Stanford 45, Notre Dame 38. If Charlie Weis is even half as fired as everyone says he is -- as even Weis himself seems to think he is -- then you wouldn't think there was anything that could have happened tonight that could have saved him, or done much for his morale on the way out of the most high profile job in the country. The hay was already in the barn, as they say: There wasn't even all that much pride at stake in beating the Cardinal.

I hope for Weis' sake that was true, because imagining any coach in his unenviable position who still really, deeply cared about salvaging a winning season -- or, worse, his job -- only to watch his team blow a double-digit lead by being outscored 25-7 over the last 24 minutes en route to its fourth straight loss is too depressing, especially when that coach has gone through as much as Weis has over the last month. It would be one thing if the Irish had "quit," or come out flat and been steamrolled like they were in this spot last November, when they closed out a November fade to 6-6 by failing to gain a single first down in a 38-3 bludgeoning at USC. And in fact the Irish defense was bludgeoned, repeatedly, by Mack truck tailback Toby Gerhart, whose All-American persona and thundering style may have vaulted the West Coast's answer to the Hulk into the Heisman lead with a 200-yard, three-touchdown rampage through the ND defense.

But the effort was all there from the offense, which delivered probably its best performance of the season behind a 340-yard, five-touchdown assault by Jimmy Clausen, three of those strikes to Golden Tate, who probably (or should have, anyway) locked up the Biletnikoff Award as the nation's best receiver. These guys -- along with the freakish Michael Floyd, who hauled in Clausen's other two touchdowns -- who Weis recruited and is directly responsible for as de facto offensive coordinator and play-caller, have lived up to every ounce of the hype this year; this is a team averaging almost 29 points and 450 yards in its losses, with myriad late comebacks staving off more early in the year.

Relevance when the sun rises for Sunday Mass in South Bend: By all indications, zero. The numbers that matter are six (the number of losses each of the last two seasons), 27 (the number of losses Weis has accumulated in five seasons), four (the length of the Irish's latest losing streak) and one (the number of wins Weis earned over teams that finished in the final AP top 25). And beginning Sunday, those will all give way to the new big number this week, the countdown of the days until Weis is officially sent packing.