Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1541365
24 NOV. 22, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 1. Notre Dame's Defense Continues To Reset The Team's Ceiling The most revealing big-picture aspect of No. 9 Notre Dame's road test at No. 22 Pitt — and by far its most rigorous November test on paper — figured to be how a patched-up-but-evolved of- fensive line fared against a truly elite Pitt defense. Mission accomplished. … And almost overshad- owed. The Irish defense was that good in a 37-15 domi- nation of the nation's No. 6 scoring offense, in what would have stood as the program's most lopsided road win since a 38-0 rout at Oklahoma in 1966. That is, had Panthers' coach Pat Narduzzi not called timeout in the final seconds to score a garbage time, fourth-down touchdown on the last play of the game. In a game, no less, that he had rendered as "less than big" five days before the Irish handed Nar- duzzi his fifth loss in five tries during his 11-year run at Pitt. " They played fast. They played hard," Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman said of a unit that held Pitt (7-3) to season lows in points (15) and total yards (219). "We had to make some adjustments for our third-down package, based on what they were doing. Their quarterback's a good player, now. He was hard to bring down, and he made some really good football players miss. "And credit to him for the ability to escape, but our guys kept getting pressure. We continued to change up the coverage and the looks, and they played fast. [Defensive coordinator Chris] Ash and the defensive staff did a really good job making sure our guys were prepared." They were more than prepared, actually. The Irish were downright savage on defense. Pitt went 0 of 13 on third-down conversions, its quarterbacks — freshman sensation Mason Heinschel and backup Eli Holstein — got sacked 4 times and had 8 of their passes broken up. The Irish finished with 7 tackles for loss and 11 QB hur- ries — the latter their most in a game since 2018. They also held Pitt to 3.4 yards per play, the low- est average of any opponent this season against the Irish. And the scariest part — for Syracuse next week- end, Stanford on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and whomever draws Notre Dame in the postsea- son — this defense hasn't peaked yet. 2. The O-Line Scored Well On Its Chance For A Do-Over When Notre Dame started the season 0-2, its fault lines were actually its offensive and defensive lines — the two position groups Freeman prides himself on pushing out as the Irish program cor- nerstones and identity. The Irish had to wait until November to deal with a defense that could cause the same kind of headaches Miami and Texas A&M did in Week 1 and Week 2 of the season. And yet even without two of its best O-linemen sidelined from those two early season trials, healing left guard Billy Schrauth and lost-for-the-season center Ashton Craig, Notre Dame's O-line looked like an asset against the nation's No. 3 rushing defense and No. 5 team in tackles for loss. Instead of the worry it once was early in the season. "Our offensive line played their butts off," of- fered junior running back Jeremiyah Love, who had 147 of Notre Dame's 175 rushing yards, includ- ing a Heisman-esque 56-yard scoring run midway through the first quarter for the first points of the day for either team. As a team, the Irish rushed for 4.9 yards a carry against the team that ranked first nationally in yards per carry allowed, and the Irish gave up just 1 sack. 3. CJ Carr's Superpowers Were His Poise And Resilience As far as sheer numbers, the redshirt freshman has had a better pass efficiency rating in eight of his other nine starts than the 129.4 he put up against the Panthers, whose pass defense was actually the soft spot in their defensive résumé. Still, the nation's No. 3 quarterback in pass ef- ficiency coming into the weekend exited it having shown his proficiency at being able to slide pro- tections and getting the ball out quick when he needed to against a Pitt defense that blitzes almost 50 percent of the time. Yes, Carr threw 2 interceptions while completing 21 of 32 passes for 212 yards with 2 touchdowns. But every time he took a step backward against Pitt, he took two emphatically forward. The in- cluded a scoring drive after throwing a pick six in which Carr covered the last 5 yards of it on a nifty quarterback draw. His chemistry with wide receiver Malachi Fields (7 catches for 99 yards and 2 touchdowns) could be the start of something dangerous. And exploit- ing some mismatches with senior tight end Eli Raridon also showed his savvy. 4. Kicking Remains A (Mis)adventure To freshman Erik Schmidt's credit, a missed 46- yard field goal on Notre Dame's first possession — with plenty of leg, but pushed wide right — didn't bleed into his point-after tries or kickoffs. But that's something Freeman is going to have to continue to test over the next two games until the Irish get it right. And you could argue that there was a missed op- portunity in the fourth quarter to try a 42-yarder that Freeman passed on. 5. The Term "Style Points" Means Never Being Satisfied The Irish still have plenty of flaws to clean up beyond the kicking game — short-yardage consis- tently on offense still the most obvious — but in the past two weeks, never once has Notre Dame looked like it's been in cruise control. That's the look that gets the College Football Playoff selection committee's attention in a good way when there's all kinds of résumé eye candy elsewhere to consider. FIVE THOUGHTS BY ERIC HANSEN The Fighting Irish defense held Pitt's No. 6-ranked scoring offense to season lows in points (15) and total yards (219). PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT