Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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[Pittsburgh head coach Pat] Narduzzi would have some tricks that he was going to throw at us, but we predicted them pretty well, and the offensive line did a really good job executing the way we wanted to execute." The play of the Notre Dame offensive line en- couraged freshman run- ning back Josh Adams to take his game to another level. "Our offensive line is incredible, and they're making it easy on me," Adams said. "They're really fighting in the trenches for me, so I just have to do the best I can. … We all have confidence in our offensive line. "They are really work- ing hard . We just get in there and do what we do best." The Irish put together a strong and balanced offensive per- formance, finishing with 262 passing yards and 175 yards on the ground. It was the most rushing yards the Pan- thers had allowed to a non-option team all season. WILL FULLER THRIVES … AGAIN Pittsburgh decided to put its defen- sive emphasis on trying to shut down the Notre Dame rushing attack. Not only did that plan not work — with the Irish pounding out 175 yards on the ground — it also put the Panther cornerbacks in a number of one-on- one situations against Notre Dame ju- nior wide receiver Will Fuller. Kizer and Kelly quickly recognized that plan and got the ball out to their star receiver. After back-to-back gains of 19 and nine yards by senior running back C.J. Prosise to open the game, the Panthers tightened up, and sopho- more quarterback De- Shone Kizer went to the pass, hitting Fuller for a 47-yard touchdown on a corner route off a play- action look. That was just the begin- ning. Late in the second quarter, the Irish got the ball back with just 1:57 left on the clock, lead- ing 14-3. After a 24-yard romp by freshman run- ning back Josh Adams, Notre Dame again went deep to Fuller, this time for a 46-yard touchdown pass on a post route. Fuller followed up a third-quarter Pitt touchdown with a 14-yard scoring reception on a fade to make it a 28-10 game. For Fuller, his season-best perfor- mance — seven catches for 152 yards Junior wide receiver Will Fuller toyed with the one-on-one cov- erage Pitt's defense gave him, finishing with seven catches for 152 yards and three touch- downs. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA PLAY CHART (NO. OF PLAYS) Yards PITT ND (-) Yards 5 10 0-5 Yards 39 28 6-9 Yards 6 11 10-19 Yards 3 14 20-29 Yards 6 3 30-39 Yards 2 0 40-49 Yards 1 2 50 or more Yards 1 0