76-61

In a Facebook post today, friend Dave Finoli posted that "One of the true joys of attending a sporting event is that you just never know what you might see when you do."  Never has that statement been more true than in reference to yesterday's Pitt -Syracuse football game, won by Pitt by a score of - and you are reading this correctly - 76-61.

So much went on in this game and at such a dizzying pace, that you really can't even remember all of the dazzling plays that unfolded before you on the Heinz Field gridiron yesterday.  Just some highlights.....

• 1,312 yards of total offense between both teams
• Twenty touchdowns
• Seven touchdown plays of 35 yards or more
• A Pitt DB scoring a TD on a thirty yard interception return.  It was the one and only significant defensive play of the entire game by either team.
• A WR for Syracuse catching five TD passes.
• Syracuse's back-up quarterback passed for 440 yards, threw five TD passes and scored two other TD's rushing.
• Kicker Chris Blewitt set a Pitt record by making ten PAT's in the game.  I am guessing that that is a record that will stand for a long, long time.
• On two consecutive offensive plays in the second quarter, Pitt scored on sweeps running around right end.  One went for 66 yards, the other for 77 yards.
• Early in the third quarter, Pitt established a 28 point lead.  They never lost that lead, but Syracuse kept coming back and scoring.  The game was in doubt pretty much until the last minute and half, when the Orange failed, for the third time in the game, to recover an onside kick.
• Pitt, a twenty-four point favorite, scored 76 points and failed to cover the spread.

Purists will no doubt rail about the complete and total crumminess of the defenses of both teams, and they would be correct, but, what the hell, that was one wildly entertaining football game yesterday.

A little piece of advice when you watch whatever Bowl Game Pitt ends up playing:  Do not leave the TV set unless the game is in a commercial break, because you just never know  what that Panther Offense might generate, or what the Pitt Defense might allow, if you turn your head for even a moment.

Thanks to Pat Narduzzi, James Conner, Nate Peterman, Quadree Henderson and the entire Pitt Panther team for giving us an exciting and entertaining season.  I was not shortchanged by a single penny of any of the money spent for my season tickets in 2016.

H2P!