Stacking Up: How The Notre Dame Defense Matches Up vs. Pitt
Notre Dame hits the road this weekend to take on the Pitts Panthers. It is the 71st meeting between the two programs, and the seventh meeting since head coach Brian Kelly arrived in South Bend.
The battle between the Notre Dame defense and the Pitt offense should be quite interesting. Our next feature previewing this game takes a look at how the Notre Dame defense stacks up on paper against the Pitt offense.
Notre Dame Scoring Defense vs. Pittsburgh Scoring Offense
Advantage: Notre Dame
Notre Dame has dominated three of its four opponents this season, and the Irish quickly bounced back from its rough performance against Florida State. It responded from those struggles with an excellent performance against Louisville, who has arguably the best offense the Irish have played up to this point in the season.
Notre Dame's third-down defense has been brilliant, and the Irish red zone defense has been vastly improved. The only red flag for the Irish defense through four games has been its inability to force turnovers.
Pitt's offensive numbers are mediocre at best, and to make matters worse, at least from a Pitt standpoint, is the fact those numbers are inflated. Pitt racked up 55 points, 456 yards and 7.2 yards per play against FCS opponent Austin Peay to start the season.
In five games against FBS opponents, Pitt is averaging just 24.4 points per game, 377.0 yards and 4.8 yards per play.
Pitt topped 400 yards just once in its four games against Power 5 opponents, and its third-down offense and red zone touchdown offense are both well below average.
Notre Dame Rush Defense vs. Pittsburgh Rush Offense
Advantage: Notre Dame
Notre Dame stubbed its toe a bit against Florida State, giving up 153 yards on the ground. The defense got back on track a week later, holding Louisville to just 96 yards on the ground.
Javian Hawkins, Louisville's star running back, was held to just 51 rushing yards. He entered the game ranked second in the nation in rushing yards, but he had 42 yards on two carries against the Irish, and just nine yards on his other 13 carries.
Notre Dame's defensive line and safeties thrived against Louisville, and rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah ranks 20th nationally with six tackles for loss.
The Irish defense ranks in the Top 20 in every statistic I use to evaluate rush defense success.
On paper, this is by far the biggest mismatch of the game. Pitt has one of the worst run games in the country, ranking 70th in rushing offense (out of 77 teams) and 72nd in yards per rush. Pitt's leading rusher - sophomore Vincent Davis - is averaging just 2.8 yards per rush.
Notre Dame dominates this matchup on paper, and it needs to dominate this matchup on the field.
Notre Dame Pass Defense vs. Pittsburgh Pass Offense
Advantage: Notre Dame
Pitt throws the ball a lot, ranking 14th nationally in pass attempts per game. While it puts up good numbers from a volume standpoint, the Panthers haven't put a pass game on the field that is necessarily potent or dangerous.
The pass game for the Panthers has been wildly erratic as well, so you really don't know what version you're going to get each week. Pitt racked up 411 yards against NC State and 309 yards against NC State, going for 10.3 yards per attempt and 11.0 yards per attempt in those two games.
The yards per attempt averages were 6.0, 5.8, 5.7 and 5.9 in the other four games. This is why Pitt ranks in the bottom half of the national rankings in quarterback rating and yards per attempt.
Notre Dame's pass defense isn't as strong as it has been in recent seasons, at least not successfully, but we really don't know how good this unit actually is. The performance against Louisville was impressive from a coverage standpoint, but the Irish haven't faced many potent pass attacks.
Also concerning is the fact Notre Dame has struggled to get after the quarterback in recent games. Florida State and Louisville both have struggling offensive lines that give up a lot of pressures and sacks, but the Irish defense struggled to consistently get to the quarterback in both games.
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