Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: PITTSBURGH ser i has benef i ted from a change back to the pro-style offense, throwing for 1,878 yards and 10 touch- downs. He has com- pleted nearly 68.9 per- cent of his passes with just two intercep- tions. In 2011, the 6-2, 215-pound Steel City native had 11 intercep- tions compared to 10 touchdowns. "He ' s be ing asked to do a lot less than he was last season," Wer- ner explained. "Last year, Gra- ham's offense re- lied a lot on Tino reading the play as it's happening or im- mediately before the snap. Whereas this year, he's able to get comfort- able, rely on the running game and maybe take a couple shots downfield on play action." The Panthers have two running backs averag- ing more than 60 yards per game in senior Ray Graham (5-9, 190) and freshman Rushel Shell (6-0, 215). Graham, who missed the final five games last season due to an ACL injury, is rushing for 4.5 yards per carry and has a team-high five rushing scores, and Shell has three touch- downs while averaging 4.8 yards per carry. Graham is still learn- ing to trust his surgically Dec. 1 at South Florida (ABC/ESPN) TBA Nov. 3 at Notre Dame (NBC) Nov. 9 at Connecticut (ESPN2) Nov. 24 Rutgers Oct. 13 Louisville (ESPNU) Oct. 20 at Buffalo Oct. 27 Temple repaired knee, while Shell has endured back problems this season. "Knowing what Paul Sept. 15 Virginia Tech (ESPNU) W, 35-17 Sept. 22 Gardner-Webb Oct. 5 Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Sept. 1 Youngstown State Sept. 6 at Cincinnati* (ESPN) 2012 PITTSBURGH SCHEDULE at Syracuse (ESPN) L, 31-17 L, 34-10 W, 55-10 L, 14-13 L, 45-35 W, 20-6 W, 47-17 3:30 p.m. 8 p.m. TBA getting a consistent ef- fort from the offensive backfield in key situ- ations, which cost the Panthers in losses to Big East foes Syracuse and Louisville earlier this month. The offen- sive line, which includes two new starters and zero depth, has played a role in up-and- down pe r for - mances. "They real ly The problem has been Chryst did at Wisconsin, it's going to be reliant on the run and run heavy," Werner said. "Sunseri just hasn't made any crippling mistakes. He has only two intercep- tions on the season and hasn't thrown any since the Virginia Tech game, and the one he threw in that game was after the game had already been decided." were decided by a total of 11 points. "It's almost hard to figure at this point because you look at what they did against Virginia Tech — and Vir- ginia Tech has obviously had its share of struggles this season, and that win maybe doesn't look as good as it did at the time — but [Pitt] still racked up over 200 rushing yards against, at the very least, an above-average BCS conference defense. "To not be able to get anything going against weren't able to get any kind of rushing game going," Wer- ner said of Pitt's 120 combined yards on the ground in those two games, which