Duke loss just the latest version of Pitt stomach punches

Everyone has their moment when they reach a breaking point. And i this was a WWE show, JR would be screaming, "somebody stop the damn match!"

The Pitt fan base can't take much more, can they?

A couple of years ago, I tweeted that Pitt has to lead the nation in losing games that they really should have won and it received a pretty big response, including a few former Panthers jumping on board to retweet the message. Hell, Panther fans even have a name for it now and it's called "Pitting." Whenever there is a close game late and Pitt fans can feel the stomach punch loss coming, social media is full of messages describing this very scenario.

It happened again to the Panthers on Saturday against ranked Duke at home. As soon as Chris Blewitt's kick sailed wide to the left, this just seemed over for Pitt. The Panthers had developed a new way to lose and this time, it was one of Pitt's more reliable players, in kicker Chris Blewitt. Blewitt has been very good and I have no doubt he will bounce back in a big way for the Panthers, but his missed kick just helped to provide another demoralizing loss for Pitt.

And this, of course, was nothing new. Let's travel back to the last several years and let the memories you have of these games flow back to you.  We'll keep this to football, because if I have to revisit the Pitt-Butler hoops game from a few years ago, I won't sleep tonight. I hate to do it, but if I am wallowing around in depression, you have to do it too:

• The big one was the loss to Cincinnati, of course. I was there with my dad in the snow. A big lead squandered, a kickoff return, and a botched extra point with a BCS berth on the line gave the Bearcats a 45-44 victory. I lost my voice and as I ate dinner with my family at a bar later on in the evening, I kept looking at the highlights thinking the outcome would be different and I had missed something. I had not.
• There was also the 2012 Notre Dame game - a triple overtime loss to one of the best teams in the country that season - back in the days when Pitt was a big underdog and Manti Te'o's girlfriend was still a real thing. This one stung because I still felt like the outcome was taken out of Pitt's hands with an awful pass interference call, the Irish getting away with two players with the same jersey number, and the officials missing a blatant punch from Louis Nix III on JP Holtz in overtime. I didn't even mention our missed chip shot field goal or recovering a fumble into the end zone from Notre Dame in OT.
• Also, take your pick from among the defeats against the powerful Connecticut Huskies! Which year do you want? 2004? 2006? How about 2007? Maybe 2010 is more your speed, or you could just go with 2013.
• Let's travel back a little more and look at the 2005 loss to Ohio. Not Ohio State, just plain 'ol Ohio. Not only did Pitt lose, but they did so in bad fashion with a pick-6 to end it in overtime. The Bobcats didn't even need an offensive possession in the extra session.
• There was also Nate Byham waving a towel on the sidelines as the team thought they had put Navy away in overtime in 2007.  They hadn't and lost 48-45 in triple overtime.
• Who could forget 2008 with the Panthers ranked in the top-25 to start the year, only to lose at home to Bowling Green. Yup, I was at that game too.
• 2011 saw Todd Graham. It also saw Pitt blow a rather large lead to Iowa and a tight one to West Virginia where I believe that Tino Sunseri took about 37 sacks in the fourth quarter alone.
• 2012 was Paul Chryst's first year and produced such dandies as Youngstown State and a mind numbing 14-13 game at Syracuse.