Considering Pitt is 2-2 at home this season. They haven’t beaten Louisville since 1983 and currently has a 7-game losing streak to the Cardinals. Plus the Cards just tanked against Syracuse. That has me in an already agitated state about this Saturday’s game. So why not look back one more time on the ND win?

It is kind of nice to read of some other program being plagued with questions and doubts.

But the plain, sobering fact is that over the last two years, Pitt has risen to the occasion with enormously more regularity than Notre Dame, which has fattened its record artificially this season by drumming doormats. Wannstedt’s team beat West Virginia to conclude last season, went on the road and knocked off 10th-ranked South Florida a few weeks ago, and on Saturday came into Notre Dame Stadium and stopped the home team’s 2008 progress absolutely cold.

On the Notre Dame side, this is a disturbing loss because it feels like it essentially wipes out whatever self-discovery was supposed to have come out of a locker room soul-search after the difficult North Carolina loss just three weeks ago. Never again, the world was told then. Never again would the Irish let a victory slip away the way they had that night, a turnover-fest they still had a chance to win at the end.

Against Pitt (6-2), the Irish led 17-3 at halftime and it felt very much like the blowout would be on in the third quarter. Then, through a numerous series of events, Notre Dame (5-3) let yet another team back into the game.

“It’s not a good feeling at all right now,” said wide receiver Golden Tate after Saturday’s loss. “It definitely hurts because we expect more of ourselves.”

Maybe they do, but you probably shouldn’t. Not by now.

Because how much emotion do you really have left to give to a team that never seems to pay it back? When the season began, 7-5 seemed like a reasonable expectation for a young, developing team coming off a dismal 2007. But these games have been winnable, and without a win over Boston College next week or a convincing bowl victory, this is going to have felt very much like a four month-long lost opportunity.

Ahh. The doubts.

And Notre Dame’s apparent attempt to put the game away? Let’s go away from the strength of the team and pound it instead. And the Irish got pounded, three three-and-outs worth of pounding on offense.

If play-calling is to blame for a third-quarter in which the Irish were outgained 92 yards to seven, then the blame starts at the top. And if it was a lack of execution that caused the offense to look oh-so 2007-ish, the responsibility is at least a shared one, with the coaching staff still owning most of that.

You can throw out all kinds of statistics that show how far this team has come since last season and how promising the freshmen and sophomores make 2009 and beyond look. But if you do that, you also have to throw in the bottom line after 45 games, and that is that Weis is 27-18.

The same as Bob Davie after 45 games.

It’s all Ty Willingham’s fault.

On the Pitt side, Paul Zeise had his Good, Bad & Ugly. I was really going to point to the good stuff. Especially regarding the O-line, Mick Williams, Wildcat offense and the second-half coaching. But, I have been waiting for any explanation with Kevan Smith getting tossed out there in the first-half.

I get it, have Kevan Smith come in on first down and throw the ball deep to Baldwin because he has a stronger arm than Bostick. Of course, the pass was so far off the mark it never had a chance, but it was a good thought and that should have been the only play Smith was in the game. But it wasn’t, in fact, as Pitt takes over at the 25 or whatever after a blocked punt and Smith went back in and let him throw it twice? That made no sense, particularly since his one throw was nearly a pick six and his second one he turned the wrong way and got sacked. There was no reason to put him in there at that point in the game.

Those decisions to play quarterback shuffle early probably hurt Pitt’s chances to get at least one touchdown out of that great early field position.

Yeah, sure it looked like some sort of panicked move by the coaches at the time, but apparently that was the plan to put Kevan Smith in there. Unlike Greg Cross, they planned to use him and did.

“We had worked on some things when we were going to use Kevan a little bit,” Bostick said. “And like I said, it is a team game and whatever the coaching staff deems appropriate at the time, I am fine with it. I just try to keep my head in the game and when they called down and said, ‘You have to win this game,’ I said, ‘I’m looking up and have 10 guys around me to help me do it so let’s go do it.’ “

Of course, there’s always LeSean McCoy.

It marked McCoy’s fifth consecutive game with 140 or more yards this season. The sophomore sensation became only the third Pitt rusher – and first since Curvin Richards in 1988-89 – to surpass the 1,000-yard mark in successive seasons. Tony Dorsett had four consecutive from 1973-76.

“Great players do a lot of things that you don’t coach,” Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. “That’s LeSean.”

The performance before a national television audience might have helped McCoy enter another race. If he can continue at this torrid pace, McCoy should be a lock for All-American honors, should become the frontrunner for the Doak Walker Award, presented to the nation’s top running back, and could emerge as a darkhorse candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

Maybe. There’s still Javon Ringer, Knowshon Moreno, Shonn Greene and Kendall Hunter. If Pitt keeps winning, then yes, he’s going to be up there as a favorite.