Quarterback showdown in Kentucky`

LOUISVILLE, KY. – Before the season began, Louisville sophomore quarterback Brian Brohm… LOUISVILLE, KY. – Before the season began, Louisville sophomore quarterback Brian Brohm received all the national attention as the top quarterback in the Big East.

It was nothing that bothered the Pitt southpaw Tyler Palko, though.

He said that Brohm could be the “top dog” of the Big East Conference and he didn’t mind. He’d just worry about himself and what he could do to help out his team.

So when the Louisville Cardinals prepared to host the Pitt Panthers last night in Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, a quarterback showdown on ESPN of the two best was certainly on everyone’s minds.

And they didn’t disappoint. But it was Brohm who walked away victorious in a 42-20 win over the Panthers last night.

“The quarterback’s an excellent player,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said of Brohm after the game. “He’s very accurate. We had guys covered and he’d look back to find the secondary guy and the third guy at times.”

Brohm finished the game completing 21 of 31 passes for 247 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. But he displayed to a national audience his ability to manage a game and move his offense up and down the field.

He used a rushing attack of Michael Bush and Kolby Smith – who combined for 173 yards rushing on 31 carries and three touchdowns – to offset a steady passing game. The strength of Louisville’s rushing attack meant that they could avoid forcing passes to places they didn’t want to throw to, like anywhere near Darrelle Revis. As a result, Revis left the game unimpressed with Brohm’s performance.

“He’s a regular quarterback to me,” he said. “They didn’t look to my side that much.”

“They threw over to my side a couple times, but nothing happened.”

Palko didn’t have the help of a strong running game like Brohm did, leaving him to make some plays on his own. He completed a less-than-impressive 17 of 30 passes, but tallied 198 yards and threw one touchdown and no interceptions.

Comparing Palko’s performance with Brohm’s on numbers alone won’t do Pitt’s redshirt junior justice. A few drops by receiver Greg Lee limited his production in the final statistics. But both Palko and Wannstedt weren’t about to harp on the drops.

“Greg’s the best receiver we got,” Wannstedt said. “He’ll make those plays next week. He’s got to make the plays for us. For us to have success scoring the points, he’s the guy. He just had a bad night.”

Palko added that it’s just part of the game.

“Getting mad about it is not going to do anything,” he said. “It’s about being with your teammates, overcoming obstacles and learning. Right now we’re learning about ourselves.”

In an offensive matchup like this, the quarterbacks can’t do everything. They need a supporting cast, too, and the Panthers figured that out the hard way.

The solid rushing attack of Bush, Smith and George Stripling gave Brohm the chance to mix up his offense. They kept the Panther defense guessing throughout the game.

Pitt, on the other hand, mustered only 62 rushing yards – a low enough number that kept Palko, and not his backs, on the run most of the night.

“We didn’t get a lot of sacks tonight, but we did a good job pressuring Palko,” Louisville coach Bobby Petrino said.

Palko knows he’ll bounce back.

He’s been down this road before, and he is already looking toward next week and hasn’t even thought of lowering his expectations of the team at all.

“We sputtered offensively. You can’t come out and make mistakes against a team like this,” Palko said. “That’s not what I came here for, to be sub-par, to be mediocre.”

Brohm, on the other hand, showed the nation why he deserved all the credit in the world. He attacked Pitt’s strongest unit (its secondary), moving his pass-efficient offense at will.

And while he didn’t throw for any touchdowns, he didn’t need to. His running backs took care of that.

If the Panthers are going to put their offense on the next level, alongside Louisville, that’s exactly the type of support Palko will need.