Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 22, 2025 21 NOTRE DAME PASSING OFFENSE: B The Fighting Irish relied heavily on a pair of re- ceiving targets, but that duo delivered for them in a big way. Redshirt senior wide receiver Malachi Fields, who joined the Irish as a graduate transfer from Virginia in the offseason, had his best game in a Notre Dame uniform. He set season highs in receptions (7), receiving yards (99) and receiv- ing touchdowns (2), and made a couple of jaw- dropping catches. Senior tight end Eli Raridon was redshirt fresh- man quarterback CJ Carr's other favorite target. He threw 10 passes each in the direction of Fields and Raridon. The latter turned his opportunities into 6 catches for 67 yards, including 4 first downs. Carr played one of his more inconsistent games with the first 2-interception effort of his career. Both throws were uncharacteristic of Carr and went directly toward Pitt defenders. His second in- terception was returned for a 10-yard touchdown, but the Irish already had a big enough lead (28-9 after the score) late in the third quarter that it didn't really impact the outcome. Carr completed 21 of 32 passes for 212 yards with both of his touchdowns to Fields. NOTRE DAME RUSHING OFFENSE: B+ The Pitt defense has been too good against the run this season to fairly expect the Irish to run wild against the Panthers. But Notre Dame still man- aged to rush for more yards (175) than any other team against Pitt this season. It was only one yard more than West Virginia totaled against Pitt, but that came in an overtime victory. Notre Dame averaged 4.9 yards per carry against a Pittsburgh team that was allowing just 2.39 yards per carry heading into the game. That average was helped significantly by junior running back Jeremi- yah Love's early 56-yard touchdown run. But the Irish still rushed for at least 10 yards on four other occasions. The Irish leaned on Love for 147 yards on 23 car- ries. Redshirt junior running back Jadarian Price spelled Love for 8 carries and 21 yards. Carr added 5 carries for 7 yards, including a 5-yard touchdown run on a designed keeper. Notre Dame's offensive line should have plenty to clean up coming out of the game, but it put together a performance worth admiring. NOTRE DAME PASSING DEFENSE: A+ The Irish handed Pitt freshman quarterback Ma- son Heintschel the first loss in his sixth career start. They did so by limiting Heintschel to a season-low 126 passing yards and a completion percentage of just 48.5 (16 of 33). Redshirt junior defensive end Joshua Burnham sacked Heintschel once each on the first two Pitt drives. Then redshirt fresh- man safety Tae Johnson ended Pitt's third drive with a pick six. Redshirt sophomore safety Adon Shuler shut down Pitt's fourth drive with a sack of his own. The Irish harassed Heintschel all day. They sacked him 4 times and hurried him 11 more times. He netted 7 rushing yards on 9 total carries while do- ing a decent enough job of avoiding Notre Dame defenders. Running back Desmond Reid proved to be Pitt's only consistent receiving threat, but he left the game with an injury midway through the third quarter after 6 catches for 63 yards. Credit every level of the Irish's defense for shutting down the Panthers' passing game. NOTRE DAME RUSHING DEFENSE: A Running back Ja'Kyrian Turner became Pitt's first 100-yard rusher of the season in the Panthers last game before playing Notre Dame. The Panthers couldn't even crack 100 yards as a team against the Irish. Notre Dame held down Pitt's offense to 70 rushing yards on 25 carries. Running back Juelz Goff finished with a team-high 35 rushing yards on 5 carries, all of which came in the fourth quarter. Pitt entered the game averaging 124.2 rushing yards per game, but the Irish became just the second team to hold Pitt to fewer than 80 yards. NOTRE DAME SPECIAL TEAMS: B- The ongoing Erik Schmidt experiment as Notre Dame's placekicker added another missed field goal. The freshman wasn't put in an easy spot when he missed a 46-yarder and dropped his ca- reer mark to 0 of 3 on field goals. At least he managed to make every extra point for a second consecutive game. Schmidt was the glaring weakness on a solid special teams performance otherwise. Price and junior wide receiver Jordan Faison did a nice job on kickoff returns (2 for 71 yards) and punt returns (3 for 36 yards), respectively. And redshirt senior James Rendell pinned Pitt at its own 8-yard line on his lone punt. NOTRE DAME COACHING: A- Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash put together a masterpiece for the Irish. Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock didn't quite match that level of mastery, but he had a good enough plan for the Irish to strike with big plays. Notre Dame's offensive struggles on third downs (4 of 12 converted) were counterbalanced by some success on fourth downs (3 of 5). Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman had his team ready to go from the jump and seemingly motivated his team to feel like Pitt didn't respect it. REPORT CARD BY TYLER JAMES Redshirt senior defensive tackle Jason Onye contributed 1 of Notre Dame's 4 sacks on Pitt freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel. PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT