Notre Dame Defense Should Throttle A Struggling Pitt Offense

If you are frustrated with the Notre Dame offense just be glad that you aren't a Pitt fan. The Panthers have struggled mightily on the offensive side of the ball this season, and it gives the Fighting Irish defense an opportunity to have a dominant performance.

It won't be easy, and for all of Pitt's issues the one thing this team does is battle. This will be a physical football game, and if Notre Dame isn't focused and locked in, or forces too much on Pitt's record, this game could be much more competitive than we'd all hope it would be.

If Notre Dame is locked in and keeps playing defense the way it has for much of the season it should dominate this Pitt offense. This is the biggest mismatch of the game, and the biggest mismatch that a Notre Dame unit has faced since the Central Michigan game.

Let's take a look at the matchup between the Notre Dame defense and the Pitt offense.

Notre Dame Rush Defense vs Pitt

If there is a weakness on the Irish defense its their run defense. It's not bad, and at times it's been quite good, but it has had some tough moments as well. This was especially true against Duke and Louisville, as the Irish defense allowed both teams to rip off big gains on the ground. The second half was the trouble period for the run defense in both games.

In the other six games the run defense ranged anywhere from good to really good. Notre Dame held Tennessee State (89 yards) and NC State (84 yards) below the century mark, and USC finished with just 109 yards in their 48-20 loss to Notre Dame. In those six games the Irish run defense gave up just 110.8 yards per game and just 3.1 yards per rush.

Notre Dame has a chance to improve its run defense statistics in this matchup against the Panthers. The Irish run defense has been much better against run games that rank outside of the Top 50, and the Panthers have the worst run game Notre Dame will face this season.

Against FBS offenses that rank outside the Top 50 in rushing the Irish have allowed just 112.5 yards per game, but it gave up 166.7 yards against the three opponents it faced that rank inside the Top 50 (Navy, Duke, Louisville).

Pitt rushed for 2017 yards in the season opener against Wofford, an FCS opponents. Against FBS opponents the Panthers have rushed for just 94 yards per game, with a high of just 130 yards against West Virginia. The Panthers have gone over 3.61 yards per rush just once against a Power 5 opponents (4.04 vs. West Virginia).

Notre Dame needs to dominate this part of the matchup, and if they do the Panthers will have a very, very tough time getting points on the board.

Notre Dame Pass Defense vs Pitt

This is without question the biggest mismatch of the game. Notre Dame has one of the best pass defenses in the country, and a case could be made that Notre Dame has the best pass defense in the country.

Penn State and Michigan are the only two defenses that have allowed fewer yards per game than the Irish, but if you look at the schedules the Irish have faced a much tougher slate from a pass game standpoint.

Penn State has faced just one pass offense that ranks higher than 70th in passing offense (Ohio State). Michigan has not faced a single team that ranks higher than 82nd in pass offense, and it has faced teams that rank 102nd, 120th, 123rd, 125th, 128th and 129th in pass offense.

Notre Dame has faced three Top 30 passing offenses (Ohio State, USC, Louisville). Notre Dame held Ohio State over 60 yards below their season average, USC was held 123.3 yards below their season average and Louisville was held 140.7 yards per below their season average.

Despite facing a much tougher schedule, Notre Dame has held its FBS opponents to an average of 61.4 yards below their season averages. Penn State has held its opponents 52.1 yards below their average and Michigan has held its terrible passing opponents to just 28.3 yards below their season scoring average.

Ohio State passed for 286 yards, completed 62.9-percent of its passes and averaged 8.2 yards per attempt against Penn State despite not having Emeka Egbuka and TreVeyon Henderson in that game.

Ohio State passed for 240 yards, completed 55.3-percent of its passes and went for just 6.3 yards per attempt against the Notre Dame defense. The completion percentage and per attempt numbers against Notre Dame are a season low for the Buckeyes, and are just three yards away from a season low in yards.

Notre Dame should dominate a Pitt offense that ranks 97th in pass offense against FBS opponents, averaging just 198.5 yards per game.

Notre Dame Scoring Defense vs Pitt

This one is simple. Notre Dame is very, very good on defense and the Panthers just aren't very good on offense. The one area where Pitt is actually quite good - red zone - the Irish are even better. Pitt ranks 14th in red zone offense and 17th in red zone touchdown offense. Notre Dame ranks 3rd and 6th in those categories, respectively.

Notre Dame needs to be focused on playing to the standard it has set in recent weeks, defensive coordinator Al Golden needs to once again allow the defensive line to carry the defense, and the Irish players need to just keep doing what they have done on defense.

If they do that they Irish should dominate this matchup.

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