PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s meltdown wasn’t nearly as dramatic this time.

That didn’t make it any less painful.

The Panthers, hoping to cap an eventful week with an exclamation mark instead ended it with a thud in a 15-12 loss to Notre Dame. A week after letting a 21-point lead slip away against Iowa, Pitt let the Fighting Irish escape on Tommy Rees’ touchdown pass to Tyler Eifert with less than 7 minutes to go.

“We’re so close, we can touch it,” Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri said. “But that’s the thing that’s so frustrating right now. We feel like we are inches away from really busting this open and really being in that up-tempo offense and understanding it and really being able to put points on the board.”

Not quite yet.

Sunseri completed 22 of 30 passes but only managed 165 yards and was sacked five times, including twice on Pitt’s final drive to end a late scoring threat.

“I just need to get rid of the ball,” Sunseri said. “I need to make sure I’m seeing everything and need to make sure that I’m putting the ball on people, and if they’re not open I have to throw it away.”

Ray Graham ran for 89 yards and added 43 yards receiving for Pitt, but the Panthers could do little else. Sunseri, who has struggled getting the ball downfield, didn’t complete a pass longer than 18 yards.

“We had too many negative plays,” Pittsburgh coach Todd Graham said.

Too many to beat the Irish (2-2) and quell talk about the program’s announced move from the Big East to the ACC being a distraction.

Graham called the move to the ACC “a step up” and believes the Panthers can be competitive the moment they arrive.

Good thing they have three seasons to iron out the kinks. Graham has spent the last nine months putting Pitt through an intense makeover. He preaches speed and precision. The Panthers lacked both at critical times against the Irish.

“We know that we left some plays out there, and we can’t continue to do that,” said wide receiver Mike Shanahan. “We need to convert all the situations when we get a chance in the red zone, short-yardage, things like that. We need to finish these games.”

Pitt won’t have a lot of time to figure it out. The Panthers open the Big East portion of their schedule on Thursday against No. 18 South Florida.

“We still can win the conference and go to a BCS bowl game, and that’s been our goal from the beginning,” Shanahan said.

A victory over the Irish certainly would have helped the resume though.

Pitt appeared to be on the verge through three quarters, shutting down Notre Dame’s high-powered offense and forcing a pair of key turnovers.

“I’m not saying they’re not a good team, because they are,” Pitt defensive tackle Chas Alecxih said. “However, we hammered them pretty good on defense, for the most part.”

Just not when it really mattered.