SOUTH BEND, IN - OCTOBER 13: Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Dexter Williams (2) runs by Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Oluwaseun Idowu (23) during the college football game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Pittsburgh Panthers on October 13, 2018, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were tested and survived, but they didn’t appear to be much of a powerhouse against the Pitt Panthers today. That could hurt their playoff chances. For the Fighting Irish to have a realistic shot at getting into the College Football Playoffs this year, Notre Dame needs to win every single game that it plays in. And, well, Notre Dame did just that today when they escaped their game against Pittsburgh. However, more than just a simple win is expected and the Panthers were too much of a challenge for Notre Dame. That doesn’t bode well in the long run for Brian Kelly’s team. Given that the Fighting Irish are an independent program, there is a need for the Irish to look dominant in all of their games this year because Notre Dame will have one fewer game than most conference champs. Up to today, the Fighting Irish have done just that and have built a solid résumé. Notre Dame has wins over then No. 14 Michigan, then No. 7 Stanford, and then No. 24 Virginia Tech. Those are notable and solid victories that Kelly and his team have earned. But this game against Pitt is going to stick with many fans and analysts more than those wins will. This season, Pitt is 3-4. The Panthers are far from a good team in 2018 and it wasn’t that long ago that they lost to a mediocre North Carolina Tar Heels team. Yet, despite how mediocre Pitt might also be, the Panthers still led Notre Dame for most of the game. It took a touchdown with under six minutes left in the game for the Fighting Irish to even take a lead over Pitt. And at the end of the day, Notre Dame only won by five points. Quarterback Ian Book was the leading rusher for the Fighting Irish with 31 yards on 16 carries. That’s not going to impress a college football playoff committee that will look at far more explosive offenses on other teams. And though he was solid through the air, completing 26 of his 32 passes for 264 yards, a couple of touchdowns, and then also throwing a couple of picks won’t inspire much confidence. Against the Panthers, the Fighting Irish didn’t appear explosive, dominant, or even remotely impressive. Whether its fair or unfair, Notre Dame needs to look explosive, dominant, and impressive. This team won’t get the benefit of the doubt. The last time that Notre Dame was in the national championship discussion was a few years back in 2012. That Notre Dame team went undefeated, faced off against a one-loss SEC champ down in Miami, and then lost to the Crimson Tide in humbling fashion. Don’t be surprised if college football fans bring up that blowout that completely exposed the Fighting Irish as frauds that year. Earlier that season, that 2012 Notre Dame team also played against Pitt. That game was closer than most Irish fans wanted and it served as something of an indicator that Notre Dame was not quite as good as it wanted to appear. That Fighting Irish team took down No. 10 Michigan State, No. 18 Michigan, No. 17 Stanford, and No. 8 Oklahoma. But it was that close game against Pitt that may have revealed the Irish’s weaknesses and imperfections. Fans are going to compare the 2018 version of Notre Dame to the 2012 version. There’s going to be comparisons to how both teams fared against the Pitt Panthers. For Notre Dame’s sake, it is great they came out on top. However, they needed to be dominant for their sake today. They weren’t. Instead, the Fighting Irish looked like a college football playoff pretender. Because of recent history, don’t be surprised if this win actually ends up hurting Notre Dame’s chances to get into the playoffs.<doc-sep>Notre Dame survived a scare Saturday and remains a factor in the College Football Playoff hunt. Here are three takeaways from the fifth-ranked Irish's 19-14 victory over Pittsburgh at Notre Dame Stadium. 1. Julian Okwara was everywhere. Okwara caused fits for Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett. The 6-4 1/2, 241-pound defensive end had seven quarterback hurries. He also had a key tackle in the fourth quarter, stopping Darrin Hall for a 3-yard loss on a third-and-2 pass play. Okwara made six tackles. "The play that he made on third down tells more about his overall game," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. "His ability to drop out of coverage and make a play like that on a running back ... he's a pretty special player. When you need a clutch tackle, @shwaggyj is there. He puts the Pitt receiver in the turf to force a punt with seven and a half minutes left in the game.