Key Takeaways From The Notre Dame Victory Over Pitt: Offense
Notre Dame remained undefeated after trouncing the Pitt Panthers by a 45-3 score. There were plenty of positives to take out of the game on both sides of the ball. Let’s begin our look at the key takeaways from the victory by looking at the Fighting Irish offense.
Tight Ends - Running Backs Become More Of A Focal Point
This was something I hoped Notre Dame would do in this game for a number of reasons. Before the game I wrote HERE and HERE about needing to get the backs and tight ends more involved in the pass game, both because of the Pitt specific matchup advantages, but also because it is needed for the offense to reach its full potential moving forward.
Notre Dame’s backs and tight ends combined to make 10 catches for 118 yards and a score. Not since the season opening victory over Duke have we seen these numbers. In fact, in the previous two games, the players at those positions combined for 12 catches and 88 yards.
Beyond the numbers, the more important aspect was the tight ends and backs were clearly more of a focal point of the game plan and play-calling. Many of the catches in early parts of the season were as part of check downs or dump offs, but against Pitt it was obvious the staff was purposely trying to get both positions into favorable matchups, and they were either the primary or second read in the play-call.
Freshman tight end Michael Mayer led the offense with five catches, and he added 73 yards and a score to go with that. There were several other snaps where Mayer could have been targeted. His blocking wasn’t as good as it has been all season, but he was impactful in the pass game.
Notre Dame’s staff also got running back Kyren Williams on the perimeter on routes out of the backfield, something that was clearly an advantage for the Irish based on what Pitt had shown on film. If not for an inaccurate Ian Book throw the yards for Williams could have been even better.
Moving forward, it would be nice to see Mayer and Tommy Tremble both being more of a focal point, and it would be nice to see the staff use Tremble more down the field, as opposed to his two targets on Saturday that were both near the line of scrimmage. They did try once to get him a deep shot, but he was held coming out of his double move. This was a very good start, and now the staff needs to build on it.
Wide Receivers Stepped Up
We’ll see if this is the beginning of a trend, or if this was more of a one off, but for at least one game the Irish wide outs handled their business against the below average Pitt secondary. This was the perfect time for them to produce, and they did.
Grad transfer Ben Skowronek’s big touchdowns were the obvious plays we can point to, but it went beyond that. Senior slot receiver Avery Davis played well, hauling in three passes for 44 yards and showing the ability to work himself open over the middle of the field. He caught one off-target Book pass off this shoe laces and turned it into a big gain. Senior Javon McKinley had two grabs for 50 yards, showing after-the-catch skills we haven’t seen since last September.
The wideouts also blocked quite well and were physical against the Pitt corners in the run game.
Third-Down Offense Shines
Notre Dame’s inability to run the ball like it had in recent games put the offense in a lot of third-down situations, and the ability to move the chains in those situations proved impactful. Notre Dame found itself in 18 third-down snaps, which is a high number (most this season), but the offense converted 11 of those third-down opportunities.
That tied for the most third-down conversions in a game under head coach Brian Kelly, and the most since the 2014 Music City Bowl victory over LSU.
Notre Dame converted a 3rd-and-6 and a 3rd-and-4 on its first touchdown drive of the game, and Skowronek’s 73-yard touchdown reception was on a 3rd-and-14 snap. The Irish converted a 3rd-and-1 and a 3rd-and-9 (by penalty) on the drive that put them up 21-3.
What made that even more impressive is the fact Pitt came into the game with the nation’s 14th best third-down defense. They were allowing opponents to convert third-downs at just a 29.6% clip, but the Irish moved the chains at a 61.1% clip, which is outstanding.
It was not just about players making plays either, the Irish play calls were intentional and sought to get the ball into favorable matchup situations, which is what you want in those money situations. Yes, the long throw to Skowronek was more of a “jump ball situation”, but that was a third-and-long situation, which is different. I was impressed with the third-down game plan by Tommy Rees and the staff, and it was executed at a very high level.
Return Of The RPOs … Now Do It More
One of the most puzzling aspects of the Notre Dame offense in 2020 was the complete lack of RPOs (run pass option) in the offense. In the modern era, a shotgun team that runs it as well - and as often - as Notre Dame absolutely must have this in their offense.
Well, we saw a few RPOs against Pitt, and it was important. We saw Book execute a RPO on a 2nd-and-10 throw to Javon McKinley that went for 9 yards, setting up a 3rd-and-1 that the offense would convert. Another RPO on a first-down run went to Avery Davis, and the Irish slot man picked up an easy 9 yards on the play.
This is an easy way to steal yards on first and second down, and it’s a great way to make your third-down offense even better. It is also a great way to get your quarterback into a good rhythm. My hope moving forward is that this becomes an even bigger part of the offense and we don’t see the staff revert back to what we saw the first four games.
The Offensive Line Battled
When you play a defensive line like Pitt’s you’re going to lose your fair share of battles. That was true yesterday, and the Pitt defensive line actually played quite well. The problem for Pitt is that the Notre Dame offensive line stepped up and showed they are really good as well.
It wasn’t a brilliant performance by the line, and there is a lot from this game that needs to be cleaned up from a player perspective and a coaching perspective (can we please figure out better ways to handle the backside, please!), but the willingness to compete for 60 minutes proved impactful.
The Irish were able to move the chains in short yardage situations because the line was physical at the point of attack. Pitt came into the game averaging 4.8 sacks per game, but Book was sacked just twice, and one of those sacks was on a running back, not the line.
Just as important, even when a lineman lost a battle - either by getting knocked back or beat into a gap - they kept hands on and stayed engaged. This is a big reason Book was able to have so much success stepping into the pocket and scrambling. The Pitt pass rushers simply could not get off blocks and get to the quarterback, and it was a big part of Notre Dame’s early success on offense.
When Notre Dame needed a play the line stepped up, and their ability to protect Book on third-down is a big reason the Irish were so successful on that money down.
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