Irish kicking themselves

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Coming off a disappointing loss, Pittsburgh didn't flinch when Notre Dame scored a pair of touchdowns 83 seconds apart to open a 14-point halftime lead.

Pitt scored on its opening drive after halftime and the Panthers' defense held the Irish to 7 yards on 10 plays in the third quarter.

Then the Panthers scored twice in the fourth quarter, tying it each time, before Conor Lee kicked his school-record fifth field goal in the fourth overtime to lead Pitt to a 36-33 victory on Saturday.

"I can't describe the heart our football team has," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "They never came unglued. As many adverse things that happened in the game, turnovers and so forth, nobody ever folded, nobody ever lost their poise, lost their confidence."

For the Irish (5-3) it was their third loss to teams with winning records this season, leaving the Irish 0-9 against quality opponents since beating No. 19 Penn State 41-17 in the second game of the 2006 season.

"To sum it up, we get in overtime, you don't score touchdowns, you know sooner or later something bad can happen," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said.

Neither team could get into the end zone in OT, and Lee won the kicking contest.

Notre Dame's Walker, who started the season by making just 1 of 7 field goals, made his first 4 attempts to run his consecutive made field goal streak to seven. But his 38-yard attempt narrowly missed wide left in the fourth overtime, giving Pitt a chance to kick its way to a win.

Weis said he told Walker afterward not to blame himself, telling him: "I could give 50 plays right now that would have made a difference."

LeSean McCoy, who rushed for a season-high 169 yards on 32 carries, set up the game-winner with an 18-yard run as the sophomore reached 1,000 yards for a second straight season.

Jimmy Clausen threw 3 touchdown passes, including a 6-yard score to Golden Tate with 5:38 left to put the Irish ahead 24-17. He was 23-of-44 passing for 271 yards with no interceptions.

Michael Floyd, who broke the record for catches by a Notre Dame freshman, had 10 catches for 100 yards and Tate had 6 for 111.