I didn’t see the second half. I brought my daughter to the game, and between the game being well-in hand, the effort in keeping the 5-year old from trying to get down to the field so she could hug the mascot, and the ongoing rain/drizzle I decided it best not to stay longer. I was able to listen to the entire second half on the radio, so that was nice.

I’ll echo what everyone else has already said about LeSean McCoy. He is a tremendous talent, and he is generating way too much of that yardage with very little help from the O-line. That reason alone, is why he should be somewhat limited. His yards are seemingly all hard yards. That takes a bigger toll. This game may have served as his coming out, but he needs some blocking or it will be a very hard season.

Kevan Smith came in and did a good job for the game. It was already known that Stull was the better QB at this point. Smith, though, went with the conservative game plan and stayed with it. He appears to have the support of his teammates and frankly there isn’t a choice. Bostick isn’t ready.

Bostick getting playing time was fine with me. Get the experience in mop-up time and I hope they keep doing that in games well in hand (one way or the other).

I think Kinder being out for the season is a bigger deal with Stull out. Kinder is a team leader and would be fighting hard to make receptions and help the confidence of Smith. It’s not that the receivers are doing badly, but Smith is not going to be as accurate and the receivers have to be going harder to try and make the catches.

The defense did fine, but it was still a 1-AA team of undetermined ability and talent. No clue how that will translate against even slightly below average BCS conference teams.

The O-line was better in pass protection but just can’t seem to run-block. Same story.

It was a bit disturbing to see the team struggle to put together drives. Definitely a readjustment with a new QB.

“It takes a little bit of your positive feelings away from what happened,” Wannstedt said. “It was the penalties and turnovers that bothered me today. We’re nowhere close to where we need to be to beat Michigan State (next week). I give Grambling a lot of credit. They came in here and played hard. They played to the final whistle.”

Despite having a 321-239 edge in total yards, Pitt (2-0) managed only three drives longer than 31 yards. The first went 71 yards in 10 plays, as McCoy turned a lateral into a 25-yard gain, caught a slant pass for 17 yards and scored on a 5-yard run at 8:18 of the first quarter. Pitt scored again after Brian Kaiser’s blocked punt set up McCoy’s 7-yard run for a 14-0 lead. Eric Thatcher intercepted a Brandon Landers pass at Grambling’s 31, and after an 18-yard pass from Smith to tight end Darrell Strong, McCoy scored from 13 yards for a 21-0 lead.

“We just capitalized on the field position we got early,” McCoy said. “There wasn’t really a big drive. We just took what they gave us. They gave us short yards.”

Pitt’s offensive numbers only told half the story. The Panthers were bailed out by their defense against a Division I-AA opponent that was overmatched but not outworked. Grambling (1-1) came up empty in four possessions inside Pitt’s 20.

McCoy will get plenty of touches against Michigan State — that is assuming they don’t bury Pitt early and force a lot more passing.

“LeSean just needs to play some more,” Wannstedt said. “The way he started off, I really expected him to break a couple of big ones, but they started ganging up at the line of scrimmage and they were sort of begging for us to throw the ball. But we were trying to give it away by turning the ball over. I thought overall LeSean did a nice job, and we’ll need him next week against Michigan State, that’s for sure.

“I’m ready for [McCoy to become the Panthers’ featured tailback] and I think LeSean is ready for that. He had 19 carries today but he’s ready for more, he’s ready to ‘expand his role’ as we say.”

McCoy downplayed his first 100-yard game. He also talked of this being just the start of something much bigger.

“It is all in the game plan,” McCoy said, “but whatever they give me I’ll take, whether it is running the ball or catching screens, I just want to help this team win. It is all about working as a unit, as a team. It was nice to have 100 yards, but I’m not really concerned about the yards and touches. I thought the line executed extremely well today, and the receivers blocked well.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely pumped, I’m excited and all, but I just don’t want to get too happy because we have Michigan State next week, and they are a good team. I felt like I was real close to breaking a few big ones, but they made a few shoestring tackles, so it is another week of not breaking one but I’ll get back to work next week and try again.”

Again, he’s not going to bust one without the O-line doing more. He has to expend so much energy just getting through the first wave of tacklers and around the defense that it’s hard to turn things up after that.
Penalties, were a problem for Pitt. 10 for 91. Yeep. Not good.

Really, this game marked the end of the easy stuff. Now it gets harder.