Football: Unlike last week, the Panthers improve their play in second half during 35-10 win against Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky.— The Pitt football was dreadful in the second half of last week’s 38-31 loss to North Carolina, and that carried over into the first half of today’s 35-10 win against Louisville.

But the Panthers came out and dominated in the second half, led once again but quarterback Bill Stull.

“Our guys didn’t come unglued at the half even though we were down,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “We found out how to close a game on the road.”

And Pitt did that by holding onto the ball, which it didn’t do in the second half last week against the Wolfpack.

After going into the half trailing 10-7, Stull came out and went 5-5 on Pitt’s opening drive of the second half, including a 37-yard touchdown pass to Dorrin Dickerson to cap the drive. Dickerson blew by the Cardinal defender and Stull led him beautifully into the end zone, giving Pitt a 14-10 lead which they wouldn’t relinquish.

Louisville moved the ball well on ensuing drive, converting a 4th-and-2 thanks to a 4-yard run by Bilal Powell to keep the drive moving. On a 3rd-and-8 from the Pitt 31-yard line, Cardinals quarterback Adam Froman rushed up the middle for two yards. Myles Caragein tackled him from behind, knocking the ball loose, and Gus Mustakas jumped on it.

The Panthers wasted no time taking advantage of the takeaway. On the first play of the drive, Jonathan Baldwin outran two Louisville defenders to catch a 71-yard touchdown on a perfect pass from Stull. By the time Baldwin was past the secondary, all he had to do was look up and the ball was right there for him for the easy catch and waltz into the end zone, giving Pitt a 21-10 lead.

Add on touchdown runs by Ray Graham and Henry Hynoski, and the Panthers outscored Louisville 28-0 in the second half. It was a much different second half compared to last week, when the Panthers converted their last first down with 5:08 remaining in the third quarter.

Tonight Pitt controlled the game in the second half. The Panthers had 16:19 of possession time in the second half, whereas Louisville only had 13:41. Last week, North Carolina had the ball for 18:12 in the second half compared to Pitt’s possession time of 11:48.

With Pitt leading 21-10, they sealed the game with consecutive long scoring drives. A 12-play drive that led to a 5-yard touchdown run by Graham took up 5:25, and Pitt followed that up with an 8-play drive that took up 4:11 and ended with a 3-yard scoring run by Hynoski.

But it wasn’t just the Pitt offense’s holding onto the ball that clinched the win. A week ago, the Pitt defense gave up more than 300 yards of offense in the second half alone. Tonight they held the Cardinals to just 305 yards for the entire game, and 134 in a scoreless second half.

“Last week wasn’t what we expect of the defense,” defensive end Greg Romeus said. “We’ve dominated here and there. This was a total performance [by the defense].”

Romeus had a season-high 3.5 sacks, and the Panthers tied a season-best with six. Pitt also held Louisville to only 3-15 on third downs, and just 2.7 yards per carry. The defensive line also pressured Froman throughout the night.

“If we can’t make plays up front we can’t play great defense,” Wannstedt said. “We go as far as the front four takes us.”

This game also saw the return of middle linebacker Adam Gunn, who missed the last two games with a left ankle sprain. He finished the game with four tackles. Starting for him the past two weeks was freshman Dan Mason, who played well, but is playing with sophomores Greg Williams and Max Gruder, giving the Panthers a very young linebacking core.

“We’re learning on the move, so getting Adam back was huge from a stability standpoint,” Wannstedt said.

Romeus also mentioned that the defense feeds off the offense, and Stull’s two quick touchdown passes early in the third quarter helped fire up the Panther defenders.

Stull finished the game 16-23 for 242 yards and three touchdowns, two of which were to his favorite target this season, Dickerson. The senior tight end caught three passes for 50 yards. On his first touchdown pass, Stull intended to throw it to Cedric McGee, who couldn’t catch the pass, but tipped it right to Dickerson.

After a slow start to the year, Baldwin continued to improve, catching four passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. Last week at NC State he caught a 79-yard scoring pass, and the previous week in Pitt’s 27-14 win against Navy he set career highs with six catches and 111 receiving yards.

The Panther running game was also solid. Freshmen Dion Lewis and Ray Graham combined for 33 rushes for 166 yards and one score.

“I’ve never been a split-time backs kind of coach,” Wannstedt said, “but we’re going to play both.”

Pitt is back home next week when it takes on Connecticut Oct. 10.

Notes: This was Pitt’s first win at Louisville since 1983… Safety Elijah Fields and receiver Cam Saddler both left the game with ankle injuries and didn’t return… Caragein started at defensive tackle for Mick Williams who was out with a quad injury.