The Pitt football team cannot afford to roll over and play dead this time.

Two years ago,… The Pitt football team cannot afford to roll over and play dead this time.

Two years ago, Pitt suffered a devastating loss to an obviously weaker opponent, South Florida. Anybody who was a Pitt football fan two years ago probably still has not recovered from the loss – or the four games that followed.

The Panthers were supposed to beat South Florida. The game was not even supposed to be close, but somehow, South Florida opened a 14-0 lead on the Panthers in the first quarter and never looked back.

South Florida was up by as much as 28-7 before Pitt’s offense attempted to mount a comeback as it cut the lead to 28-26, but eventually it came up short when South Florida made the score 35-26 with a touchdown.

A four game losing streak followed, which included losses to Miami, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Boston College. Of course, the 2001 season had a happy ending with a 34-19 Tangerine Bowl victory over North Carolina State, but this is not this season’s happy ending. Panthers; fans want a national and Big East title.

Even though the play-by-play from last weekend’s 35-31 loss to unranked Toledo is different, the theme remains the same.

The Rockets’ offense dominated our defense. Come on, fellas! You are supposed to be a “top 10” team. You will not find a team that is ranked in the top 10 giving up 551 yards of total offense. Especially to an unranked team. That’s atrocious!

Despite the final score, Pitt got its pants pulled down and received the whopping of a lifetime. Thank God this game was not nationally televised!

Toledo passed for 461 yards. As I look at the game’s final statistics, all I can envision is Walt Harris doing his best Jim Mora impression.

“National Title? Don’t talk about a National Title! National Title? Are you kidding me? I’m just hoping we can win another game!”

The defense is better than its performance on Saturday. It lost five starters this season, and maybe the defense just needs time to gel.

Let’s chalk it up to the fact that maybe the Panthers did exactly what Harris said they were not going to do. Maybe they overlooked Toledo and were looking ahead to this weekend’s opponent, Texas A’M.

Well, Panthers, this weekend’s matchup down in College Station is your shot at redemption. This game will be televised on ABC, and many college football fans around the country will be able to tune into the game.

Show them that last week was just a lucky week for teams from the Mid-American Conference against teams ranked in the top 15, because I’m not so sure that the rest of the country is convinced.

Believe it or not, college football fans around the country are paying attention. Within 20 minutes of the loss to Toledo, I was bombarded with phone calls from a friend until I finally answered my phone so he could rub in the loss. Just 20 minutes, and this game was not even televised.

Well, this game is going to be televised, and we don’t want to be embarrassed this weekend. The thing that should be on the minds of Pitt football players is how the Aggies walked out of Heinz Field with a 14-12 victory last season. The wounds should still be open.

If members of the offense are able put up career highs, there is no reason why the Panthers should not be able to come away with a victory. There is no reason for a team to score 31 points and not win a football game.

Both sides of the ball have to mesh; otherwise it’s going to be a tough road ahead to compete for a national title or, for that matter, the Big East Championship. Virginia Tech and Miami, just to name a few upcoming opponents, can put points on the board, so Paul Rhoads and the defense had better get it right.

Panthers, please do not go down to Texas A’M and roll over. You are clearly the better team, and this matchup is your chance to show this.

Kevin Nash is the assistant sports editor for The Pitt News and is convinced that the Panthers can come back from last week’s embarrassing loss to seriously challenge for the Big East title.