… Or…

I took my son to Pitt and a Big 12 game happened.

Thanks again, to Wally for the tickets. My boy had a great time. Good to see you again and to talk.

Where to begin — or end — with that game?

Tons of points. Even more yards. Volume, volume, volume of explosive plays. Too many mistakes by the defenses to count. And at times, it felt like the game was never going to end.

I guess we can start with the record books.

Among the feats that were reached and the records that were broken:

– Pitt’s 76 points were its most in a game since 1977, when it scored 76 in a win against Temple.

– With their 56-14 victory last week against Duke, the Panthers (8-4, 5-3 ACC) scored at least 50 points in back-to-back games for the first time since 1975.

– The 76 points allowed set a Syracuse record, breaking a mark recorded in 1891.

– The 137 points between the Panthers and Orange (4-8, 2-6) were more than the two schools combined to score in eight of their past 10 meetings in men’s basketball.

– Five Pitt players — George Aston, James Conner, Nathan Peterman, Quadree Henderson and Maurice Ffrench — scored rushing touchdowns, the first time in at least 20 years that had happened.

Seven offensive players scored for the Panthers, along with cornerback Dane Jackson, who had a 20-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter. Excluding its final drive, on which it took a knee to end the game, Pitt finished with a touchdown on 10 of its final 13 possessions, a far cry from a game that was tied at 7-7 nearing the end of the first quarter.

And, of course the game set a new standard in the FBS for points scored in a regulation game with 137.  Bettering the old mark of 136 in a game between Navy and North Texas in 2007 (74-62).

Syracuse’s back-up QB Zach Mahoney came into the game with a season completion percentage of under 53%, and a career completion percentage under 49%. He went 43-61 (70.4%)  with 5 TDs.

It would be too simple to suggest that Mahoney had a career game, and that those just happen. Not when they have “just happened” against the Pitt secondary. This was the 7th game this year with a QB going for over 300 yards. The fifth game with the QB passing for over 400. That this game only ranks 4th for the defense in terms of passing yards yielded this year should be enough to make the entire defensive coaching staff cringing. Same for the players.

His face never lit up, like it sometimes does when Pat Narduzzi is in a good mood.

After the game, the Pitt coach’s anger was real, and he threatened to “go beserk” if video review showed his defense didn’t play hard enough.

When he got home last night, he might have needed an antacid to calm the “sick” feeling that washed over him after the epic — sometimes comical — struggle Saturday in front of 34,049 people at Heinz Field.

And, yes, he was the winning coach in Pitt’s historic 76-61 victory against Syracuse. The final score represented the most total points scored in an FBS game. Ever.

If he allows himself to consider the current three-game winning streak and top-10 wins against Penn State and Clemson earlier this year, Narduzzi will be thankful for his second eight-victory regular season in his two-year Pitt tenure. Pitt (8-4, 5-3 ACC) next will play in a bowl game to be decided, its ninth consecutive postseason berth.

But first there remains work to be done.

“We’ve got to get back to ground zero,” he said. “Like I tell our players, every week there are going to be ups and downs. We didn’t plan to have that many downs. I’ve never been in a game like that, and I don’t want to be in a game like that again.

“Half of me is jumping for joy for what our offense did out there today. The other half makes me sick.”

Senior middle linebacker Matt Galambos, whose unit was on the field for 106 Syracuse snaps that produced 668 yards and nine touchdowns, doesn’t blame his coach.

“A lot of guys like myself are angry about it,” he said. “Sixty-one points is unacceptable.”

And, look, we all know the injuries. The lack of depth on the defense. All the issues. Legitimate problems that no doubt contributed. The fact remains that they faced a team without its starting QB. A team that had produced all of 62 points in the previous four games.

Even the offense that unleashed hell on Syracuse all game long hardly felt great.

Running back James Conner produced his 17th 100-yard rushing game (115 on 19 carries), scoring on 9- and 1-yard runs, complementing his 35-yard touchdown reception.

“Nah,” said Conner when asked if this was a victory to celebrate. “I don’t know what everybody else is doing. I’m not celebrating. I’m happy we won. We have to get better.”

Quarterback Nathan Peterman was inaccurate for much of the game, completing 9 of 18 attempts for 251 yards and four touchdowns. But he ran for 79 yards, including an acrobatic 13-yard run with 10 seconds left in the first half on which he leaped outside the sideline, reached back with the ball and touched the pylon before his feet hit the ground.

“Nobody knew I had that in me,” he said.

Yet he was far from pleased with his overall effort.

“I still think we can do better,” he said. “I left some incompletions out there where I could keep us on the field.”

Big plays were what the Pitt offense did against Syracuse. Half of Pitt’s TDs came on plays of 35 yards or more.

Pitt’s 76 points were most Syracuse ever allowed in a game, breaking a 125-year record once held by Union. No Syracuse football team has allowed more points in a season than this one.

The Panthers scored touchdowns of 59, 35, 66, 77 and 79 yards.

Still, after the performance by the secondary the week before, there was (apparently delusional) hope that the secondary was finally getting it together.

Through 11 games, Pitt has allowed 334.3 passing yards per game, the second-worst average among 128 Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

[Ryan] Lewis took the criticism a little personally, he said, and has reveled in the secondary’s recent rebound. Saturday, they held Duke to 243 passing yards on 46 passing attempts. He thinks the defensive backs can make a statement Saturday against Syracuse, especially if the Orange’s starting quarterback, Eric Dungey, remains sidelined by concussion symptoms.

“A lot of offenses want to try us when they see how past teams did it,” Lewis said earlier this week. “If they want to keep trying it, go ahead. We’re a new team. We’re better. We welcome all challengers.”

…

Lewis echoed defensive end Ejuan Price in saying the Pitt defense is peaking right now. There was a time earlier this season, Lewis said, when the senior class had to take a hard look at things and ask some questions: “What do we want our name to be right now? Things aren’t looking great. How are we going to turn things around? What can we do better?”

Players and coaches pointed to several reasons for the improvement. Narduzzi stuck with his defensive schemes even when it seemed the secondary needed help. The young defensive backs were worked into the rotation, which helped the defense keep pace against up-tempo offenses. And a little success can do wonders for the swagger of an inexperienced secondary.

“It’s a defensive mindset,” [Cornerbacks Coach Renaldo] Hill said.

That the secondary remained so porous only made it worse for the rest of the defense as they were forced to drop back more and were susceptible to the run. Giving up 228 on the ground.

Still, at the end of the day, it was Pitt that scored 11 TDs — 10 on offense and 1 pick six from the defense. Syracuse’s defensive players were just as unhappy trying to explain and defend their own problems.

Still, after all of that. Pitt won the game. It now has Pitt 14-3 against the Orange since 2000. The seniors (and probably James Conner) left Heinz Field with a victory. Pitt finishes the regular season 8-4 against one of the toughest schedules in the country.  Part of a 3-way tie for 2d in the ACC Chaos Coastal. And broke into the AP top-25 at the end of it all.

Now, a week of rampant speculation as to which bowl game and opponent Pitt gets.