Notre Dame football dominated the Pittsburgh Panthers on Saturday afternoon 58-7 at Notre Dame Stadium. What did we learn from that performance.
There’s an old saying in football: “You have to be sound in all three phases of the game.” Saturday afternoon, the Notre Dame Football team lived up to that maxim. The Fighting Irish scored on offense, defense, and special teams in its 58-7 route of the Pitt Panthers at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Notre Dame wide receiver Chris Tyree returned a punt for a touchdown. Cornerback Jaden Mickey returned an interception for a touchdown. Running back Audric Estime scored three touchdowns, and quarterback Steve Angeli — in relief of Sam Hartman — threw a touchdown pass.
After the game, head coach Marcus Freeman spoke about the process of becoming an elite team:
“It’s a bunch of coaches and players that aren’t satisfied that constantly are striving to improve,” Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman said. “That’s the sprint. That’s the sense of urgency we have to improve. It’s not to just win. It’s not to, you know, all of a sudden get this outcome. It’s really to improve, and we’re getting closer and closer every week to reaching that full potential.”
Here are some offensive and defensive takeaways and what’s next for the Irish.
Notre Dame Football offensive takeaways:
Though it took the Irish offense some time, Notre Dame Football’s offense played significantly better this week. Pitt attempted to be aggressive defensively, and the Irish took advantage with nine plays over 15 yards. Running back Audric Estime had his first 100-yard game in nearly a month and scored three touchdowns. The offensive line was solid, allowing just one sack.
Hartman threw two interceptions on Notre Dame Football’s first 3 drives. He threw his first interception of the game on a pass intended for Rico Flores as the Irish were moving the ball. Hartman threw another interception on the very next drive. Fortunately for the Irish, those picks did not hurt.
Hartman has had this odd tendency of throwing interceptions in bunches. You look at his game splits and notice that he’ll throw interceptions in a cluster of three of four games. Hopefully, he’s got the turnovers out of his system.
Offensive coordinator Gerad Parker did a tremendous job of scheming aggressively after turnovers. The Irish took shots down the field after every turnover they forced. The game plan seemed intent on not settling for field goals. Mission accomplished.
Notre Dame football defensive takeaways.
Defensive coordinator Al Golden seemed involved in a game of “anything you can do, I can do better” with Gerad Parker. Notre Dame Football’s defense was aggressive and trusted his corners in man coverage despite Benjamin Morrison being out on Saturday. Fellow cornerback Cam Hart missed the second half of the game with a shoulder injury.
Injuries in the secondary did not stop Golden and the Irish defense from being aggressive. They sent five rushers nearly every down. Although they sacked Pitt quarterback Christain Veilleux just twice, they forced four interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.
The special teams were outstanding as well on Saturday. In addition to Chris Tyree’s punt return for a touchdown, Ramon Henderson recovered a muffed punt in the endzone for a touchdown.
The numbers tell the story: Pitt was 1-11 on third down. They averaged 4.5 yards per play and were held under 300 total yards. The Panthers’ only score came in garbage time.
It seemed like everything the Irish threw at the Pitt offense confused Veilleux. The pass rush consistently knocked him off his spot. It was not an excellent homecoming for C’Bo Flemister, who had 24 yards rushing.
What’s next for Notre Dame Football?
Saturday was a culture win for the Irish. They were the superior team, and they played like it. Notre Dame did not allow Pitt to turn Saturday into a rock fight. That is important because the Irish will be heavy favorites the rest of the year against inferior teams. The Irish have Clemson, Wake Forest, and Stanford left on the schedule.
Their combined records are 10-14. There could be some quit factor going on in Clemson, South Carolina. The offense hasn’t worked the way it was intended. There’s some question about how much autonomy Garrett Riley has as offensive coordinator. With Will Shipley in concussion protocol, things don’t look great for the Tigers.
Notre Dame, then, needs to come out and do the very same thing to Clemson as they did to Pitt. Keep in mind the Tigers have nothing left to play for. There’s no CFP and no ACC Championship. Saturday is their bowl game. Wounded Tigers still hunt, so Notre Dame needs to be careful and come out playing aggressive football.
Notre Dame Football can still make a New Year’s Six Bowl game, so they have a lot of incentive to finish strong. The next evolution of this Irish squad is playing with a championship swagger.