Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Louisville Cardinals Recap

Bill Stull and Jonathan Baldwin know what to do with a football. The Louisville Cardinals? Not so much.

In a game that clearly defined two teams heading in opposite directions, the Pittsburgh Panthers shrugged off a sloppy first half en route to a 25-point triumph on Friday night at Papa John's Stadium. The win in the Commonwealth of Kentucky not only gave Dave Wannstedt's Steel City squad a 1-0 record in Big East competition; the conquest of the Cards allowed Pitt to wipe away the bitter taste of the previous week's loss to North Carolina State.

A common thread of Pitt's last two games--in defeat or in victory--has been the pitch-and-catch potency of the relationship between Stull, an increasingly confident quarterback, and Baldwin, a tremendously trusty receiver. On Sept. 26 in Raleigh, N.C., Stull hit Baldwin with a 79-yard touchdown pass right after the Panthers blocked an N.C. State field goal. The play gave Pitt a two-possession lead in the third quarter, and a strong hold on the contest against its ACC opponent. Unfortunately, Pitt's defense couldn't hold the fort in the fourth quarter, but Stull and Baldwin showed that they could pounce when a defense displayed pronounced vulnerability.

This time, the thrower and the catcher hooked up once more, with far better results for the visitors in the Big East opener for both ballclubs.

First, let's set the scene: Neither Louisville nor Pittsburgh played very artfully in the first half of Friday's fistfight in bluegrass country. Fumbles and penalties littered the field, with Pitt coughing up the pill inside the UL 15 and later having a touchdown wiped out by an illegal formation penalty. After coach Steve Kragthorpe's Cardinals took a 10-7 lead to the locker room at halftime, the young pups from Pitt needed to play a mature second half if they wanted to avoid a horrible upset loss. A touchdown on the first drive of the third quarter gave the Panthers a 14-10 lead, but after UL quarterback Adam Froman fumbled at the Pitt 29, the pupils from Pennsylvania needed to finish off their foe, something they couldn't do the week before in the Carolinas.

It was at this moment that Stull and Baldwin put their feet down and declared an end to the prime-time drama on the gridiron.

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In an uncanny reprise of their act six days ago, Stull and Baldwin connected on a touchdown pass of over 70 yards to cement momentum on the road. This play didn't go for 79 yards; the Stull-Baldwin thunderbolt covered "only" 71 yards, and it gave the Panthers a 21-10 lead right after Froman--a backup inserted into the starter's position by Kragthorpe--committed his one big mistake of the evening.

Fresh from their fourth-quarter letdown against N.C. State, the Panthers used this occasion to apply a hard-learned lesson against Louisville. Pitt's defense--scorched in week four--came alive in the second half of week five. Greg Romeus led a furious pass rush that harassed Froman on third and fourth downs, preventing the Cards from sustaining any drive they mounted in the third and fourth quarters. When the clock hit "triple-zero" at Papa John's Stadium, Wannstedt was able to revel in the fact that his defense produced a "double-zero" on the scoreboard: goose-eggs for Louisville in both the third and fourth quarters. If Pitt received an education in hard knocks against N.C. State, the Panthers decided to dish out the big hits to Louisville on Friday.

While the good ship Wannstedt has been steadied, the same can't be said for Louisville under Kragthorpe, a coach who looks done and dusted four games into UL's season. This was unanimously viewed within the Louisville football family as a must-win game. In response to such a situation, the Cards not only failed to produce a needed outcome; they committed stacks of late-hit personal foul penalties, a clear sign of a team that's lacking in focus and discipline. Kragthorpe's lack of influence on his players is too overwhelmingly apparent. It's virtually impossible to imagine that the Cards won't have a new coach at the beginning of the 2010 season. While Pitt and its pitch-catch combo continue to impress, Louisville is lagging, sagging, and--sad to say--bagging it in on the first weekend of October.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer