Notre Dame Football: Irish take home an Ugly win at Pitt

Notre Dame is 2-2 after a much more difficult than expected road win at Pittsburgh. 

Last week following a solid performance against Michigan State, the message boards were alive again with BCS chatter and renewed enthusiasm from the legion of Notre Dame followers. 

This week I'm sure it will be back to doomsday forecasts and predictions of failure at Purdue. 

What did the Irish do well Saturday that fans can hang their hats on going forward?

1. We Won!

Anyone who follows college football knows how topsy-turvy each weekend is. Yesterday was no different.

Florida State, who just a few weeks ago had National Title aspirations, is now 2-2 following a loss to Clemson.  Maryland was waxed at home by the MAC's Temple Owls.  USC got bombed by Arizona State and Illinois struggled to knock of Western Michigan. 

More than ever, college football has become a game where anyone can knock you off on a given Saturday.  For Notre Dame, it was difficult and it was ugly, but they found a way to go on the road and defeat Pitt on a day when they did not play particularly well.

2. Defense

For the second week in a row, Notre Dame played a stifling defense that is needed to win consistently at the Division I level.  They were able to limit Pitt to just 268 total yards and, more importantly, prevented big plays in both the passing and running game. 

Pitt did not complete a pass for over 20 yards and although Ray Graham got loose for a 42-yard scamper, he finished with just 89 yards on 21 carries.  If you take out the one long run, he averaged less than three yards per carry. 

Finally, although the Irish didn't force any turnovers, they were able to contribute six sacks, including two late in the fourth quarter when Pitt was desperately trying to mount a comeback.  If the defense continues to perform like this, Notre Dame will have a realistic shot to win every game the rest of the way.

3. Running Game

Much has already been made of the Pitt defense and how they eliminated Michael Floyd from the Notre Dame offense.  This will be a hot topic on the internet and associated message boards all week.  We will hear how everyone will copy this system and Notre Dame will never score again. 

There is an easy way to fix this: run the football!  If teams decide to take another guy out of the box to double Floyd, then you turn around and run it 32 times for 182 yards like Notre Dame did yesterday.  If Notre Dame is going to average roughly six yards a carry the rest of the season, they will win a large number of football games. 

Initially, I wanted to criticize Coach Kelly for not running it more, especially in the second half. However, at several points (in the third quarter especially), Notre Dame penalties forced them into passing situations. 

In the future, these mistakes need to be eliminated, thus providing the Irish the opportunity to run the ball when teams are going to decide to devote more attention to Michael Floyd.

4. Quarterback

I'm starting to think Tommy Rees must have been friendly with Forrest Gump at one time.  Each week he reminds me more of that box of chocolates that Gump described. 

Early in the game he was a skittish, mistake-prone turnover machine.  In the fourth quarter he was 9-10 for 81 yards and touchdown.  Sure, he had two more turnovers which directly cost the Irish points.  This appears to be a problem that he may never correct, which might explain why Kelly didn't choose him to start the season.  He also lacks arm strength. 

However, he is now 6-1 as a starter and despite all of the flaws, he put this team in position to beat Michigan and almost led a comeback against South Florida. 

While the haters will be out in force again this week regarding Tommy Rees, I'm going to look at the positive.  With the Irish trailing on the road yesterday, Rees was nearly perfect in the fourth quarter and the Irish won in the process.

5. Winning Close Games

Earlier in the season following the loss at Michigan, I lamented that this team didn't know how to win and that Kelly's Irish were just 2-5 in games decided by a touchdown or less dating back to last year. 

Yesterday they did find a way to win grew as a team in the process.  This is the second fourth quarter comeback that Rees has been at the controls for.  Good teams find ways to win close games, especially in the fourth quarter when it appears they may not.  We saw this yesterday also with Oklahoma State in their comeback at Texas A&M. 

Are the Irish a good team?  No, not yet.  However, they took a step in that direction yesterday by finding a way to get it done on the road on a day in which they didn't play their best football.