Well That Was Interesting

I can't be the only one who has a hard time getting a true pulse on this team. I expected Pitt to win a close game, but I purposefully left out predicting a score because I thought it was completely possible that Pitt would lose this game. Add up the facors - Friday night game, on the road, conference game, vs. an offense that has struggled, but still had two possible All-Conference WRs and an All-Conference RB.

Pitt really came out after a very shaky first half and impressed. Yes, the first half was no picnic - the defense was not all that great (even though Louisville only had ten points) and was downright terrible on that first drive. They really tightened it up in the second half and the offense was much better then as well. A few things:

- Holy penalties, Batman. And dumb ones, too. Peronsal fouls, holding, etc. Both teams were guilty, but Pitt has to get this fixed. There's no reason for this to happen.

- Bill Stull was very impressive again and had maybe his best game of the year. 16 for 23, 242 yards, 3 TDs, and again, no picks. For the naysayers, Stull now has 11 TDs and 1 INT on the season. His passer rating is over 159 and has to be one of the top in the country I'm sure. And he's now already thrown two more TDs than he did ALL OF LAST SEASON. That's unbelievable when you think of it. He's really come a long way and there should be absolutely no one criticizing him now.

- And speaking of Stull, he was able to do something I've criticized him for - throw the deep ball accurately. The two big strikes he hit on to Dickerson and Baldwin were right on the money. The defenders made two horrible plays on those passes, but Stull still made the throws. And if you don't think it's possible to miss wide open guys, look for a replay of the West Virginia game on Thursday night - their QB missed two wide open receivers on deep balls.

- Now onto Wanny, the coordinators, and the offense/defense - Again, I think he called a heck of a game. Not sure who was responsible for calling the offensive deep balls, but it was good to see Pitt take shots down the field. Yes, the defense is still a ways away, but they played pretty well tonight if you look at the entire game. 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing is pretty solid. The offensive playcalling has been great. The only thing I might slightly disagree with was Wannstedt going for it on fourth down in the first half rather than kicking a fairly reasonable field goal (of about 40 yards I think). Not sure if that was lack of faith in Hutchins or what, but I would have went the other way on that one.

- I think the stop at the end of the half was big. To hold them to a field goal at that point in the game, was big for Pitt.

- Dion Lewis essentially split carries with Ray Graham tonight. Graham actually had a higher yard-per-carry, but also had the big fumble in the first half when Pitt was driving. I was glad to see Wannstedt talk to him immediately and not get too much on his case. I'm curious to see how the rotation will play out the rest of the year, but we could see another game of seeing the backs basically split the carries. Oh, and Dion Lewis is a freak. Not sure if anyone else caught it, but there was like a 3rd and 2 or something...I don't even remember when it was. But he put on a quick juke in what appeared like it was going to be a loss to get the first down. He made several similar plays making defenders look silly. Five games in and now seeing him against to BCS-Conference Teams, and I'm a believer.

- The more I see Dorin Dickerson succeed, the angrier I get. This guy could have been a big weapon over the past three seasons. You've got to think he could be one of the top tight ends taken in the NFL Draft. And on the other end, Nate Byham has been virtually non-existent, with only three catches this year.

- Cam Saddler is eventually going to break one of those punt returns (assuming his injury wasn't too serious). He seems like he always takes the right angles and it's just a matter of time. That could really end up being a great weapon for Pitt this year.

- Not sure what the atmosphere was like in person, but it seemed like the crowd was really out of it most of the game. I know Pitt eventually ran away with it in the 2nd half, but it didn't seem like it was really all that raucous.

- A great win for Pitt. As I said before, it was much more important that they win this game than the NC State game because it was in-conference. Pitt now gets a mediocre UCONN team at home and should have a good chance to get to 5-1.

- Kind of a side note, but I was kind of surprised to hear one of the commentators say that Pitt was the, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'main traditional power' or something to that effect in the Big East. That may be true I guess, but I don't think fans around the country necessarily see it that way. West Virginia has had more success recently and the year they could have gone to the National Championship with Pat White and Steve Slaton was the best Big Team in a while. I'd have to give that one more thought.

What More Is There To Say?

500 yards - that number still boggles the mind...especially since Pitt has given up that many yards in TWO games already this year.

First, I think Bob Smizik in the PG has it right when he says Dave Wannstedt should not be fired. You've got to give him this year to see what direction Pitt is headed in. Since the 13-9 win over West Virginia, Pitt is 13-5 - not too shabby.

Paul Zeise has an interesting list of top ten Pitt losses and includes the N.C. State debacle. The only comment I have is that I think he has the Sun Bowl loss way too low (#9). Yes, it was a postseason game after a pretty decent season, but it was disappointing because it kept Pitt from reaching ten wins for the first time in I think about 25 years AND because all they needed to do was score more than three points to win. That game was agonizing and I'd put it at least in the top five.

Besides the defense, the offense's 2nd half performance has to take some blame. Oh, and penalties didn't help either.

Cam Saddler looks like he's the real deal.

Brian Bennett at ESPN.com has a slew of Pitt-related tidbits including Dion Lewis' national rankings, ranking Pitt fourth in the conference, and stating the obvious - that Pitt is having serious defense issues.

