Notre Dame vs. Pitt Preview
The game plan has been reviewed, the final practice has been completed, and Corwin Brown has finished crying to the press about how they got disrespected the week before. Charlie Weis has a little down time before it’s time to travel to Pittsburgh to meet the Panthers at Heinz Field. The office is dimly lit; Charlie leans back in his chair with his hands locked behind his head and mutters to no one in particular “Now, how can I totally fuck it up this week?”
Besides the schematics, Coach Weis needs to instill some fire in his team, something I don’t think he’s capable of doing. Besides just going through the motions the Fighting Irish need to play some inspired football. ND’s record against ranked teams is dismal.
Oh and there’s this thing called DEFENSE. If Notre Dame hopes to have a chance against Pitt, their defense better show up.
Notre Dame has a tough fight coming up Saturday night against the 8th ranked Pitt Panthers who, at 8-1, are off to their best start since 1982. The Fighting Irish, who have had to comeback from four 4th quarter deficits this year is facing a team that came back from a 14 point deficit against the Irish last year and went on to win after four overtimes. The “Stash” is also 18-5 in his last 23 games at Pitt.
The ND-Pitt rivalry started in 1909, with the teams meeting up 63 times since then. Pitt has won two of the last three. Dave Wannstedt is in his fifth year at Pitt with a record of 33-24 compared to Weis’s record in his fifth season at 35-24.
Pitt features Freshman running back Dion Lewis who has already rushed for over a 1000 yards and, with 12 TD’s to his credit this season, is only 2 TD’s shy of tying LeSean McCoy’s Freshman record of 14. Pitt also leads the nation in sacks, averaging over 4 a game. Pitt and ND each have 9 turnovers through the season.
This is a game that will come down to ball control and clock management. ND’s offensive line will have their hands full protecting Jimmy Clausen against an aggressive Pitt Defensive Line. Notre Dame will start Mike Ragone (3 catches for 39 yards this season) at tight end after losing Sophomore Kyle Rudolph to a shoulder injury suffered last week against Navy.
Notre Dame will have two players back for Saturday’s game. Running back Armando Allen (ankle), who missed the last two games and right guard Trevor Robinson (ankle), who missed last week’s game. Both are expected to start against the Panthers