Notre Dame came out with a few mistakes offensively then put some adversity behind them to bury the Pitt Panthers on Saturday afternoon in South Bend. The win moves the Irish to 7-2 in Marcus Freeman’s second season with the program while lowly Pittsburgh falls down to 2-6 with top 10 ranked Florida State headed to the Steel City next weekend.
Here’s a recap of Notre Dame’s blowout win.
Stats Package
| STAT | IRISH | PITT |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 7 |
| Plays | 65 | 51 |
| Total Yards | 535 | 255 |
| Yards Per Play | 8.2 | 5.0 |
| Conversions | 5/10 | 1/10 |
| Completions | 24 | 16 |
| Yards/Attempt | 11.8 | 6.3 |
| Rushes | 33 | 19 |
| Rushing Success | 43.3% | 47.0% |
| 10+ Yds Rushes | 6 | 2 |
| 20+ Yds Passes | 7 | 3 |
| Defense Stuff Rate | 23.5% | 20.6% |
Offense
QB: B
RB: B
TE: B+
OL: B+
WR: B
It’ll be interesting to see how the advanced stats grade out this performance from Notre Dame. On the surface, you see 58 points, a whole bunch of yards, a healthy 8.2 yards per play (the most against a Power 5 opponent since the 2021 Georgia Tech game) and it seems like a very dominant and controlled performance.
It wasn’t quite that type of beatdown for the Irish offense, although they moved the ball consistently all game long (only 2 punts) and if not for some self-inflicted mistakes would’ve really poured it on the Panthers.
Sam Hartman has to feel bad about his 2 early interceptions, plus a failed 4th down attempt leading to no points on the first 3 drives of the game. That, plus the ensuing garbage time, left a small window for Hartman and the 1st-team offense to get some work done. They got plenty of help with a pick six and punt return touchdown yet Hartman was mostly sharp and took what the Pittsburgh offense was giving him.
Coming during the 4th quarter, backup quarterback Steve Angeli really impressed. It was nice to see him run the offense and not just hand off, wow what a surprise! Angeli threw a couple bullet throws (I especially liked the slant to Braylon James) and connected with true freshman Cooper Flanagan on a truly beautiful touchdown pass while moving to his left.
Rushing Success
Estime – 10 of 19
Price – 2 of 6
Tyree – 0 of 1
Payne – 0 of 1
Love – 1 of 3
The run game was okay, Pittsburgh didn’t give a ton of running room and kept Notre Dame’s rushing success well below 50% which they would’ve taken all day in order to shut down the home team. Unfortunately for the visitors, the Irish found too many explosive plays. Notre Dame put together 15 plays for a grand total of 361 yards (24 yards per play) which is a great job against a Narduzzi defense.
Seeing 12 different pass catchers was also a great sign. Six different receivers caught passes, that’s not something we’ve seen a ton of this year. Jayden Thomas looked to come up a little gimpy during the game and Jaden Greathouse didn’t catch a pass, so there are still some concerns with getting this unit back fully healthy.
Defense
DL: A
LB: A
DB: A
To me, this looked like a Pitt offense run by a kid they pulled out of a dorm before getting on the plane to Indiana. What a dreadful performance from quarterback Christian Veilleux. They benched Jurkovec for this! There were numerous plays where Veilleux appeared to just throw it up and hope for the best–complete with atrocious accuracy. He connected on long passes of 34 and 16 yards but spent the rest of the game going 12 of 27 for 77 yards and 4 interceptions.
Pitt’s backup threw a couple darts in garbage time to put 75 yards of offense on the boxscore. That won’t fool anyone who watched this game and knows Notre Dame’s defense was wrecking the Panthers all afternoon.
Stuffs
Harper – 2
Bertrand – 2
Liuafu – 1
Watts – 1
JJB – 1
Mills – 1
Shuler – 1
Botelho – 1
Bowen – 0.5
Hinish – 0.5
Sneed – 0.5
Onye – 0.5
Before the garbage time touchdown, Pitt’s offense had 6 punts, 4 interceptions (plus a fumbled punt return), and one terribly missed field goal attempt. Just 148 yards of offense through 3 quarters of play at 3.2 yards per play.
What more is there to say?
Final Thoughts
I hope we’ll hear positive news about the Mitchell Evans knee injury. He’s been in the race to lead the team in receiving this year and has put together some excellent games this year.
I was not a believer in Chris Tyree being a big part of this offense or his switch to receiver. Even though the receiving numbers for the entire team are really modest you have to tip your cap to the impact Tyree is making on this offense. If Evans is out for a while, that might lock up Tyree leading the team in receiving.
