CBS Sportsline had an extensive article on the Pittsburgh woes today, but they seem to have left the most important point out of their article. Their key finding was hidden on page two of their post:

What most concerns Pitt followers is the breakdown of what always was its strongest asset during the Harris days: an innovative, well-executed and tough-to-stop passing game. [Tyler] Palko, now in former Ravens offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh's system, doesn't resemble the player he was a year ago, when he became the first Pitt sophomore quarterback to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season.

If you do a little research, you shouldn't be shocked that Palko is looking terrible in the Cavanaugh offense because no one has ever looked good in his offense. In his eight seasons as offensive coordinator in the NFL, his offenses have finished in the top half of the league only once.

That's right, once. With the Bears (who also had Wannstedt as coach at the time), his offense finished 17th and 21st. With Baltimore, a team that didn't need much offense to succeed with their stellar defense, he finished 22nd, 16th, 14th(!), 26th, 21st, and finally 31st last year. Thirty-first out of 32 NFL teams doesn't garner a lot of respect in someone as an offensive coordinator (though I guess someone has to finish next to last).

I know that Wannstedt wanted to bring smash mouth football back to Pittsburgh, but trying to transform an offense that worked so well behind its passing game may have been a mistake. If you look closer into Cavanaugh's numbers, you can see that his two best season were achieved behind a strong running game, including one year when Jamal Lewis finished tops in the league in rushing. The last two seasons, his quarterbacks have finished dead last in total yardage. So shouldn't someone answer the question why this guy is the coordinator when you had a potential dark horse Heisman candidate at quarterback and your best running backs on the team are a senior who has never gained more than 600 yards in a season and a freshman?

Sorry, Pittsburgh. Bringing home your alumni to coach may have seemed like a great idea, but maybe next time you should do some more research before hiring.