Turnovers help Pitt rip Louisville to clinch bowl spot, winning year

November 9, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

The No. 25 Panthers turned four turnovers into scores for their seventh victory.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Finally, Pittsburgh played at home the way a Top 25 team is supposed to perform with its schedule winding down, its conference race undecided and much left to accomplish in a still-promising season.

Wide receiver Aundre Wright ran 7 yards for his first college touchdown after having a long scoring run called back by a holding penalty and the No. 25 Panthers turned four of Louisville’s five turnovers into scores while routing the Cardinals 41-7 on Saturday.

The Panthers (7-2, 3-1 Big East) assured themselves of their first bowl bid and winning season in coach Dave Wannstedt’s four years, using Louisville’s numerous mistakes — including two fumbled punts — to overcome LeSean McCoy’s career-low 39 yards rushing.

“That’s awesome,” guard C.J. Davis said of Pitt’s first bowl trip since 2004. “This is my first one, this is the first one for most of us.”

Pitt, still in the running for the Big East title, ended a seven-game losing streak to Louisville (5-4, 1-3) that dated to 1983 and included four losses in Pittsburgh. The Panthers followed up their 36-33, four-overtime win at Notre Dame with a strong game, something they couldn’t do while losing to Bowling Green and Rutgers at home after previously moving into the Top 25.

“It really hasn’t been too good for us, being a Top 25 team, but, hey, we finally got a good game, a blowout game and everybody’s feeling happy,” wide receiver Oderick Turner said. “It shows we have more than just a running game.”

McCoy ran 11 yards for a touchdown on a direct snap in the fourth quarter to make it 27-7, but was in negative yardage at one point in the second half after gaining at least 142 yards in each of his previous five games. The sophomore’s career low had been 55 yards against South Florida last season.

“You could tell their mindset, they came in thinking, ’We’re not going to let LeSean do anything.’ And they did that,” McCoy said. “We kind of figured they’d do that that, but we had so many things to try to get around that, with all the reverses and everything.”

Defensively, the Panthers didn’t resemble the team that was beaten 54-34 by Rutgers in its last home game and had allowed 86 points in its last two, creating three touchdowns with fumbles and intercepting two passes, one for a touchdown.

“When you turn the ball over on special teams like that, it can be very difficult to recover from,” Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe said.