Building off his 60-yard catch, Rico Flores led the team in receiving against Pittsburgh.
Notre Dame only finished with a pair of sacks from Botelho and Liufau although the pressure was turned way up all game long. It led to a ton of ill-advised throws followed up by turnovers.
Holy moly, Christian Gray’s interception was one of the most athletic plays from a Notre Dame player this year.
I know turnovers explains a lot, but this Pittsburgh team beating Louisville is absolutely wild to me. They took care of Duke this weekend and really have a good shot at 10 or 11 wins this season. They must feel way worse than we do about losing to Louisville.
While perusing message boards this year I’ve seen quite a bit of comments about how Angeli should transfer, or will probably transfer, or it’s better if he does because Minchey is going to be better anyway (to say nothing of a grad transfer option down the road). Sure it was garbage time but Angeli looked crisp out there. It’s really difficult to see this in person and declare that Minchey is somehow better without more evidence.
What a special teams performance! Although, lost in the blowout Spencer Shrader missed a PAT.
This was the worst loss of the Pat Narduzzi era at Pitt. You hate to see it.
This was “only” the 52nd time in Notre Dame history that they scored at least 58 points. It’s the first time since since Rutgers in 1996 (and Pitt the game right before it) that the Irish scored this many against a Power 5 team.
Former walk-on Jordan Faison is listed at 182 pounds and looks really small out there. However, his suddenness, cutting ability, and acceleration are top notch. I’d buy stock in him being a featured weapon this time next year.
On the play right before Estime’s touchdown run early in the 4th quarter, backup running back Devyn Ford unleashed an insanely powerful leading block as a running back setting up a run from the pistol. He hammered the Pitt defender so hard.
Who is that man hitting out there like that?? #irish ☘️☘️@OneFootDown pic.twitter.com/bnK52EhDSP
— FamooO🎮🎙 (@FamoGaming) October 28, 2023
Cooper Flanagan’s shoulder pads are so small, he needs to wear a larger size. Either that, or he has a super long neck.
It’s 44-0 and the 3rd quarter just ended after a 3rd down throw sets up a 4th & 2 for Pitt. But, they false start coming back from the break. Now it’s 4th & 7 from the Irish 38-yard line. Narduzzi decided to punt. With mostly backups, Notre Dame took the ball and scored another touchdown to make it 51-0.
Ultimately it didn’t matter in this game but you wonder about the future. How the Irish handled the clock before halftime was an abomination. Any time Jason Garrett is pointing something out as a potential danger you know you’re messing up.
How lucky that the first five broken tackles of Tyree’s career all came on one play! 😂
How do we do a “laughing until the tears flow” emoji (says the old analog guy)…
Cuz this is a really funny comment!
Oh yeah, analog
🙂
OK, cut and paste, but not so great: https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/1f602.svg
I wrote from my phone where I have emojis on my keyboard. I’d have no idea how to do it from a computer.
As Tyree was fielding the punt and started his super choppy “jukes” I was like what the hell is going on. Really happy to be wrong and really happy he has become a pretty impactful player for ND. I would not have guessed it before the year.
Did sam hartman used to run at least some at wake forest? I thought he did. I think ND misses that mobility at qb. It really limits their 3rd and 4th down offense. I think coan held onto the bottle on read option more than hartman.
You mentioned it but the end of half clock management was atrocious. We have discussed this a lot with freeman and it was bad at the beginning of 2022, had been much better at the beginning of this year, but today was just awful. And they left themselves vulnerable to no points before half, lucky to get three.
The Irish Illustrated guys have been saying for months that Tyree is good for one big play per game. Or *if* he’s good for one big play a game then he’s living up to expectations. Which is 12 per year. It doesn’t seem like a lot but he really has been on that pace, maybe slightly better. I think he’s been really under appreciated this year (by me as well). He’s got a few big misses (huge drop against Louisville) but he’ll give you at least one 20-yard play a game. I tend to not appreciate it because I’m super frustrated by the offense and it comes in the middle of a bunch of underwhelming play but he’s been really solid this year. Not the 5-star level he was as a recruit but I don’t think anyone expected that after the first few years.