#GoIrish☘️ #PITTvsND pic.twitter.com/cqHXfSGzO7 — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 13, 2018 "He does a lot of things that sometimes don't show up on the stat sheet, per se, nationally, but he's one dynamic player." Okwara was part of a defense that kept Pitt in check after its first drive. The Panthers had 88 yards on that drive, then 154 the rest of the game. MORE: LSU, Michigan soar in latest AP Top 25 | How Week 7 could impact the CFP picture 2. Special teams played a vital role for both teams. Notre Dame made some mistakes. An offside penalty while Pitt prepared to punt extended the Panthers' first possession, and they capitalized with a touchdown. And Pitt's Maurice French returned the second-half kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. It wasn't all good news for the Panthers. They missed field goals of 47 and 36 yards. And leading late, the Irish weren't caught sleeping when the Panthers attempted a fake punt. Backup quarterback Jeff George Jr. threw an incomplete pass with 2 minutes, 9 seconds remaining. Top moments from undefeated No. 5 Notre Dame’s victory over Pittsburgh.#GoIrish ☘️ pic.twitter.com/q0xslRPOcD — Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 14, 2018 "We have a team that we call 'Magic' that is set for fake punts and offensive sets," Kelly said. "It's a group that is set just for that, so it's prepared for fakes." RELATED: Here's how Miami could still get to the ACC championship game 3. The Irish passed another test. After three consecutive blowout victories, Notre Dame showed it is capable of making a fourth-quarter comeback. "A lot of good things that we can take from it," Kelly said. "We obviously can't play like this week-in and week-out and feel like we're going to win every game. But you're going to have some of these, and you have to grow from them, and I really like our football team. They will grow from this." This article is written by Lamond Pope from Chicago Tribune and was legally licensed via the Tribune Content Agency through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.<doc-sep>There were some rumblings across the college football world that this Saturday could be a special kind of Saturday. Still... I don’t think anyone was prepared for the type of day that it was going to become — least of all fans of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame was a 3 touchdown favorite against the Pittsburgh Panthers, but we found out pretty quickly that the spread Vegas gave us was going to get thrown out of the damn window. Now, if you’re still feeling pretty crappy about that 19-14 win over Pitt, let me remind you what happened on Saturday: #2 Lost #3 Won kind of meh #5 Hello ND #6 Lost #7 Lost #8 Lost #9 Close Win #10 Close Win So... four of the top eight lost, while 4 of the top 10 won close games (Ohio State was 2 scores... but meh). The only two not to be involved in this mess... Alabama and Clemson. The former still played the sloppiest game of its season, and the later had a bye. It was SCARY AF SATURDAY. Notre Dame won, and we should be a lot happier than what we are probably feeling. 7-0 y’all. 2 PLAYS FOR 2 SCORES WAS SPECIAL The Notre Dame defense actually played lights out today. Pitt scored two touchdowns today, and they were both directly related to something the special teams unit did. The first was the offsides call on Nicco Fertitta on a punt return. It kept the Pitt drive alive in the first quarter, and they punched it in the endzone. The second was a kickoff return for touchdown by Maurice Ffrench at the start of the 3rd quarter. AND THAT’S IT. Pitt racked up a grand total of 242 yards. With no Troy Pride Jr. (ankle) today, their performance was more than acceptable. 2 MUCH PRESSURE While it can certainly be said that the “pressure got to ND this week,” by those that follow the program, it was much more specific. The offensive line could not handle the different pressures, schemes, and blitz packages that Pitt was bringing regularly. At one point, I had flashbacks of a flying Ram Vela (Navy 2007) when Dennis Briggs cam flying in off the edge to sack Ian Book. Pitt recorded 3 sacks, but somehow only managed 3 QB hurries. It felt like Ian Book was being pressured all game long, and perhaps that’s because he played like there was pressure around him when there wasn’t. That’s a credit to Pitt, but also an indictment of the Irish offensive line. They have a lot to work on over the bye, and maybe that’s some movement along the line. 2 SEARCH After two weeks of Dexter Williams heroics, the senior running back was shut down by the Pitt defense. Williams had 13 carries for 31 yards, and 2 receptions for 2 yards. Once again, the biggest culprit was the Irish offensive line. There were, basically, no running lanes to be found. I think we all kept waiting for Dexter to break one wide open — and yet it never came. It really was one of those days that Notre Dame probably needed to throw more as Brian Kelly suggested in the post game presser. I really can’t believe I’m agreeing with that, but the best way to beat all that pressure from Pitt’s front 7 (and 8) would be to use some screens. That could have been Dexter’s big breaks for the game — but Notre Dame can’t run a screen to its running backs to save its life or its season. 2 LEGIT PLAYERS Even with all of the frustrating play during the game, there were two players that stood out the most against Pitt. Miles Boykin. The Book to Boykin combo still proves deadly, and Miles caught 4 balls for 84 yards and that TD. Julian Okwara. The Irish defense had an astonishing 10 quarterback hurries against the Panthers, and Julian had SEVEN of them. YO! He also had a pass break-up and 6 tackles. MORE THINGS 2 SAY<doc-sep>
On a bizarre Saturday around college football, sometimes the best a team can hope for is to get the win -- no matter how ugly or tough -- and move on. That was the case for No. 5 Notre Dame, which needed a late fourth quarter touchdown to avoid being upset by Pitt, 19-14 in South Bend. This was more than a slow start by the Irish. The offense wasn't able to get into the end zone until there were two minutes left in the third quarter. Overall, the Irish averaged 4.9 yards per play, had a pair of interceptions and a brutal failed fourth-down attempt in the fourth quarter that could have cost them the game. Still, the upset was avoided, so here's what we learned about the close call in South Bend. 1. Notre Dame's offense underperformed. Or Pitt's defense played better than expected, depending on your viewpoint. The reality is it's a little bit of both. Notre Dame had a hard time running the ball at 2.1 yards per rush. For as much as quarterback Ian Book has elevated the ceiling of this offense, it doesn't matter if the Irish can't run the ball effectively. And this is against a run defense that ranks near the bottom of the ACC. But credit to Pitt's defense for showing up. The Panthers had given up 18 touchdowns in three losses before Saturday. 2. Never play Pitt if you're a top five team. Pitt's notorious record against top-five teams didn't entirely help this time, but it's still good to avoid the Panthers in these situations if possible. (Note that Notre Dame has to play Pitt as part of its scheduling agreement with the ACC, so there's no avoiding it there.) Pitt, of course, had monster wins over No. 2 Miami in 2017, No. 2 Clemson in 2016 and No. 2 West Virginia in 2007. This looked like another game in which the Panthers might pull off a massive upset by getting its opponent to play down. Notre Dame came away with the win, but it wasn't easy by any means. It was a very "2012 Notre Dame survive-and-advance" type of win. The Irish will take it ... and maybe burn the film. 3. Pitt's special teams were costly. The Panthers kicked off the second half with a monster 99-yard touchdown return by Maurice Ffrench. However, special teams were mostly costly in this loss. Kicker Alex Kessman went 0-for-2 on field goal attempts and coach Pat Narduzzi called a bizarre fake punt with about three minutes remaining from near midfield. Sometimes, so-called "bad calls" are really just plays that weren't executed properly, but in that instance, Pitt was better off simply going for it on fourth down instead of trying to catch Notre Dame off guard and giving the Irish good field position. In a close game, special teams can make a difference. That was the case here. 4. Having Book still paid off. The move to Book midseason has been a well-documented success. And while this was nowhere near Notre Dame's best offensive performance, it still helps immensely to have a quarterback who can hit the downfield pass. That's exactly what Book did on the Irish's 35-yard pass to Miles Boykin in the fourth quarter for the go-ahead score. It felt like a matter of time before the Irish were about to break something open once there was clear urgency. That was the difference-making play. Sometimes, that one play is all you need.