The Pitt Panthers thought they were in good shape.

The offense had just scored early in… The Pitt Panthers thought they were in good shape.

The offense had just scored early in the fourth quarter to narrow the Rutgers lead to three, and strong kickoff coverage pinned the Scarlet Knights in their own zone.

Pitt had the momentum. Ray Rice took it away.

The first play of the Rutgers drive that put Pitt away was a regular give to the sophomore running back — a regular give that resulted in Rice’s longest career rush. Rice saw the defense part like the Red Sea and saw nothing but green — 63 yards of it.

“I think it was a scheme right and everything felt like it fit,” Rice said. “I cut back and it just parted. As a running back, you gotta make that cut, and I was glad that it happened at the time that it happened, because that was a turning point in the game. It wasn’t just a big run, it was a big run and then some.

“I was hitting it all game, and this was the big one. It was just a regular call. We knew they were having problems with it.”

Rice’s scamper set up a Rutgers touchdown that put the Scarlet Knights up 20-10 — the eventual final score. The drive consisted of four plays and 90 yards — 84 compiled by Rice.

The run and the drive came as a shock to the Panther defense that largely kept Pitt in the game until then. H.B. Blades and Darrelle Revis thought they had the Scarlet Knights right where they wanted them.

“We felt real good,” Revis said. “The offense scored, and we stopped them inside the 10, and we had them down there for a while, and a great run for Ray Rice he broke it, and that brought us back down. We couldn’t bounce back from that.”

“We felt that we had some momentum,” Blades said. “We had them back there, but we let them out. That was on the defense. It was frustrating because we had all the momentum at that point and then it just totally switched back again.”

Even head coach Dave Wannstedt thought that Pitt got its break.

“We had a chance there with the momentum, but we just didn’t do it,” Wannstedt said. “They busted a long run on us … I’m still in shock that that happened.”

What’s even more shocking is that the Panthers aren’t really sure what went wrong on the play.

“I don’t know anything [about the play],” Revis said. “Whatever it was, the backside guard pulled and I was coming over the top. I’ll have to look at the film.”

“I couldn’t figure it out either,” Blades said. “Rice, he didn’t make a move. He just ran straight downhill.”

“I don’t know if we hit the wrong holes or if we just missed tackles. I won’t know what happened until I see the film,” Wannstedt added.

But the Panthers saw film all week on Rice and the Rutgers’ running game. It wasn’t from a lack of preparation that Rice compiled 225 total rush yards — his fourth 200-yard rushing game of his career — for a Rutgers record.

“We knew they were going to run it,” Wannstedt said. “We’ve been talking about it all year, but we might have had one or two no-gain plays on defense and when you don’t control the line of scrimmage, it’s tough to win.”

“We had great preparation,” Revis said. “Coach was telling us all week, ‘Gang tackle him, get three or four guys on him.’ We had great preparation during the week, it’s just big players make big plays in big games and that’s what [Rice] did.

“He came out with a chip on his shoulder and when the opportunity came for holes to open, he took them with his great vision and he made plays.”

“He’s a powerful back,” Wannstedt said. “He’s strong and quicker than he is fast, but he’s the real deal. Of all the backs we’ve seen so far this year, he gets my vote.”

The power and physicality that Rice displayed mimicked the whole game for Rutgers, according to Wannstedt. The second-year head coach knew his team got pushed around from the start.

“We came out waiting to see how fast and physical they were,” Wannstedt said. “We just got blocked.”