Ray Graham is officially back for the Pitt Panthers.
After Pitt’s 47-17 rout of the Temple Owls at Heinz Field on Saturday, you got the impression for the first time this season that Graham’s knee is completely healthy.
He rushed for two touchdowns and caught another as the Panthers won their second consecutive game, winning their first Big East Conference game of the season in the process.
The senior running back finished with 180 yards of total offense — 109 rushing and 71 receiving — as the Panthers finally broke through with a 528 yard performance, the third time this season that the Panthers’ offense has exceeded the 500 yard mark.
Rushel Shell added 79 yards rushing and a score for Pitt (4-4, 1-3) and quarterback Tino Sunseri passed for 321 yards and three scores while the defense kept Temple (3-4, 2-2) under wraps until the game was well in hand.
First year Pitt head coach Paul Chryst was looking for a statement win and he got his first one as Pitt’s head coach.
Pitt jumped ahead in the first quarter when Shell scored from a yard out and then made it a 14-0 game when freshman tight end J.P. Holtz caught his first career touchdown pass to cap an impressive six-play, 90-yard drive.
Temple cut it to a 14-7 game when Cody Booth caught a nine-yard touchdown pass from Chris Coyer, but after that it was all Panthers.
Graham scored twice in a 17-point second quarter, a one-yard run and four-yard pass from Sunseri to send the Panthers into the locker room with a 31-7 halftime lead.
The Owls got as close as 34-17 after the third quarter, but the Panthers tacked on two insurance scores in the fourth- a two-yard run for Graham and a 58-yard touchdown pass from Sunseri to Devin Street.
Graham recorded his sixth game with 100-plus rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns, which tied him with Dion Lewis and LeSean McCoy for most games with 100+ rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns by a Panther since 2000.
Speaking of McCoy, Graham passed the former Pitt star to move into fifth on the Panthers’ all-time rushing list and the senior remains only a handful of yards behind Lewis who he will pass next week when Pitt travels to South Bend to take on Notre Dame.
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