Unless you were one of the announced 40,000 people at Heinz Field or tuned into the ESPN3 stream on Saturday afternoon, you probably didn't see much of the Pittsburgh-Delaware game yesterday. And for that, you should be down on your knees thanking your divine maker.
The Panthers fried the Blue Hens, 62-0. The win was Pitt's biggest since 1977, and largest season-opening margin since 1913, and the loss was Delaware's worst in 93 years. The stats were worse than that.
Paul Chryst's team outgained Delaware, 501-57. That's a yards per play difference of 5.918 yards. Every snap. The Panthers' 62 points tied for the third-most points of any club on Saturday, while also registered one of the six shutouts thus far of Week 1. Pittsburgh achieved 28 first downs, to Delaware's five. Pittsburgh converted seven of nine third down attempts, Delaware converted one of 11.
Let's look at the passing stats:
When accounting for interception return yards, Delaware's passing game achieved a grand total of 1 yard in 16 attempts. That's 2.25 inches per attempt. It's longest completion of the afternoon was for seven yards.
But that's okay, because:
You'll notice that Delaware had greater success on the ground, notching a long run of eight yards. Meanwhile, 26 of Pittsburgh's 70 snaps (37 percent) went for eight yards or more.
Shall we look at the drive chart? Let's look at the drive chart.
Delaware had one possession of its first 11 last more than three plays, and it ended six yards behind where it started.
"It was good to get a win," Chryst said after the game.
Yes, coach, it was.