A closer look…

The Teams: Venturing outside the confines of Heinz Field for only the second time this… The Teams: Venturing outside the confines of Heinz Field for only the second time this season, the Pitt Panthers (4-1 overall, 1-0 Big East) will travel east on the New York State Thruway to renew the second-oldest rivalry in school history when taking on the Syracuse Orange (3-2, 0-0) tomorrow. Kickoff is set for noon.

Coverage: ESPN Regional will pick up the contest as its “Big East Game of the Week” and WTAE-TV will show the game locally. As always, SIRIUS Satellite radio will pick up the call on channel 130 while, locally, FM NewsTalk 104.7 (WPGB-FM) and Fox Sports Radio 970 (WBGG-AM) will call the action.

The Coaches: Both coaches are coming off back-to-back home wins. Pitt’s demolitions of The Citadel and Toledo raised Dave Wannstedt’s record to 9-7 at Pitt while Greg Robinson’s Orange took out Miami (Ohio) and Wyoming to boost his mark to 4-12 at Syracuse.

Strong Starts: Who scores first won’t be a solid indication of who might win tomorrow, given that both teams have had incredible first-quarter success. Syracuse’s 38-7 opening-quarter advantage seems impressive until compared with Pitt’s 45-3 first-quarter scoring edge through five games.

Offensive Explosion: Behind the stellar play of senior quarterback Tyler Palko, the nation’s most efficient passer through five weeks of play, the Panthers have continued to put up gaudy offensive numbers this season. After going over the 50-point mark against The Citadel, Palko led Pitt to a 45-3 win over Toledo, raising the team’s point-per-game average to 38 this season.

Red Zone Ready: With such a high scoring average comes more touchdowns than field goals, especially for a team like Pitt, which has been incredible in the red zone. The Panthers have scored on 15 of their 17 red-zone chances with one of the failed attempts coming from Pitt simply not moving to score with the game already decided. Twelve of those scoring appearances have been touchdowns, evenly split between pass and run.

Help me Help you: The Pitt defense and special teams have helped the offense immensely by giving Palko and company solid starting field position. The worst average starting field position for the Panthers was their own 26 back on opening day, while the best was their own 41 against The Citadel. Cincinnati had the best average starting position for a Pitt opponent as the Bearcats started drives around their own 32.

If you can’t beat ’em, hope they win: Syracuse could easily be 5-0 this season had the Orange gotten the right breaks. Still, the two losses came to Wake Forest and nationally ranked Iowa, teams that combine for a record of 9-1. An opening day loss to the Demon Deacons was followed by a heartbreaking home-opening loss to the Hawkeyes in which Iowa stopped Syracuse on the goal line six times in pulling out a 20-13 double-overtime win.