good point about offensive struggling in 1st half, especialy in red zone

Pitt in great position but 3 of 4 of the remaining games are away and don’t think it is good policy to get too behind on the road as they did at ND. Plus, only remaining home game is vs WVU who can salvage some measure of satisfaction with win at Heinz

I finally had the opportunity to watch the Panthers in the flesh, not the tube yesterday. Several of us drove over from Columbus and were buoyed (how ’bout that)by the enthusiasm of the crowd. Some of the Bloggers must have taken the day off. It was especially heartening to see that three frosh played significant minutes and played well. I refer to Hendricks, Street and Donald. The Steel City gridders displayed a promising group of underclassmen and the future looks good. I’m already looking forward to a GREAT season next year when the lads of autumn are more seasoned. In short, it was a glorious day for us “Big East Buckeyes” and we are not disuaded from returning to “Da Burg” to see another contest. The hard work and recruiting success of the Pitt coaches are beginning to be obvious. Thank you for a most memorable visit to the “home town”. Rev. George of Columbus, Ohio

From the game day blog

Guess what, I’m not going to get (overly)excited about this win. A win is a win though. The defense stepped up big yesterday, though I gotta say it helped a lot when Bilal Powell got hurt early in the 3rd. That guy was just starting to get going, he’s a good one.
Without him our D pretty much forgo the run and chased Abe Froman around pretty good and got him gun shy to the point, he was throwing off his back foot and starting to see Jabal out the corner of his eye on EVERY play. We got shafted by the refs on the long pass to Baldwin on the sidelines, he was clearly in bounds(watched the tape of game this AM). We moved the ball in the 1rst half, except in the Red Zone, settled for FG’s, the 3rd time down there, Sunseri could have run for the 1rst down on 3rd and 7 from the 12, then the shanked FG. L’ville’s defense was better than expected, they were very quick to the ball and had some good DB’s who batted several passes away on excellent plays. Once we got up 20-3, Wanny took the air out of the ball, since he saw Froman had lost it and Powell was on the sidelines. Would have preferred some more points in the 4rth, to be honest. Anyway… on to Storrs. And of course they’re coming off of a high now beating the Hoopies. We seem to be catching these BE teams all riding highs. Cuse after starting 4-1 and beating USF on the road, Rutgers 4rth quarter antics over Army, L’Ville shutting out Uconn, and now Uconn getting their 1rst win EVER over Hoopies. Keep on keeping on Panthers ! Let’s go Pitt !
Comment by VirgilSollozzo 10.31.10 @ 3:13 pm

Good News !

Pitt is getting votes in today’s AP poll. We have moved up to #34.
We are even ranked ahead of Miami. Go figure.

Glad to hear Rev. George had a good time in da burg and got us a win. You have to come back for the WVU game.

Oh, almost forgot, a shout out to Myles Caragein for the 55 yard freight train rumble to the L’Ville 5 before the Keystone Oaks Golden Eagle fell off the tracks. But that play by Myles KO’d the Ville.

And Myles while you’re no track star, you have to be one of the fastest 295 lb linemen in the FBS, only their TE could catch you. Bravo Myles !

FWIW link to post-gazette.com

Good win against a pretty tough team! The D looked good and feisty, and we have some playmakers on that side. I’m sorry Dion, but Graham has to take the lion’s share of the snaps now — its painfully clear to me he’s far more dangerous and explosive, and could probably average about 250 yds per game in this conference. Wanny is so loyal, which is nice, but all the coaches/players must see how Graham jumps off the game film and Dion just looks pretty good. Odds of Wanny doing that?

Another good, solid, win. Still, as Chas points out, there are some troubling things going on with the offense in the first half of games, but not so troubling that we can’t win every game left on the BE schedule. I think we have the most talent and depth in the BE. I also think we are a big, strong team that is wearning teams down as the game goes on. That works in BE play, but I will be very interested to see how we fair if we make it to a BCS game, where we will surely play another team with talent and depth (probably more so than our own). Hail to Pitt!

Anyone know our record against BCS schools after a bye week since Wanny started? Something like 2-15 I’m guessing.

Gerald Hayes, Stephens-Howling and Fitz all scored a touchdown today for the Cardinals. Not a bad day for former Panthers.

and they did it back-to-back-to-back

Syracuse gets more votes than Pitt – go figure..

it was a solid win that might have been a blowout had the refs not screwed us on that big sideline pass to Jon Baldwin. When you look at it PITT led in every stat. It was a good no sweat game for the Panther Nation to watch that could have erupted into a blowout. The Offense was not hot but was serviceable and made very few costly mistakes. That with our defense will win a lot of games. I am convinced they are improving and will continue to get better. The polls will eventually catch up when the reality sets in that PITT is becoming a good team. It’s a good thing if you are a PITT fan.

UCONN should be interesting. A week off (didn’t help Wanny against UM) and a Thursday night game in UCONN. Last time that happened, I believe was a miserable loss in OT…correct?

Once again, the boys need to take care of business. This is usually the type of game Wanny loses.

Here’s our chance on national TV to wipe the bad taste in pollers mouths about our team.

A nice win by 3 TDs would help…

Inconsistent play by a first yr. starting QB. Would you expect anything different?

“Oddly Satisfying” Good description, Chas. You accurately described the mood of most Pitt fans on Saturday I think. The way the defense was playing the way the offense was moving the ball gave no one reason to think Pitt would lose. And, 17 points is a pretty good margin.

