-Stop Grothe and the passing attack.
We get a “C” here, because he did throw for almost 350 on us, but we did have 2 picks and shut him down in the final 2 USF offensive series.

-Establish a running game.

Another “C” 116 yards isn’t a Sportscenter highlight, but Victor broke a couple of nice ones, and the stats look much better than USF’s 8 total yards on the ground.

-Hold on late with a lead

A “B” here, because although USF regained the lead early in the 4th quarter, we marched back to wrestle it away from them, and then shut them down offensively in the final 7 minutes.

-Contain George Selvie

Another “B” here. He got to us early with a couple of sacks and tackles for losses, but we contained him pretty well the final 3 quarters.

How does all this play out for the rest of the season? Let’s look at it one game at a time. Syracuse should be another win for us. It may not be the romp a lot of fans were predicting Saturday night, because it is there, they’re playing for pride and a spoiler tag and let’s not forget last year’s embarrasment against them. Still, we get out of there with a “W”.
Pitt is much tougher to judge. Will we see the Panthers that folded against Rutgers Saturday or the 5-2 Panthers that looked like a contender earlier in the year? The Panthers are dangerous with their running game, but their pass defense looks pretty weak. IF we can win it up there, it’ll be a close one, and I expect a slew of points to be displayed at Heinz.
Cincy is another of those mystery teams. They couldn’t stop UConn and Donald Brown Saturday, and have no apparant running game of their own, but they’re 5-2 and can’t be overlooked. If we can squeak by them, we’re an unbelievable 8-2. How many of you would have predicted that in the preseason?
West Virginia has started to emerge from their shell, and has to be considered the toughest game left on the schedule. The Auburn beatdown was plain nasty, and if they can keep Pat White healthy for this one, it’ll be a slugfest in Papa John’s. Let’s see how they do at UConn Saturday..it’ll give us an idea on how they cope with an excellent tailback and a better than average defense.
Ending the year at Rutgers isn’t excactly the best way for us to complete this season, they’re another team that’s beginning to change from caterpillar to butterfly. Mike Teel had a career game against Pitt, and all he has to do is watch how Grothe had success against us to duplicate that effort. Their fans will want this one bad, and the Cards will need a big defensive effort and both the running and passing game performing at full strength to steal one on the road.

8-4. It’s possible. 9-3 is attainable. 7-5 would be a bit disappoining, but most likely would get us to a bowl. A world of challenges await in the final five of the year, and if we can continue to build on the momentum of the Middle Tennessee and USF wins, this Cardinal Express could steamroll its way into a top 1 or 2 finish in the Big East. Anybody want a “do-over” against UConn granted?