It's Thursday night, with a game coming up in barely 36 hours that could make our season... and nobody seems to be talking about it.

I have a pretty good feeling about this game. I admit I'm not much of a football analyst, but here's my take.

I've been impressed with our run defense; I think the Cards will effectively shut down the Panthers' rushing game. Our secondary will likely get burned for a big play or three, but we'll get a couple of sacks and pressure the Pitt QB into a few mistakes, maybe an INT.

Our offense, when it's clicking, is impressive. Bilal "the Face" Powell is going to get his yards. Froman is steadily maturing, and seems to have learned to check off his receivers instead of sticking with Plan A on every pass. Bilal is such a threat, it makes play-action passes much more effective. Sanford will unveil some trickeration (did I really say that word?) at some point. We will move the ball all afternoon.

This is a Pitt team that got blown out by Notre Dame - and Notre Dame is, to put it kindly, not very good this year. Yet the Panthers find themselves on top of the Big East, and I think they may be overloooking us. Meanwhile, in a game whose outcome most people seem to think is a foregone conclusion, the Cardinals have everything to win and nothing to lose. If we can get the penalties under control, and our receivers can catch the damned ball, we can hang with these guys. And if we can stay with them through three quarters, I think we have a shot in the fourth. I'm calling it for the Cards, 34-31.

Or am I dreaming?