Pitt slows pace, grinds out win over Louisville
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Teammates mob Tino Sunseri after he scores what proved to be the winning touchdown with 1:53 to play Saturday.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Pitt coach Todd Graham made the decision to slow down the Panthers no-huddle, fast-tempo offense because he thought the pace of it was causing too much confusion and resulting in too many mistakes.
So, instead of trying to snap the ball every 15 seconds, Pitt will snap it closer to every 25 seconds. Saturday, that plan nearly worked to perfection against Louisville as the Panthers played their most mistake-free game on offense this season.
As a result, the Panthers are back in the hunt for the Big East Conference title after beating the Cardinals, 21-14, in a most workmanlike fashion before a crowd of 51,321 at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.
Pitt had one turnover-- a fumble by Zach Brown -- allowed three sacks and committed no penalties and that accomplished two things. For one, it kept the Panthers defense out of bad situations. For another, it prevented its defense from trying to protect a short field.
Louisville gained 280 total yards, and it was pretty clear the Cardinals were not going to be able to come from behind and win the game unless Pitt's offense helped them with turnovers.
"We had zero penalties today, and that is how you measure your discipline as a football team," Graham said. "Our guys were very disciplined. We took care of the ball for the most part.
"You probably noticed that we weren't very fast today, but that's what I talked about last week, that we probably tried to go too fast and do too much. It is better to execute than to go fast and mess up.
"We'd like to get quicker with our tempo, but it is better to be efficient, and we did a good job. We had no penalties, and, other than that one [fumble], we were one play away from playing what we consider a perfect game [on offense -- zero penalties, zero turnovers]."
First Published November 13, 2011 12:00 am
