PITTSBURGH — Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi raised eyebrows this week when he declined to describe the 22nd-ranked Panthers’ game against No. 9 Notre Dame as a “must win.”
Technically, Narduzzi was right. Pitt’s only path to the College Football Playoff is by winning the ACC championship.
Notre Dame has no such wiggle room. And the Fighting Irish played like it.
Jeremiyah Love ran for 147 yards and a score, Malachi Fields hauled in a pair of touchdown passes and Notre Dame bullied the Panthers 37-15 on Saturday.
The Irish (8-2) have won eight straight following an 0-2 start. If Notre Dame can avoid being upset by Syracuse or Stanford to end the regular season, it is likely heading back to the CFP after finishing runner-up to Ohio State a year ago.
Love gave his burgeoning Heisman Trophy campaign a boost by finishing with 167 total yards, including a 56-yard sprint to the end zone in the first quarter that included a spin move seemingly lifted straight out of a video game.
The junior credited his team’s cohesion for helping it grow comfortable with its back against the wall after it began the year with consecutive losses to Miami and Texas A&M.
“Everybody cares for each other,” Love said. “There’s no offense on this side of the locker room or defense on the other side. Everybody’s together at all times. I feel like that togetherness has helped us to fight through adversity.”
Not that there’s been much of it over the last two months. Notre Dame’s margin of victory during its current run is a healthy 25 points, with all eight games decided by double digits.
“We’re getting better, but we’re not perfect,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said.
Maybe, but Notre Dame hardly needed to be on a day when the Panthers (7-3) were the ones making the majority of the mistakes.
Heintschel harried
The Panthers’ rise to near the top of the ACC standings began when Mason Heintschel supplanted Eli Holstein at quarterback in early October. The true freshman’s impressive start hit its first significant speed bump against an Irish defense that gave him little time or space to work.
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Heintschel completed just 16 of 33 passes for 126 yards with an interception that Notre Dame’s Tae Johnson zigzagged 48 yards for a touchdown to give the Irish an early 14-0 lead they never flirted with giving away.
Notre Dame sacked Heintschel four times, and safety Adon Shuler — whose bruising but clean hit on Pitt receiver Blue Hicks on the Panthers’ opening drive helped set the tone — returned a two-point conversion attempt 100-plus yards the other way to put Notre Dame up 30-9 late in the third quarter and end any remote chance of a comeback after a pick-six by Rasheem Biles had briefly given the Panthers a jolt.
“He’s not a guy who gets shaken up, but I think it would shake anybody up a little bit,” Narduzzi said of the pressure Heintschel faced. “You start to go, ‘OK, I’ve got to get the heck out of here.’ Give them credit, they’ve got a good front seven, as talented as any you’re going to face in the country.”
Fields’ day
Notre Dame seemed to have a significant size advantage at nearly every position, perhaps nowhere more so than at wide receiver, where 6-foot-4 Malachi Fields caught seven passes for 99 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Yet neither score — not even his leaping 25-yard grab at the goal line late in the first half that put Notre Dame up 18 — compared to the diving one-handed snag Fields made at midfield in the first quarter that left his teammates in awe.
“Crazy,” Love said. “I don’t even think Malachi thought he was going to catch that ball.”
Takeaways
Notre Dame: The Irish seem to be getting better each week. Save for some questionable play-calling — Notre Dame turned it over on downs at the Pitt 1 in the first half when the Irish opted to have Carr pass rather than hand the ball to the best running back in the country — this one was never in doubt, just like most of Notre Dame’s previous seven victories. The Irish will hold steady at worst and could tick up a spot or two in the polls depending on what happens elsewhere in the country.
Pitt: The Panthers still have a shot at reaching the ACC title game if they can beat No. 14 Georgia Tech and No. 16 Miami to end the regular season. Still, they were decidedly outclassed by the Irish, who outgained the Panthers 387-219 and bullied Pitt in a way it hasn’t been bullied this year. Pitt’s appearance in the AP Top 25 and the CFP rankings figures to be a cameo, though the Panthers will have multiple chances to earn their way back in over the next two weeks.
Up next
- Notre Dame: Plays host to Syracuse on Saturday.
- Pitt: Travels to Georgia Tech on Saturday.