Aaron Berry took a lot of criticism early in the season. The corner was another player who fell far short of expectations in 2008. Considering his doghouse status in the spring, he had little goodwill banked. He also struggled early in the season and then got injured in the UConn game and had to miss the Rutgers game.

Oddly, since coming back he’s been solid. Put it this way: the complaints have been very, very limited. He may not be the shut-down corner that Revis was, but he had been doing the job in a way that has reminded me of Shawntae Spencer.

Berry had been doing a solid job on Tate in the ND game, but went out with a shoulder injury (again) in the second half. Ricky Gary came in and did decently in relief, but he came out as well with an injury. After the Buddy Jackson flag fest from the 4th quarter of the Syracuse game, the coaches were left putting in Antwuan Reed, who was no match for Tate. That as much as anything was a major reason why the ND offense seemed to wake up in the 4th quarter.

It wasn’t surprising to see nothing from the national and ND media perspective. I mean, in part the Domers have a script in their losses where they stumble along for the first 3 quarters and stage a furious comeback in the 4th that succeed (Michigan State) or fall short (USC and Navy). So that was familiar.

Pitt’s defense hadn’t face a team ranked higher in total offense than 30th (N.C, State) in the 120-team Football Bowl Subdivision and more than half of the offenses they clashed with ranked below 70th. N.C. State was also the only top 30 passing offense Pitt had had to deal with.

The Irish came in fifth in total offense and sixth in passing offense. But they took too long to find any kind of offensive rhythm against the Panthers, and finished with a season-low 349 total yards.

Clausen’s final numbers weren’t Heisman-esque (27-of-42 for 283 yards, 1 TD and one interception), but he and Tate (9 receptions, 113 yards) were all that kept the Panthers from turning the Irish into Youngstown State. He quietly eclipsed the 3,000-yard passing mark for the second straight season, something only Brady Quinn has done previously in Notre Dame history.

I was mildly surprised not to see anything in the local write-ups. What makes it surprising is that Zeise did acknowledge how big it was in his blog notes.

Pitt made it through for the most part healthy except for two key injuries which likely changed the outcome of the game, or at least the final score. First Aaron Berry went down with a shoulder injury (and did not return) and then Ricky Gary went down with an undisclosed injury and as a result, Pitt had to finish the game with only one healthy experienced corner and the Irish clealry took advantage of it. Gary is OK but Wannstedt said he’s not sure what is going on with Berry’s shoulder and won’t know until today. Berry can miss the WVU game – the Mountaineers don’t pass that much anyway – but Pitt absolutely needs him to have a chance to beat Cincinnati.

No word on Gary’s injury but according to Coach Wannstedt, Berry is “day-to-day.”

“He’s day to day,” Wannstedt said. “This is a good week to have a bye for guys like Aaron. He was in here [Sunday] and did fine, though he is sore. It was not a season-ending injury or anything like that, so he’s just going to work through it.

“[Berry’s injury] provided a learning experience [for several young defensive backs who had to fill in] and they did fine against probably the best one-two combination of receivers in the country. And [safety] Jarred Holley has been a pleasant addition.”

Yes, Pitt learned that they need Berry to get healthy.