Staying No. 1
TAMPA, Fla. — With control of the Big East race at stake, Pittsburgh put the ball into the hands of Dion Lewis.
“If we can’t run the ball, we can’t survive. That’s our lifeline,” coach Dave Wannstedt said after Lewis topped 100 yards rushing for the 12th time in his career, finishing with 105 and a touchdown in Saturday’s 17-10 victory over South Florida.
“We have to be able to run the football or we have a tough time winning,” he added. “We just made a commitment to stay with it.”
The victory kept the Panthers (6-4, 4-1) atop the Big East standings. They can clinch the conference title and the league’s automatic Bowl Championship Series bowl berth by winning their remaining games against West Virginia and Cincinnati.
Wannstedt is more focused on West Virginia, though.
The Panthers rebounded from a two-point road loss to Connecticut and haven’t been consistent enough during a largely disappointing season to look beyond the Mountaineers.
Pitt was far from perfect against USF. However, the Panthers played through their mistakes and took the lead for good when Lewis broke three tackles to score on a 22-yard burst that finished an 80-yard march on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Receiver Terrence Mitchell scored on a 45-yard TD run for USF (6-4, 3-3) but the Bulls got little production out of their passing game. B.J. Daniels completed 15 of 29 passes for 132 yards, and his final attempt was intercepted on the game’s final play.
Tino Sunseri threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ray Graham in the third quarter, then helped Pitt put the game away in the closing minutes with a 12-yard completion to Devin Street on third-and-9 and an 18-yard quarterback keeper that took more time off the clock.
The possession ended with Dan Hutchins missing a 43-yard field goal attempt, however the impressive drive that started at Pitt’s 10 and ended at USF’s 26 left Daniels with just 1:31 to try to bring the Bulls back.
A pass interference call near midfield — the fifth of the afternoon on Pitt’s secondary — gave USF a first down near midfield. Daniels, thought, was unable to get his team into position to possibly tie the game.
Cornerback Antwuan Reed, flagged for pass interference four times, intercepted Daniels’ final throw as time expired. Pitt finished with 11 penalties for 116 yards.
“I don’t know if we could have challenged ourselves emotionally any more than what we did. And by that I mean, our defense played 86 plays because of the pass interference penalties that we’re called,” Wannstedt said. “Think of the possessions we gave up today.”
