Pittsburgh shuts down lifeless Orange 30-7

PITTSBURGH -- As the close losses kept mounting, Pittsburgh coach Paul Chryst kept preaching. Stay the course, Chryst told his frustrated team. Focus on the next game, not the whole season. Do the little things well enough and the big things take care of themselves. Those two worldviews will collide next weekend after the Panthers kept their chances for a bowl game alive with a 30-7 win over Syracuse on Saturday. Pitt (5-6, 3-4) now needs to upset Miami in South Florida a couple days after Thanksgiving to assure the program of a seventh straight postseason trip. "Right now, it's just like a playoff," linebacker Anthony Gonzalez said. One played far away from the college football playoff committee but no less important to a program desperately searching for traction. For four dominant quarters Pitt found some against the lifeless Orange.