Saturday, November 8, 2008

41-7 Pitt, Final Score

Its a great feeling to be able to end the game in the "Victory" formation by taking a knee. After playing a stellar first half and looking a little bit shaky early on in the second half Pitt finally got it together and closed out the game in dominant fashion. Thanks to a couple of big plays by Baldwin and McCoy, the emergence of the defensive line in the early 4th quarter and a couple Louisville turnovers, Pitt ran away with the Big East matchup late to defeat the Cardinals for the first time since 1983.

The Pitt running game never really got any traction. McCoy scored out of the wildcat and had a couple of 10yd runs on toss plays but only ran for a total of 39 yards. The being said, he was still a major factor in the win as he drew the attention of 8 Louisville players on nearly every down. This really opened up the field for Stull who hit 9 different receivers and threw for 210 yds. and a touchdown. He did a great job of spreading the ball around.

Special teams were a huge factor in the win. Taglianetti made another tremendous play as he recovered a fumble on a punt, he also made a couple of tackles on kickoff. Connor Lee was 2-2 for field goals also.

The defense is really what turned this from a game to a route in the 4th quarter. They had a huge stop on a 4th down., Ricky Gary picked up a lateral and took it in for an easy score, McKillop came up with an interception and returned it for a touchdown. I also believe the Panthers came up with 3 sacks and 3 turnovers on defense.

Great win and it was nice to see Pitt absolutely dominate the game late, especially after it looked like it might be in question after Louisville scored easily to cut the lead to 20-7.

Cincinnati is up next. Going to need to play a tremendous game again on the road. Hail to Pitt!

A look at the final stats:
Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs1714
Total Yards299320
Passing203230
Rushing9690
Penalties5-456-58
3rd Down Conversions7-173-15
4th Down Conversions0-22-2
Turnovers50
Possession26:0433:56

2 comments:

  1. What a great game. With that win the Panthers ensured a spot in a bowl game. Great to have Bill Stull back. I love that he doesn't zero in on one receiver. Last week we constantly saw Bostick trying to force throws to Jonathan Baldwin. This week we saw Stull connect with 9 different players. Derek Kinder made some key grabs and Oderick Turner finally caught a pass, this time for his first TD of the season. I am excited to see what Aundre Wright brings to the table as his reps continue to increase. Now we have to sit idle for another week before heading to Cincinnati. I will be cheering for WVU for once tonight as I am hoping the backyard brawl will decide the Big East.

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  2. Looking at the stats, I wonder why the game wasn't much closer. Is Pitt that good, or Louisville that overrated? I tend to think the latter, as I know Pitt isn't that good.

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