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Meineke Car Care Bowl Preview: No. 17 Pitt Vs. UNC

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Dec 26, 2009 2:44 pm US/Eastern

Meineke Car Care Bowl Preview: No. 17 Pitt Vs. UNC

By: Casey Shea
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (KDKA) ―

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The Pitt Panthers will take on the North Carolina Tar Heels Saturday afternoon in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte.

The No. 17 ranked Panthers (9-3) had a chance to earn a BCS bowl berth, but fell to Cincinnati in the last game of the regular season 45-44.

Had the Panthers won that game, they would have won the Big East Conference and an automatic bid into the BCS.

The Panthers also lost another close game to the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Backyard Brawl 19-16 in the previous week.

Pitt will have to avoid suffering a letdown after losing those two straight games and seeing their BCS dreams slip away if they are going to beat North Carolina.

UNC (8-4) comes into the matchup having won four of their last five games with wins over No. 13 Virginia Tech and No. 14 Miami.

The lone loss in that stretch came in the final week of the season against rival North Carolina State 28-27.

Quarterback T.J. Yates threw for 1,953 yards with 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions this season.

In their last five games, he has thrown six interceptions and five touchdowns. In only one of those games did Yates not throw a pick.

On the ground, Ryan Houston led the Tar Heels with 630 yards and nine touchdowns. However, he only rushed for over 100 yards once.

On Nov. 7 against Duke, Houston ran for 164 yards, but did not find the endzone in a 19-6 win.

Pitt's defensive line could be the story in this game as Yates has already been sacked 21 times this season.

If the defensive line can get pressure on Yates, he could be forced into throwing a couple more interceptions that would swing the game in Pitt's favor.

Pitt will also have to overcome the crowd as North Carolina will essentially be playing a home game when the game starts at 4:15 p.m.

Local fans who did not make the trip down to Charlotte can watch the game on ESPN.

KDKA's Bob Pompeani predicted Pitt to win the game 36-23 on his Twitter account this afternoon.