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Nov. 25, 2006

Final Stats |  Photo Gallery 

PITTSBURGH (AP) -Brian Brohm threw four touchdown passes against a Pitt defense that again showed little resistance and No. 8 Louisville beat the Panthers 48-24 on Saturday to take another step toward a Big East title.

If Louisville (10-1, 5-1 in Big East) defeats Connecticut next Saturday and No. 15 Rutgers loses at No. 7 West Virginia, the Cardinals will represent the Big East in a BCS bowl. Rutgers (10-1, 5-1) gets the bid if it wins, since the Scarlet Knights dealt Louisville its only loss, 28-25, on Nov. 9.

The Cardinals played like a team ready to move on to a major bowl, outscoring Pitt 34-3 during one stretch after briefly falling behind 14-7 in the first quarter.

Brohm, often standing in the pocket as long as he wanted against a nonexistent pass rush, threw scoring passes of 42 yards to Mario Urrutia, 9 to Gary Barnidge, 1 to Scott Kuhn and 75 to Harry Douglas. Brohm finished 21-for-29 for 337 yards. Urrutia caught seven passes for 144 yards.

Pitt (6-6, 2-5) lost its fifth in a row after winning six of its first seven and, while bowl-eligible, likely won't find a bowl willing to take a team that hasn't won since Oct. 13 and trails five teams in the Big East standings. The season-ending slide is Pitt's longest since it lost its final seven in 1998 to finish 2-9.

The Panthers surrendered 139 points in their final three losses: 48 to Louisville, 45 to West Virginia and 46 to Connecticut.

Pitt tried something different to shake itself out of its second-half slump, wearing all gold uniforms. The Panthers normally wear blue or white jerseys atop gold pants. There is no record of Pitt wearing such a color scheme before, but the new uniforms didn't cover up an inadequate defense that gave up 1,140 yards in its final two games - 641 to West Virginia and 499 to Louisville.