Quick Recap: Notre Dame beats the crap out of Pitt, 58-7

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish took a week’s worth of rest and translated it into a 58-7 blowout of the Pittsburgh Panthers.

The offense still looked a little out of sorts on Saturday with Sam Hartman throwing a couple of interceptions in the first half, but the defense and special teams were more than enough to take care of Pat Narduzzi’s Pitt team.

The Irish moved the ball early, but Pitt intercepted a Sam Hartman pass intended for Rico Flores to put a stop to the drive. Pitt was forced to punt after a 3 and out, and Chris Tyree took that punt 82 yards for a touchdown. Tyree broke several tackles on the run and looked better with the ball in his hands than I’ve seen in over a year.

After forcing another 3 and out on Pitt’s next possession, Sam Hartman threw his second interception of the day on Notre Dame’s drive. The next time the Irish had the ball in the 1st quarter, the Irish turned the ball over on downs and it looked like we were in for a frustratingly hard day.

That was premature.

The deluge of points began with an Audric Estime 15 yard touchdown run. That drive was started thanks to an Xavier Watts interception. Watts had two interceptions on the day, and is playing incredible football right now.

Marcus Freeman played it safe right before the half and had Spencer Shrader kick a 32 yard field goal instead of trying for the endzone, and the Irish went into the lockers up 17-0.

The Irish scored on 6 of their next 8 drives to push the score to 58-7 (HOW DOD NOTRE DAME GIVE UP THAT TOUCHDOWN?! I screamed kind of jokingly to my dogs) with about 4 minutes left in the game. Those scores included:

• Jadarian Price with a 10 yard TD run.
• Jaden Mickey with a 43 yard interception return for a touchdown.
• A Pitt muffed punt ended with Ramon Henderson falling on the ball in the endzone for a touchdown.
• Audric Estime scored two more short rushing touchdowns for a total of three for the day with 114 yards.

It was a beatdown worthy of Pat Narduzzi’s pettiness, and now it’s on to Clemson.

More to come on OFD.