Pitt plays at Louisville today in a game that could turn into a shootout, mostly because that's the way the Cardinals like it.

Louisville (4-4, 1-2 Big East) has played eight games and in five of them, the Cardinals and their opponents have combined to score more than 70 points.

Of course, there are two reasons for that -- Louisville's offense is one of the best in Division I-A and the Cardinals' defense has struggled for most of the season.

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Scouting Report

• Matchup: Pitt (3-4, 1-1 in the Big East) vs. Louisville (4-4, 1-2), noon today, Papa John's Stadium, Louisville, Ky. Louisville is favored by 9 1/2.
• TV/radio: WTAE-TV (Channel 4); WWSW-FM (94.5) and WBGG-AM (Fox Sports Radio 970).
• Pitt: Has yet to win on the road this year. The Panthers are 3-9 in road games under Dave Wannstedt. ... Has not won at Louisville since 1983. In that game, John Congemi threw three touchdown passes to lead the Panthers to a 55-10 rout of the Cardinals.
• Louisville: Quarterback Brian Brohm, who was touted as a Heisman Trophy candidate before the season, has been spectacular. He has completed 230 of 338 passes (68 percent) for 2,993 yards with 24 touchdowns and only six interceptions.
• Hidden Stat: Pitt freshman quarterback Pat Bostick has completed 56 of 88 passes (64 percent) for 609 yards, 3 TDs and three interceptions in his three starts.Game

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But if Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt has his druthers, he would rather the game not turn into a track meet because he knows his team probably isn't equipped to win that kind of a contest. The Panthers (3-4, 1-1) are currently only using about 40 percent of their offense because quarterback Pat Bostick is a freshman and coaches have been slow to give him too much too soon.

Still, Wannstedt believes that the Panthers are going to have to let Bostick do some more things in order to generate more points because he knows that regardless of how well the Panthers play defense, the Cardinals offense is going to score.

"All you have to do is put in the tape on them [Louisville] and these guys, the last two years, we couldn't slow them down," Wannstedt said. "Games were close for awhile, but in the end we couldn't hold up physically, we couldn't hold up on the scoreboard. I don't think that defensively, we have many true freshmen that are going to be involved in the action; everyone else has been a part of this thing for the past few years so that's a good thing."

The leader of Louisville's offense is quarterback Brian Brohm, who has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards, 24 touchdowns and only six interceptions. But the Cardinals have two NFL-caliber receivers in Harry Douglas (49 receptions, 816 yards) and Mario Urrutia (27 receptions, 399 yards), and an excellent rushing attack led by tailback Anthony Allen (78.9 yards per game, 5.1 yards per carry).

Wannstedt has talked about trying to control the clock and running the football to keep Brohm and company off the field, and it appears the Panthers will have a chance to do that against the Cardinals defense. Louisville has given up 159.8 yards rushing per game this year and has allowed opponents to gain 4.6 yards per carry.

Pitt, meanwhile, has suddenly found a running game thanks to the emergence of freshman tailback LeSean McCoy and the resurgence of junior tailback LaRod Stephens-Howling. The two rushed for a total of 237 yards a week ago when the Panthers knocked off Cincinnati. The Panthers have rushed for at least 200 yards in each of the past two games.

Beyond the strategy and matchup, however, this is a very big game for the Panthers because they still hope they can become bowl-eligible. To do that, Pitt needs to win three of its final five games and that means the margin for error is small, especially considering that the Panthers still have to play conference heavyweights South Florida, Rutgers and West Virginia.

Pitt is also still alive in the race for the Big East Conference championship, though that would require them to run the table and even then, they would need some help in terms of teams beating Connecticut. The Huskies are undefeated in the Big East and already have beaten Pitt, so Connecticut would need to lose twice for Pitt to control its own destiny.

Wannstedt believes the win against the Bearcats has given his team confidence going into the stretch and, with the team now into conference games, they have plenty to play for.

"You have to eliminate the overall record, otherwise it will pull you down," Wannstedt said. "You put your focus in on one game at a time. We do have all Big East games and we're playing the best teams in the conference. So it gives us a chance to go out and make a name for ourselves every week. "