Pitt Pummels Cards In Second Half, Win BIG EAST Opener 35-10

Dave Wannstedt and his impeccably groomed facial hair came into Louisville and left, as most expected, with a 35-10 victory — Louisville’s eighth strait loss to a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent.

Based on preseason polls, the results of this game were not surprising. Pittsburgh, though losing star RB LeSean McCoy came in stocked and was tabbed to win the BIG EAST in Wanny’s 5th season at his alma mater. Louisville, picked to finish next to last in the conference (ahead of only Syracuse — Greg Paulus can’t really QB with Mike Patrick swingin from his jock), looked like the same team it has each of the last two seasons under head coach Steve Kragthorpe: Not Good.

Though for the first 30 minutes, it looked as though Krags might finally get a win to give the Cardinal faithful some hope that he is capable of getting a program back on track that had gone bowling nine strait seasons before his arrival two years ago, and hasn’t been since.

Louisvile came out with all black unis that read “The Ville” on the front for some reason, and behind 39,948 announced fans also clad in all-black in an attempt to ‘black out’ the Panthers, played well enough to take a 10-7 lead into the locker room at the half.

After a three-and-out to start the game, Louisville punted it away and Pittsburgh took over for their first drive in Cardinal territory. The defense held and Pittsburgh turned it over on downs at the Louisville 27 yard line. The Cardinals then marched 73 yards on eight plays to take a 7-0 lead on Senior Fullback Joe Tronzo’s 1-yard plunge into the endzone. The drive began with some Tom Foolery from Coach Krags, a 38-yard pass from Doug Beaumont that found Josh Chichester.

Pittsburgh marched right back down the field on their next possession and tied it at seven on Bill Stull’s high throw, that grazed the fingertips of intended receiver Cedric McGee and landed into the waiting hands of Dorin Dickerson for a five-yard TD.

Louisville went three-and-out again and Pittsburgh had another scoring threat stopped when Lou Walker recovered a Ray Graham fumble on the Cardinal 8-yard line. The two squads then traded punts until Louisville’s last possession of the half saw them reach the Pitt six yard line with 17 seconds left before Adam Froman, starting for the injured Justin Burke, took a sack and then threw an incompletion, forcing Louisville to settle for the field goal and three point halftime advantage.

The second half was a much different story.

On the opening drive of the third quarter, Pitt needed just seven plays to score as Stull and Dickerson hooked up again for a 37-yard touchdown that gave Pitt all the points they would need. Froman would fumble it away on the ensuing series and Pittsburgh would quickly capitalize with a 71-yard bomb from Stull to Jonathan Baldwin on the next play to make it 21-10.

Then in the fourth Ray Graham and Henry Hynoski tacked on rushing scores for the final margin of 35-10. Graham would finish with 75 yards and the score while freshman Dion Lewis added 87 yards on 21 carries. Stull wound up with 242 yards passing on 16-of-23 attempts for the Panthers (4-1, 1-0).

Adam Froman completed 18-of-30 passes for 166 yards and was sacked six times for the Cardinals (1-3, 0-1), who have now lost three strait and 8-of-9 overall under coach Krags.

Louisville fell to 4-11 in the Big East since coach Steve Kragthorpe replaced Bobby Petrino after the Cardinals won the 2006 Big East title. The problems that have plagued the program for most of the last two years: penalties and an inability to stop opponents, reared their head again on Friday.

Louisville was penalized 10 times for 98 yards and allowed the Panthers to roll up 404 yards of total offense.

Pitt tight end Dorin Dickerson said the Cards “flat-out quit” toward the end of the game, but UofL defensive end Greg Scruggs stood up for his guys.

“We refuse to let this team go the wrong way,” Scruggs said. “… We’re going to continue to practice hard, continue to have morale, and we’re going to come back and we’re going to fight next week.”

Same ol’ same ol’ in the Derby City. Rohrer will be here soon with his ranting on the subject and Miller will be here on Manday with his Manday Musings and more on the game, and the state of the Cardinal program.