Kinda hate to pile on here, but hey, Eric, Cardinal, you are waaay correct on the time management. What’s bothersome about this one is that Coach Freeman has already demonstrated a puzzling sort of stubborn over-attachment to running the clock way down and taking a field goal. Recall his weird comment when Estime scored the TD against Duke, that he would have preferred that Audric go down at the one. Problem being of course that we were not winning (unlike Mahomes who had been winning when he went down at the one vs the Jets maybe the week prior). Maybe MF is watching too much NFL at midnight when the six kids are asleep. I dunno.
Seriously, this is the kind of deal that gets back to him never having been a head coach prior to ND. I have a feeling that clock management works differently when it’s you in full charge under time pressure, and that experience helps.
If I may ask, why was the clock management atrocious? With 3rd and goal from the 3, you get 1 shot at a TD before the 4th down, and freeman already stated he was going to kick the FG on 4th down. And the first 3rd down play was a TD**
Had he not run the clock down, there would have been 20-25 seconds left and it’s still 3rd and goal from the 3. A failed attempt and fg leaves opportunity for a kick return, so freeman left the minimum amount of time to run 2 plays and run out the half. And, at the end of the whole ordeal, they still scores points.
**an aside, what is the hive mind’s assessment of the OPI call there? I disagreed with the call when viewing replay on the jumbotron, but was very much caught up in the homer atmosphere.
I just watched the highlights… Evan’s threw a chicken wing shoulder into the defender, so while frustrating and minuscule, it is OPI 🙁
I kinda thought that Jason Garrett had it right, yes, run it down but not that much. If a penalty in your favor occurs then you may have more downs to try for the TD. Fine tuning but that ‘s the point.
Because Narduzzis DBs always hold and a PI call giving ND a fresh set of downs in the red zone was a very realistic outcome.
Pitt’s offense versus our defense was no threat to score in 7 minutes, let alone 1. Situationally, it was an objectively bad decision. Kicking a FG from the 3 on first down is not what I’d consider maximizing your opportunities on offense.
Agreed, the pitt offense wasnt the issue, however, the kick return was an opportunity for a splash TD. I’d submit into evidence the kick return TD pitt had against ND in 2018 at the start of the 3rd quarter. Also, the kick return TD michigan had right before halftime in 2018 made a low scoring but dominant ND game into a 1 score fluke play opportunity game.
Strategic objectives for the offense at the end of the half:
1)Get points
2) Leave as little time for pitt to get the ball back
Both objectives met, point 1 leaves opportunity (FG vs TD)
Objective 2 met in totality. Therefore I conclude the decisions made yesterday were good, but could be improved.
I don’t know how he fared yesterday, but Shrader has a big leg and has been generating a lot of touchbacks on KOs this season. Not much risk of a big return there IMO.
True , Pitt with the ball in their end of the field, ND has a better chance to score than them.
-If you get sacked on 3rd down, you’ve used all your timeouts and get 0 points.
-If Pitt gets a penalty while keeping you out of the end zone, you have to kick the field goal. Pitt’s DBs love to hold/interfere.
-Even if you score a TD with 30 seconds left and then Pitt kicks a field goal, that’s a 4 point advantage. If you run it down and kick a field goal and Pitt gets 0, that’s a 3 point advantage.
I wasn’t too frustrated by the clock management but this is the reason why I wouldn’t have done it: running the clock down gives the defence the advantage that they could willfully interfere knowing that you won’t have time to take advantage without risking getting nothing.
If I was a defensive player I’d be willing to tackle the guy while the ball is in the air rather than risk the TD, when I know the result is just going to be the same FG try as it would be if I defended fairly.
Also does anyone know how many offensive holdings nd has drawn this year? it honestly feels like 0, which seems impossible but man the opposition NEVER gets called for holding. Like ever
i think there’s been a normalish amount, but i agree it doesn’t feel that way in the moment.
I am not sure if there was a better website but I found nd is in the 100s in opponent penalties per game at 5 per game, and ND is 111 in opponent penalty yards per penalty, at 7.8 yards per penalty. Not exactly sure what story that tells
i didn’t realize there were that few against our opponents. So maybe fewer holds than i guessed since i do recall plenty of false starts and DPI.
There was a play in the 3rd quarter(?), both Howard cross and rylie mills were getting bear hugged from behind by the center and right tackle on a pass. No flags, and they felt like egregious no calls. I find it hard to believe such an overmatched offensive line actually committed 0 holds, i.e. played the whole game with proper technique.
Further, Zeke correll got called for a hold in the 4th quarter on a run play that was pretty darn ticky tack. He was handling the nose guard with pretty damn good technique. Maybe the refs called the wrong number, but it was a head scratcher.