Then there was the Wannstedt press conference today. It was amazing how many times Adam Gunn's name was brought up. Kind of ironic considering the game Dan Mason had last week. It really seemed that while Wannstedt wasn't blaming Mason for the loss obviously, to me, he made it seem like it could have been a whole different ball game if Gunn was available. Of course, I'm not buying that. I don't even think I can buy the fact that it would have mattered much at all.

After the loss, Pitt comes in at #36 in the Sportsline.com's rankings of all 120 teams.

On a side note, Pitt's next home game vs. UCONN will either be noon or 3:30. Please be 3:30.

CBSSportsline.com Blog Poll Week 5

Getting my weekly poll in this week a bit early due to some potential scheduling conflicts later this week. Every year is crazy, but this is bordering nuts. Yes, I have some teams ranked higher than some, but even if you don't agree with some of the teams I have in the Top 10, you've got to admit that it's crazy that they're even ranked as high as they are in the AP and ESPN polls. Boise State, Cincinnati, Houston, TCU, and Iowa all undefeated after four weeks and in the top 10? At once? That, my friends, qualifies as insanity.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Alabama
4	Boise State	2
5	LSU	2
6	Cincinnati	4
7	Houston	8
8	TCU	11
9	Iowa
10	Virginia Tech	1
11	Southern Cal	2
12	Ohio State	2
13	Penn State	8
14	Michigan	3
15	Kansas	5
16	South Florida
17	Missouri	6
18	UCLA	3
19	Miami (Florida)	10
20	Oklahoma	4
21	Nebraska
22	Mississippi	18
23	Oregon
24	California	16
25	Oklahoma State
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Washington (#12), North Carolina (#18), Pittsburgh (#22), Florida State (#24).

I have no words to explain the debacle of blowing a 14 point lead against NC State, so I felt it best to leave the title blank.

Pitt looked sharp once again on offense. True, they did struggle some in the 2nd half and did nothing after they went up by 14. But 31 points should be enough to win against a mediocre team.

Yes, I'm not feeling terribly gracious about this one. It seemed like Pitt really had the game under control. They were the better team in the first half and went up by 14 in the second half. After that, it just seemed like they stopped playing.

I'm not going to say NC State is a bad team, but Pitt certainly should have wrapped that game up. Instead of going full throttle when they went up by 14, they allowed NC State back into the game with poor defensive play. And this one wasn't all on the secondary - NC State had a nice effort running the ball, rushing for over 200 yards. Yes, I'm sure they were tired after Pitt was unable to do virtually nothing offensively after taking a two-touchdown lead, but you can't allow three consecutive touchdowns to end a game. Pitt's calling card on defense has always been 'bend, but don't break.' Make some plays on defense and keep teams from scoring while allowing them to move down the field. Give up a field goal, not a touchdown. 21 unanswered points is unacceptable.

The good news for Pitt fans is that this wasn't a conference game and a conference championship/BCS Bowl is very much alive. The bad news is that it looks like the defense has serious issues and has a short week to solve them, playing another road game, at Louisville, on Friday.

One last thing - I don't want to hear anyone pinning this loss on Bill Stull or Dave Wannstedt. Stull played well - leading the offense to 31 points is about all you can ask of him. Yes, he did not play a perfect game, but he is what he is - a solid quarterback who is best at managing games. He did that extremely well. Similarly, I don't blame Wannstedt or the defensive coaches. There were so many missed tackles and guys in the secondary getting burnt that it made my head spin. This one is solely on the defense in my opinion.

Sure, you can argue that Pitt should have scored when they recovered the ball on the 8-yard line. And yes, the offense has to score in that situation. But, again, I think you've got to win that game when you score 31 points.

CBS Sportsline Blog Poll Week 4

Here is my CBSSportsline.com Blog Poll ballot from this past week. Yes, I may have been a bit harsh on BYU. But to lose by that many points at home to what looks like a mediocre to slightly above average Florida State is a bit tough to swallow.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Alabama	1
4	Mississippi	3
5	Penn State	1
6	Boise State	2
7	LSU	2
8	California	2
9	Miami (Florida)	6
10	Cincinnati	10
11	Virginia Tech	1
12	Washington
13	Southern Cal	10
14	Ohio State	1
15	Houston	6
16	Oklahoma	2
17	Michigan
18	North Carolina	2
19	TCU	1
20	Kansas	1
21	UCLA	4
22	Pittsburgh
23	Missouri
24	Florida State
25	Oklahoma State	3
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Brigham Young (#5), Georgia Tech (#11), Nebraska (#17), Oregon State (#23), Utah (#24).

The Curious Case of Chris Burns

Okay, so it's not all that curious. Heck, it's not even all that interesting or unexpected. But I was surprised that the move of Chris Burns to defense only garnered a small mention, buried in the PG's notebook section:

Tailback Chris Burns has moved to defensive back. Burns was the odd man out in the tailback derby as two true freshmen, Dion Lewis and Ray Graham, moved ahead of him on the depth chart. The Panthers also have redshirt sophomore Shariff Harris in the mix so it was clear Burns would not have many opportunities to play at tailback.

True enough, with Lewis and Graham playing well, Burns certainly had his work cut out for him. It was something that, frankly, I hadn't given any thought until I saw it today. But it's just another example of how you've got to be flexible as a college athlete, ready to play elsewhere.