Pitt's defense was supposed to be among the best in the country this season, but the Panthers have provided only a glimpse of the dominance they believed they were capable of.

The Panthers have been very good at times -- in the fourth quarter of a 21-20 win against Iowa and in the second half in a 27-16 win against Buffalo -- but they've also had some lapses and have given up some big plays.

Pitt (2-1) is giving up an average of 21 points and 321 yards per game but has 11 sacks and allowed 3.5 yards per rushing attempt.

Panthers defensive coordinator Phil Bennett said that after reviewing the first three weeks, he is confident that the defense is improving. He said he hopes the Panthers will continue to improve overall and that they'll eliminate some of the mistakes that have led to big plays.

"Our focus has been on us, and how we can get better," Bennett said. "I thought we finished [the Iowa] game, and there were so many things that you could see, and one is that we are just one or two plays in the game away from a really, really fine game. We just need to keep striving for perfection in order to do that.

"At this point, it really doesn't matter who we play. We need to focus on the little things we can do better, that is more important -- taking care of us and not our opponent."

Bennett said that on the three biggest plays the Panthers gave up against Iowa, one occurred when Pitt only had 10 defenders on the field because of a mix-up, another was a missed assignment and the final one was good coverage by Pitt cornerback Jovani Chappel and simply a case where a receiver made a great play.

The Panthers will play at Syracuse tomorrow, and, although the Orange (1-3) have struggled this season, they do have a fairly strong running game, which has averaged 165 yards per game and 4.7 per carry.

Syracuse has three solid running backs in Curtis Brinkley, Delone Carter and Doug Hogue. Carter's status is uncertain because of a hamstring injury.

Bennett said stopping the ground attack is going to be a key for the Panthers. Pitt has allowed only 115 yards per game rushing, but Iowa ran for 158 yards Saturday.

"[Syracuse has] three very good backs," Bennett said. "All of them are good football players, and they are the No. 1 red-zone offense in the [Big East Conference]. I think our focus will be, like last week [against Iowa to] work to get them into second-and-long and third-and-long."

Syracuse's starting quarterback, senior Cam Dantley -- the son of former NBA star Adrian Dantley, has the ability to hurt teams both running and passing, though he's much more of a passer than a scrambler.

"You can tell he has some savvy," Bennett said. "He was 14 for 17 last week and he has a little bit of moxie to him. He is not a great runner. They don't do a lot of bootlegs with him, but he has a savvy to make plays. I think they will do some things to get him to run, but it isn't like they have Donovan McNabb back there.

"And even though they are 1-3, the three teams they've lost to are a combined 10-2, so sometimes the record can be very deceiving."