Notre Dame's Early Season Schedule From Hell Ends This Week

So here we are entering the final contest of a six game rivalry stretch to open the season.

Notre Dame sits at a very humbling 2-3 but is now looking to pick up steam after beating a rather inept Boston College team last Saturday.

Enter the Pittsburgh Panthers, a team with high preseason hopes that have come crashing down rather quickly in this 2010 season.

I was one of the people who thought Pitt would be a very good team this year, that is if they could get some quality production and smart play out of their quarterback.

So far this year that has not happened.

That means this is another game in which Notre Dame will be facing a non-balanced offense and the Irish defense has finally grown to the point where they will likely shut down these kinds of attacks.

At the beginning of the season this was looking like a very difficult matchup for Notre Dame, but that was before the Irish defense improved and Pitt’s offense showed itself to be far less intimidating.

At quarterback, Tino Sunseri has been decidedly average on the season and has been a large anchor holding Pitt back against their two toughest opponents so far this year. He has all the physical tools and has been pretty accurate, but this is really a case of a dink and dunk offense that doesn’t trust its quarterback.

And that can’t make Pitt receiver Jonathan Baldwin very happy. He was all but invisible against Utah before Sunseri finally found him on a long touchdown in the second half. His numbers are way down and he was invisible yet again in his team’s blowout loss to Miami. Baldwin has only 15 catches, 211 yards and two touchdowns through four games this year.

Another problem for Pitt is that they are having trouble finding other receivers to throw the ball to. Sophomore Mike Shannahan (14 receptions, 190 yards) has been somewhat effective, but there is no other receiver doing any damage for the Panthers this year.

If that isn’t uplifting enough for Pitt fans, All-American running back Dion Lewis has been completely shut down this year and missed the team’s last game with an injury. His status for Saturday’s game is probably likely but who knows how effective he’ll be or how many carries he ends up with.

The good news is that back up running back Ray Graham has single handedly kept the Panther offense alive with a great season so far (492 yards, 9.6 per, 5 TD). It will not surprise anyone that Pitt will try to establish the run game with their productive running back.

So Notre Dame will likely load up the box and make sure the Panther running game doesn’t do a lot of damage. Anyone think Pitt is going to have a good to great day running the ball without a passing game in place dangerous enough to make the Irish pay?

It doesn’t seem likely, especially now that Notre Dame has showed renewed toughness and will be able to stand up to Pitt’s physical running game.

What’s more, Notre Dame’s secondary has shown great improvement this year and Pitt will find it very difficult to throw the ball against them without credible second and third receivers or a pass-catching tight end.

This doesn’t mean Pitt’s offense will be inept against Notre Dame, but I don’t think the Panthers match up very well right now.

Miami showed that if you can play with speed and push Pitt’s offensive line around a little bit, they will wilt and punt the ball often.

I foresee Pitt feeding Graham the ball 30-plus times and he may get 150 yards if he plays well, but I don’t think Sunseri is going to be able to muster more than 150 yards through the air.

I think it is likely that Pitt will struggle to gain 300 yards.

In many ways, Pitt’s defense is about the same as Boston College and the Irish shouldn’t struggle to move the ball, especially with no Greg Romeus attacking from the edge. As long as Notre Dame doesn’t commit so many turnovers, this should be another 400 yard, 30 point day in the Brian Kelly spread offense.

Moreover, this has to be a statement game for Notre Dame.

It would get the team back to .500 and set up a nice run in the second half of the season. It would show the fans that the Irish are not losing to one-dimensional offenses and teams that are missing key players on defense.

It would show a lot of progress to pick up another win.

Pitt may complete a few more passes and have a lot more success on the ground than Boston College, but if the same defense that showed up for the Eagles takes the field against the Panthers this Saturday, Notre Dame will win by 10 or more.

Random Thoughts

Yellgate

What’s with all this sensitivity about Brian Kelly yelling at players on the sidelines last week? This brings up a topic that has been far too prevalent in recent years.

There is a certain segment of the Irish fan base and more troubling, within the University leadership, which severely frowns upon anything that could be taken in any way, shape or form, to harm the “image” of Notre Dame.

For the vast majority of humans and especially college football fans, what Brian Kelly did on the sidelines is about as controversial as Greg Maddux. Yet, at a place like Notre Dame it is magnified and distorted to the point that it is almost sickening.

My hope is that leaders like Jack Swarbrick and Father Jenkins think nothing of this “episode” but it is still disturbing that a lot of other people would rather keep Notre Dame’s image as pristine and shiny as possible, even at the expense of winning football games.

Just the fact that a football coach yelling at his players could in any way damage the image of Notre Dame is completely laughable. Yet, there are people out there who are seriously upset about Kelly’s yelling and thinking this is cause for serious concern.

No it’s not.

Improved Accuracy

One of the things that I’ve been harping on quarterback Dayne Crist is his lack of accuracy so far this season and especially in last weekend’s game against Boston College.

This topic was brought up in an interview with offensive coordinator Charlie Molnar and he basically said Crist’s low completion percentage is more due to a lack of knowledge in the offense and not so much a lack of accuracy.

I’m sure Crist will begin understanding the offense a little better every week, but I’d still like to see him improve his accuracy. It’s understandable if a receiver turns one way and the ball is thrown the other, or if the team isn’t on the same page and that leads to some incompletions.

What I would like to see is more accuracy on screen passes and plays in which his receiver is more or less a non-moving target.

Rudolph’s Struggles

Starting with the Stanford game, opponents have smartened up and decided to take away Kyle Rudolph in the passing game for Notre Dame. So far it has worked wonders and Rudolph has been limited to only two catches for three yards over the past two games.

Before the season started I mentioned that Rudolph was without a doubt Crist’s favorite target and someone who he would always look to throw the ball to. Now that teams are bracketing coverage around the big 6’6” tight end, it seems to have thrown Crist out of a rhythm.

This will continue to be a major story line for this offense, especially considering that the Irish’s other main target in Michael Floyd has shown that he struggles getting open even with the attention being focused on Rudolph.

Go Irish!

From the FanTake blog: One Foot Down

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