Agree that the first half offensive performances in the past two games is concerning. It’s not that they can’t move the ball. It’s in the red zone as you and wbb pointed out. IMHO, they’ve got to take some chances down there and trust Tino a bit more. You have four 6’5″ receivers with sure hands in Balwin, Shanahan, Cruz and Street (almost), a guy who’s quick off the ball in Saddler and two backs who can catch in Hyno and Graham, and you line up in a power formation and run the ball up the middle. Ugh! That’s the frustrating thing about Wanny’s approach to the game.

You can move the ball. Your defense can shut down the other team. Take a chance once in a while on first and second down for goodness sake. Throw a fade to one of those tall guys, roll Tino out so he can throw to Hyno or Graham or run it in himself, run Saddler on a quick slant off a quick snap – something other than a power formation and power run up the middle – especially early in the game when you have a chance to set the tone and plenty of time to overcome a mistake if one happens. Game day coaching, like I keep saying.

Pitt’s coming into the meat of their BE schedule now, at least according to preseason expectations. Three tough games on the road and The Brawl. If they hope to regain any national respect lost by the non-con performance, they need to win them all convincingly. That starts by playing agressively to win, not by playing not to lose. C’mon, Wanny! You can do it if you try. Change really won’t kill you.

Hail to PITT!

Frustrating to see the drives stall out in the first half, especially that deep in the red zone, however, the offense has demonstrated that it has been able to adjust in the second half. While I’d like to see them finish in the first half, its arguably more important to be able to adjust in the second half and score points, so I have been pleased with that.

alcofan: You’re going to get inconsistent play from any quarterback when you put him in predictable situations, because you force him to be nearly perfect. No QB, even the pros, throws perfect balls every time.

I was impressed with L’ville’s DBs, especially Patrick who seemed to be in Baldwin’s pocket all day, including on the disputed long catch. They made it tough on Pitt’s receivers to get open.

Hey check it out – big meeting tomorrow
link to bleacherreport.com

I didn’t get to watch the game as closely as I usually do given I flew up for homecomming and was at bar with all my old college buddies. However, a win is a win and I think Wanny knew how to coast this game to victory after the Sheard/Miles exceptional play. It would have been nice to extend the lead and really blown them out but what can you do. L’Ville, from what I could watch, looked pretty decent on D and I agree they seemed to flock to the ball and tackle well. I don’t think the remaining part of the schedule is going to be easy. WVU will get its act together before the Brawl and, as someone previously mentioned, UCONN will have some confidence going into a Thursday night, ESPN game after beating WVU. Todman is legite and the D line will need to be ready. Cincy can score and score fast so that is always worrisome and USF has a lot of speed to deal with. I think we should win out, however, we will need to be ready to play every week. It’s simple but I like the one game at a time approach as long as everyone buys into it. Lastly, I really do think there will be a time this season where we will need to take some chances down field. Also, with the struggles in the redzone, how do we not throw a fade to Baldwin. He will make a lot of money on Sundays catching that pass. We need to atleast try it!

Exactly TampaT — take a frickin’ chance Wanny. He bought a 2010 Audi but only drives it 65 on the Parkway…his parents must have been crazy strict. Tino seems to be getting more confident however and threw some pretty nice passes down the middle, but still missed a couple…getting there. Graham has to get at least 20 carries, and he will unload again on someone…mark my words!

@Tony,

Very interesting article about BE expansion. They seem to be keeping that meeting on the QT. Adding TCU & Houston would be a great idea as that opens up a huge new recruiting area for Pitt, that being the Lone Star state and also gets the BigEast into two huge new TV markets, Dallas & Houston. And UCF is another good add in as it instantly creates a big rivalry for USF and solidifies Florida. That would get the conf. up to 11 teams, still need one more for 12, for a conf. championship game. Boise State anyone.

Saw this on Yahoo, NCAA Football.

10 Most Surprises in Football Recruiting

link to footballrecruiting.rivals.com

Hail to Pitt !

I’m all for adding good teams to the conference, but Texas is pretty silly for a Big East conference — maybe they should just come up with another name. Adding DePaul and Marquette clearly killed the ‘regional rivalry’ notion, but I still like having football rivals be in your or a neighbor state. Why don’t we steal Maryland from the ACC and bring back Temple, now that they’re actually pretty respectable? If they bring in Texas schools, it then just makes infinite more sense for Pitt to join the Big Ten, maybe along with ‘cuse for the NYC market, and just call it a day for Big East football. Its far more interesting to me to play Mich. State, Michigan, and OSU, than TCU or Houston.

Should we read into the fact that the Presidents and ADs are meeting in Philly . . . . and Villanova might be bumping their football up a level? Or, maybe the Big East adds TCU and gives them this year’s BCS bid?

I would say L-Ville is the best coached team Pitt has played to date in the conference. It was a good, gritty win. But, you are only as good as your last game. Pitt needs to continue to pound lesser opponents into the ground such as UConn and USF.

I would agree that LU was well coached – particularly their defense. I really thought this was a very satisfying win – no regrets. LU lost a running back, and Pitt lost Hynoski. Both teams were affected. The great teams win in the second half. That is what Pitt has done in its wins this year. Even in the ND and Utah games, Pitt played better in the second half. No regrets about this one. Still unanswered questions, but I thought this was a good win.

I just have no reason at all, based on Wannstedt’s track record, to believe that this can carry over to close out the conference season, though, based on talent, it is becoming pretty clear that Pitt is better overall than any other team in the BE. UConn has a very good coach, it is a home game for them, but Pitt should win. Yet I have no confidence, and suspect I am not alone.