Football: Offensive line, Sunseri quiet critics

The offensive line that was the scapegoat Pitt’s crushing loss to Miami is now receiving… The offensive line that was the scapegoat Pitt’s crushing loss to Miami is now receiving praise after its 44-17 win over Florida International on Saturday.

“The offensive line did a great job giving Ray [Graham] all kinds of holes,” quarterback Tino Sunseri said.

Graham ran for a historic 277 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries — Pitt’s second-best individual performance behind only Tony Dorsett’s 303 yards against Notre Dame in 1975.

Graham gives much of the credit to the offensive line, especially for his 79-yard touchdown run.

“I got to the line and I almost stumbled, but the offensive line did a great job in creating the holes,” Graham said. “I probably could have made that mistake and still made the play because of the time they gave me.”

During last week’s practices, Wannstedt switched up the offensive line, moving Lucas Nix to right guard and Jordan Gibbs into the right tackle position.

It clearly worked, as the line didn’t give up a single sack, and that was against an FIU defense that had racked up eight sacks in three games against BCS-conference opponents Rutgers, Texas A&M and Maryland.

“I thought our offensive line came out and did a good job,” Graham said. “They came out with some fire and we did what we needed to do.”

Sunseri also didn’t have a great game in the Miami loss, but he too quieted many critics with his performance on Saturday.

Much like Bill Stull last year, Sunseri received some boos from the crowd after his first two passes were thrown wide, but finished the game with 15 completions on 23 attempts for 169 yards and a touchdown.

“Tino had a great week of practice,” Wannstedt said. “He played smart, protected the ball and didn’t turn it over.”

But Sunseri deflected a lot of the credit to Graham and the offensive line.

“Any time you can have a run game like we did today, it helps as a quarterback, because it opens up the play-action pass and allows me to get some good looks at our receivers,” Sunseri said.

The final score might indicate a blowout victory for the Panthers, but the game was tight for most of the day. The score was 13-10 at the half and 16-10 after the third quarter. One reason for that was Pitt’s numerous penalties, an area in which Wannstedt said his team needs to improve.

“We shoot ourselves in the foot in too many ways,” he said after the game. “We were one of the least penalized teams in the country a year ago at this time. Now, with 10 penalties today, it’s unacceptable.”

Pitt looked like it had recovered a fumble early in the game for a touchdown, but it was called back because Brandon Lindsey was offsides — his second such penalty in that drive.

Pitt’s 10 penalties cost the Panthers 64 yards. Wannstedt and the Panthers will work on improving that statistic as they prepare to head to South Bend, Ind., to take on Notre Dame this Saturday.

The Fighting Irish are 2-3, but all three losses are at the hands of currently ranked teams — No. 16 Stanford, No. 17 Michigan State and No. 18 Michigan. They are coming off a 31-13 win at Boston College where quarterback Dayne Crist threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.

Sunseri said his team will be ready.

“Our guys will have a more positive vibe when we break down film tomorrow,” he said. “And we’ll carry the momentum in getting ready for Notre Dame next week.”