PITTSBURGH — Maybe No. 8 Pitt will shake off the disappointment of its first Backyard Brawl loss to West Virginia since 2006, beat No. 5 Cincinnati, win the Big East Conference and play in a BCS bowl.

Maybe the Panthers’ offense will find itself again after Bill Stull, an efficient playmaker all season, looked way too much like the not-so-confident and ineffective quarterback he was late last season

Maybe a loss that will drop the Panthers out of the top 10 and will make them less attractive to a major bowl even if they land in the BCS won’t hurt as badly if they end Cincinnati’s perfect season.

Maybe. And that’s a big maybe.

A big loss before the Panthers’ biggest regular season game in decades means they could be asking themselves “What if ...” after the season ends, just as they have so many times since their top-10 run of the late 1970s and early 1980s ended.

Whenever the Panthers seem ready to turn the corner and return to being the power player they long were, something bad seems to happen.

Coach Dave Wannstedt’s first few teams don’t meet expectations. Larry Fitzgerald is college football’s most dynamic talent, yet the Panthers find a way to lose four times during his final season. The program sags under Paul Hackett, and even worse during Johnny Majors’ comeback. Dan Marino’s senior season is nothing like his junior year.

This time, something bad was West Virginia, a rival that has tormented Pitt repeatedly during a 102-game series in which the unexpected is commonplace and rankings and records truly mean nothing.

The Mountaineers’ last-play 19-16 victory in Morgantown on Friday night offered some payback for Pitt’s stunning upset of the then-No. 2 West Virginia in 2007. It also takes some of the gloss off what becomes the first championship game in the 18 years the Big East has played football.

“Coach told us not to dwell on this one too much, but it’s still tough,” defensive end Greg Romeus said. “And it hurts.”

Wannstedt doesn’t doubt his players will be ready Saturday for Cincinnati (11-0, 6-0 in Big East), which yielded 102 points and 1,338 yards in beating Connecticut (47-45), West Virginia (24-21) and Illinois (49-36) in its last three games.

However, Wannstedt also said they wouldn’t be thinking about Cincinnati when they were preparing for West Virginia, only to say afterward his players weren’t ready.

Wannstedt was asked if Pitt could have a “nice” season by beating Cincinnati.

“Are you kidding me, a nice season?” Wannstedt said. “If we can win the Big East championship, it would be more than nice. We’ve got a lot of character, and as I said earlier every game takes on a special meaning of its own. This was the Pitt-West Virginia rivalry game. At the beginning of the season, we talked about winning the Big East championship. We can accomplish that next week, so we’ll turn the page on this week fast.”

The Panthers (9-2, 5-1) couldn’t have turned that page any faster, huddling for a team meeting on Saturday — on what was supposed to be a day off — only 10 hours after returning to Pittsburgh.

“We told everyone that we’re coming in and we’re going to get going on Cincinnati,” linebacker Adam Gunn said. “Our goal this year is to win the Big East championship, and that’s still a possibility for us. ... All us senior captains spoke up and said that we wanted to win the Backyard Brawl, but now it’s time to win the Big East.”

Still, even if Pitt wins it, 10-2 won’t be the same as 11-1.

What if Stull hadn’t thrown two interceptions, half as many as he had all season? What if Noel Devine hadn’t needed a single block to break free on an 88-yard touchdown run? What if Wannstedt hadn’t gambled on a 53-yard field goal try that seemed certain to fail? What if West Virginia hadn’t gained the last inch or two needed for a critical first down on the decisive drive that ended with Tyler Bitancurt’s fourth field goal, a 43-yarder?

“This is tough, and it’s going to be tough,” said Stull, who didn’t complete three consecutive passes until Pitt’s final drive. “Just considering the type of game this was, the Backyard Brawl, the last one for our seniors to be part of. ... It hurts.”

Might for a very long time, too.