We had all the preparations for my daughter’s wedding week; her wedding on Friday; house guests until Sunday and, with perfectly bad timing, my son was hospitalized on Wednesday and missed all the wedding activities.  He’s home, doing well and dodged emergency surgery but I was running around like a chicken without a head for the last week and couldn’t write anything.  Which also meant I had to be here in Maryland sitting in front of the TV rather than at Heinz Field.

But back to PITT football!

It was obviously a surprise to watch PITT not only get that big lead but to then hold it through four quarters.  As many Blatherites have posted we were sitting and waiting for it to slowly drift away.  That didn’t happen and we can credit the coaching staff for trusting Sunseri and the offense well enough to believe that they were going to string together enough 1^st downs to keep drives alive and the clock running.  That happened and it paid off with a late score to put the game out of reach.

I think the staff is beginning to see exactly what they have to work with and are adapting and substituting well enough to get production on the field.

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