If Saturday night’s post-game Wannstedt press conference was a shell-shocked event. I mean, you just have to watch the video to see him completely at a loss. Well, the Virginia pre-game was a bit on the defiant edge.

On Monday afternoon, he made excuses.

“For me to stand here and try to explain the truth and what the real facts are, most people don’t want to hear that,” Wannstedt said. “You go out and you try to have some success on the field and then people will start believing in you.”

Then Wannstedt tried to use statistics to support his argument. The Panthers, he correctly pointed out, rank in the top 25 in the country in seven of nine defensive categories. They are nine in pass efficiency (88.70 rating), 11th in total defense (250.0 yards), 12th in pass defense (154.5 yards), 13th in fourth-down conversions (14.3 percent), 14th in sacks (3.25/game), 18th in scoring defense (16.0 points) and 25th in rushing defense (95.5 yards).

“I think our defense has done a great job,” Wannstedt said. “The position that those guys have been put in, I think we’re in the top 25 in the country in seven of nine (categories). We’re 11th overall, with what we’ve had to deal with the last couple weeks from a field position (standpoint) and 10 turnovers in two games? You’ve got to be kidding me. When we’re trying to be conservative and run the ball. Understand what we’re doing: We’re not dropping back and throwing it 50 times.”

Actually, that’s precisely what Pitt did – likely not intentionally – by completing 31 of 51 passes for 277 yards: Kevan Smith was 3 of 9 for 29 yards, LeSean McCoy was 1 of 1 for 18 and Pat Bostick 27 of 41 for 230. For a coach that desperately wants to run the ball, Pitt had only 23 rushes for 72 yards to UConn’s 46 for 115.

Stats that include playing a 1-AA team and Eastern Michigan are not particularly persuasive. Just as offensive numbers weren’t last fall to start the season.

The online dichotomy of the beat reporters are fascinating to me, as they get more used to it. Gorman is interesting in that he keeps the observations in the blog only and his articles are much more straight reporting — Bostick and McCoy being named starters or the O-line being a noticeable problem (as usual). Zeise has been that way for a while with the difference in tones between his articles and his Q&As (whether weekly or daily).

I have no idea where to start about Saturday’s game other than to say it was one of the worst overall performances by a Pitt team — from an execution and organizational standpoint — that I have witnessed in my six plus seasons covering this team. The first half it really reminded me of some of those teams from the early 1990’s — the Panthers couldn’t make a play, when they did make a play there was a penalty or a turnover or something else bad happened and it seemed like every move that was made blew up in the coaches’ faces. It was a disaster on so many levels.

The article of the day, though, focused on Wannstedt trying to explain that some things were still good.

He said the most encouraging sign was that the Panthers never showed any signs of quitting Saturday at Heinz Field despite being blown out by Connecticut.

“For me to try and sit here and explain the truth and what the facts are, most people don’t want to hear that,” Wannstedt said. “We just have to be successful on the field and then people will start believing in what we are doing. The tape I showed our team yesterday had six plays from the fourth quarter where guys gave effort. We said, with eight minutes to go in that game, the guys were playing as hard as if we were winning by 20.”

Um, well, I can’t say for sure what kind of effort they gave in the fourth since I left in disgust after 3 quarters. I can say that I  wasn’t seeing much effort before that. And I’m even more afraid if they were giving a full effort.
The defiance and a sense of blaming things on the execution not the plan is not a way to make people feel better. It reeks of excuses and it still goes back to the coaching and preparation.

With or without quarterback problems, there’s no way Pitt should look that unprepared in a league game.

That was the theme from Ron Cook as well.

Is Wannstedt and his staff capable of coaching up all those great players and making Pitt a big winner?

I’m starting to have my doubts.

The embarrassing home loss Saturday night to Connecticut did the trick for me. Wannstedt gets a pass on a lot of things this season because Pitt lost its best wide receiver, Derek Kinder, in training camp and its quarterback, Bill Stull, in the first game. But there is no excusing that miserable performance in a 34-14 loss. This is Wannstedt’s third season. The Pitt program should be further along than that.

Actually, he seemed to echo a few of the points I made after the game including never coming from behind when losing at the half.

Well, it’s probably a good thing that Pitt is hitting the road for this week and then a bye. They need the extra practice time and after UConn it’s best not to be playing at home. Hate having to type that, but after last week a home crowd wouldn’t be particularly large and probably easily roused to hostility.

ESPN has played the Mike Gundy tirade as often as they possibly can. Hey, it’s filler so that they don’t need any more original programming; as if showing SportsCenter 15 times a day wasn’t enough. I swear I’ve seen it a hundred times (and you can too). I like what Gundy did — his stock with the entire team is through the roof now. The article in question began like this:

Bobby Reid stood near the team charters last Friday night, using his cell phone, eating his boxed meal.

It would’ve been normal post-game activity but for one thing.

His mother was feeding him chicken.

Which brings us to the quarterback switch-a-roo at Oklahoma State.

The first thought that ran through my head with this was the similarity to Pat Bostick’s situation. A member of the media (ESPN Radio’s Mark Madden) made a comment about a player that delves into his personal life (about the supposed “panic attacks”). Just sayin’.

The game this week is on ESPNU. Pitt would rather be on a “national” channel that a large majority of their fans don’t even get rather than be an ABC/ESPN Regional game that most fans can actually watch. Fans always come first to the Pitt athletic department, no question. Maybe I’ll go to a restaurant and watch the game. Maybe I’ll listen to Hillgrove and Fralic on the radio. Perhaps I’ll actually enjoy my Saturday night and not even watch/listen instead of Pitt ruining another beautiful weekend night for me.

Virginia is 3-1, including a tight win over Georgia Tech last week. In SI’s power rankings, they come in at 43 (with Pitt at 78). Virginia sophomore QB Jameel Sewell has picked it up in the last few games after playing horrendously in the opener, a loss against Wyoming. Since that ugly game, he’s completed 64.3 percent of his passes for 333 yards and three touchdowns.

More importantly, Sewell has contributed in three wins for the Cavaliers (3-1, 3-0 ACC), which includes the most recent victory, a 28-23 decision over Georgia Tech. Against the Yellow Jackets’ vaunted blitz-happy defense, Sewell passed for a 177 yards and guided the team on two lengthy touchdown drives.

The Pitt defense’s ability to get into Sewell’s head early and throw him off for the entire game is a possibility, and a key to a Panthers victory. Too bad he’ll have all day to throw like every other QB we’ve faced this year. For now, we’re 7-point underdogs.