SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's accomplished footballers spent most of Thursday sequestered at the Marriott University Park, I guess because God forbid someone might wander into a library or a physics lab on the day of the nationally televised home opener against Pitt.

But don't think for a second that the Utes have no particular interest in intellectual pursuits. After all, they figured out how to turn the football over to Dave Wannstedt's Panthers three times in the first half and still lead by a touchdown at the intermission.

They figured out how to throw a blanket over 6-5 stud receiver Jon Baldwin with an inexperienced secondary for most of the night.

They figured out how to spring 5-7, 170-pound receiver Jereme Brooks and DeVonte Christopher into the Pitt secondary like a laughing rabbits amid lumbering bloodhounds.

Ultimately, Utah's accumulated intelligence translated into still another immutable truth, namely the formula by which it beats Big East teams with a reliable percussive rhythm. With last night's 27-24 overtime dismissal of the promising-turned-ponderous Panthers, Utah is now 8-0 against the Big East.

Apparently, the Utes haven't won 18 in a row at home for nothin'.

But for all of that accumulated reasoning, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham still nearly outsmarted himself, calling time out for a second consecutive time on a Pitt field goal attempt, this before Panthers placekicker Dan Hutchins missed the field goal that would have tied it. Given a third kick, Hutchins sent the game to overtime as the clock expired.

That bit of low comedy was Pitt's last highlight. Tino Sunseri threw an interception on the first play of overtime, and the respected Panther defense looked utterly toothless while the Utes banged away with six consecutive running to set up a winning field goal.

That was fairly shocking, but it wasn't remotely surprising that Utah's focus would be Dion Lewis, the sensational Panther sophomore whose 1,799 rushing yards last fall eclipsed everything that preceded it including the freshman numbers of The Great Dorsett. Thus with Utah's veteran defensive line matched against Pitt's callow interior, Lewis found the footing perilous at best.

Less anticipated was the corrosive chemistry Utah's defense put on Baldwin, Pitt's conspicuous Biletnikoff Award candidate. This despite a defense that had only one returning starter among the linebackers and secondary, junior Brandon Burton.

Baldwin wore Burton like a hair shirt from the moment both walked onto the surface at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and not even when Pitt drove inside the 10 with a chance to tie the game early in the fourth quarter could Baldwin free himself for so much as an attempt at what should be a virtually unstoppable fade pattern.

Instead, Pitt settled for another second-half field goal as Baldwin watched from the sideline. At that point, with fewer than 10 minutes to play, Baldwin had two catches for eight yards.

The next thing he saw from there was Christopher, a sophomore wideout, taking Jordan Wynn's simple slant toss 61 yards through a cavernous Pitt pass defense to the touchdown that made it 24-13 with less than eight minutes to go.

Wasn't that the kind of thing Baldwin was supposed be doing?

Well, yeah. So guess what. He actually started doing it.

First he beat Burton for 19 yards on a deep out, then he faked Burton out of his underarmor and broke loose down the right sideline for a laughably easy 44-yard touchdown that vaulted Pitt back into the game with 7:11 left. Then he caught the two-point conversion pass and it was 24-21.

Anything approaching this kind of performance over say, the game's first two-and-a-half hours, and the start of Pitt's 2010 football season might have a little different feeling this morning.

Not that any of Pitt's receivers came close to distinguishing themselves, and not that Sunseri's first start as Pitt's quarterback was anything like electrifying. But of Baldwin much more is expected.

If you didn't know better, you would almost have thought Pitt had lost confidence in him in the final minutes of regulation, because on third-and-10 from the Utah 14 with 32 seconds left, the Panthers sent Lewis left from the right hash for the yard that gave the Heisman candidate 75 yards on 25 carries, or about half what the Heisman requires.

From that right hash, Pitt eschewed isolating Baldwin on Burton one more time, even though he'd finally turned the momentum his way, even though a lot of people would have taken their chances with a jump ball against the shaken Burton in the open field.

Wannstedt said this week that the thin Rocky Mountain air would not be a problem for his Panthers. It wasn't. The two turnovers, 12 penalties, jittery special teams, balky offense, and squishy defense, however, those were problems.

Gene Collier's "Two-Minute Warning" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.