Panthers maul Bulldogs

Simply put, Tyler Palko and his Pitt Panthers needed a win more than anything after last… Simply put, Tyler Palko and his Pitt Panthers needed a win more than anything after last week’s disappointing loss to Michigan State.

And it didn’t matter against whom it came.

On Saturday, the Panthers (3-1, 1-0 Big East) won and won big. Behind Palko’s four-touchdown performance, Pitt put up 51 points in a 51-6 victory over Division I-AA The Citadel Bulldogs at Heinz Field.

“The trouble with a game like this is that you’re supposed to win,” Palko said. “And it’s never going to be good enough. We can’t help who’s on our schedule and who we play.”

Palko orchestrated six touchdown drives, including the four that resulted in a pass by him. Five of the drives took only four plays or less for the Panthers to find the end zone as the offense produced one big play after another.

Palko finished the game with 15-for-17 (88 percent) passing with 313 yards for four touchdowns and no interceptions. The 313 yards upped Palko’s career mark to 6,612 which moved him past John Congemi for fourth all time in Pitt’s history.

With 6,724 in his career, former Panther Rod Rutherford is close enough for Palko to pass next game. Palko also moved over Congemi and Tony Dorsett for fourth place on Pitt’s all-time career total offense leaders.

“That’s never been something big on my list,” Palko said. “I just want to win football games and do my part to help this team win and get this program in the right direction.

“I have a couple games left in a Pitt uniform and I’m going to do whatever I can to catapult this team forward.”

On Pitt’s first drive of the game, Palko moved the offense 60 yards in four plays for the Panthers’ first points. Receiver Derek Kinder pulled in a 20-yard pass from Palko for the touchdown and a 7-0 Pitt lead.

Kinder caught four passes for 75 yards and a touchdown in the game. On the season, Kinder leads the nation with 445 yards receiving.

Pitt’s second drive lasted only three plays after Palko lengthened the lead by way of a touchdown pass to fullback Conredge Collins. The score was Collins’ first of his Pitt career.

“I think the thing that Tyler has improved on the most is his touchdown-to-interception ratio and his accuracy,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said of his quarterback. “When you can have that kind of completion percentage and still make some big pass plays, then you do a real good job.”

After LaRod Stephens-Howling rushed for a touchdown on the next drive, tight end Darrell Strong got in on the touchdown passing.

Up 21-6 in the second quarter, Palko threw a pass backward on the outside to Strong, who dropped back another step and launched a pass downfield to a wide open Stephens-Howling for a 30-yard touchdown.

“That was a play we’ve been working on for a couple of weeks really, and it was a good call,” Wannstedt said of Strong’s pass. “Both coaches today did a nice job of preparing the game plan.”

Palko added two more touchdown passes, one to Marcel Pestano for the first of his career and one to Oderick Turner, before giving way to backup Bill Stull late in the second half.

“As the quarterback, the only thing I can do is throw,” Palko said. “I need to have someone that I can throw the ball to, and today I had guys doing a good job of giving me time, and the receivers did a good job of catching the ball.”

The Panthers used a rushing attack from Kevin Collier and Stephens-Howling to grind out the final minutes of the game. As a team, Pitt rushed for 158 yards, with 122 of the yards coming from Collier and Stephens-Howling.

On the defensive side of the ball, Pitt limited the Bulldogs to only nine first downs and 152 total offensive yards. The Citadel (0-3, 0-0 Southern Conference) was also 0-for-13 on third-down conversions.

“We came in with a lot of confidence,” Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades said. “We knew that this game was a game we had to come into knowing we could win.

“We felt like this was a game that we wanted to rebound from.”

With a win back under its belt, Pitt now looks forward to a matchup with Toledo Saturday at Heinz Field.

“We can’t underestimate a MAC [conference] school [like Toledo],” Blades said. “They have talent and we need to be focused on details. We got a good win today, but my mind is on Toledo now.”