Since we’re talking about line penalties, what the hell was up with the personal foul on Corell? No further explanation from the ref and no replay
Was it correll? I thought they called it on Fisher, yah, didnt see any replay. Probably some scuffling/talking away from the play.
It was Fisher, they even showed him patting himself saying my bad
I didn’t see a replay, but I assumed either an extra shove at the end or possibly hands to the face
Saw that one live. He pancaked his guy, then after the play ended he shoved the guy back down when he was trying to stand back up. Absolutely a good call by the ref and a dumb decision by Fisher.
Hartman should not be forcing stuff in the Red Zone. With this defense, getting 3 pts. is not a loss. On that note, though I’m sure he’s running simpler stuff, Angeli seems more decisive/sure of himself, than the starter. ( 2023 – 16-21, 76%, 236 yds, 3TD, 0 Int.) I don’t think Hartman has changed many NFL minds this season.
Why play a still hobbling Thomas/Greathouse in this game? Please be ok Mitchell Evans.
Will Clemson now be the “wounded animal” hoping to salvage something vs. ND ?
See my post just now. THis friend is a truly good guy and a smart as hell football fan — we commanded together as colonels, and back in the day he was always super about my bleeding blue and gold). He is like most Clemson fans torn between the equity Dabo built up before, and the train wreck this year — he says everyone is doubling down that our game is their only chance to as you say salvage something.
I think they are playing Thomas and Greathouse because otherwise our WR crew would be Tyree and Flores every play. Merriweather seems to have more confidence when out there for fewer plays and James must not be ready yet.
However, having said that, I really hope that T and G are not aggravating their injuries
When James was out there, he and Angeli both would go over to the sideline to be directly told the play by the coaches. It seems like they felt like he didn’t know where to line up or what route to run unless they told him directly
Speaking of our forthcoming visit to Death Valley. OK, we weren’t, but a good friend comes from Clemson and is on their board or something and he’s highly energized about their chance to beat us and salvage something emotionally from a crap season:
1, Great news that it’s a noon kickoff.
2, Very concerning about both our starting corners being hurt.
3, To echo Eric, doubly so for our ace tight end, on top of Jayden and Jaden clearly not back in form.
Was it the Clemson playoff rematch where our best DB went out (Cam Hart?) and we had no depth, and just got shredded? I mean it was Trevor Lawrence IIRC so we didn’t have a much of a chance anyway, but that was game over, just no answers after that.
Now, our two dude corners are injured and in come the next two guys and we get a pick six and then a sweet INT from a true freshmen!
If we can get the the WR position recruiting up to the level of the DB recruiting…
It was Julian Love, but yeah it was 3-3 when he went out and 23-3 like 12 game minutes later
O painful memories. To your point fightin eyerash, quality depth really does make a huge difference … duh — but I didn’t used to appreciate that. The late Lou Somogyi wrote a terrific column on that 10 years ago, citing multiple powerful examples from ND history (which B&G Illustrated just reprinted).
Thanks for the correction, too lazy to look up myself. Love was an All-American and Thorpe award finalist his junior year. IIRC Pride had to move up to CB1, which meant Bracy got in over his head too, and when it was Justin Ross/Tee Higgins/Renfrow, it was just too much. We had a shot with Jalen Elliot and Alohi Gilman at Safety and JOK at LB for Etienne if Love stayed in…
And More Noise, it’s not just the depth on the field, it’s that if you can’t get a bunch of 5 stars like the big guys, you have to try to stockpile high 3 and 4 stars and see who breaks out, like Joe Alt for instance.
Great point!
I watched the game on delay, which gave me a new perspective… but basically between the writeup and the comments all the points I wanted to make have already been made (defense rules; Angeli wow; Tyree breaks tackles now? etc.) other than this one:
Jac Collinsworth needs to be replaced next year. He’s so bad at meeting the moment on big plays.
And yet, he is still far and away the best in the broadcast booth. Sigh.
Should’ve still done an instant reaction post that was just pictures of Narduzzi
Or press conference quotes:
At least 8 current players quote tweeted that.
At least when BK threw the players under the bus he thinly veiled his comments.
This is how Narduzzi makes sure his good players don’t enter the transfer portal and builds a culture that quality players want to transfer into.
Evans out for the year with ACL tear. Should have taken the 1st teamers out….
Yep. Darn darn darn. Just what this offense didn’t need. He took that helmet right on the knee, but it didn’t look like it twisted, so I was hoping. I hope his morale is OK and his operation and rehab go well.