Notre Dame football: Irish score in all three phases again in domination of Pittsburgh

Notre Dame knows what it is. And the Irish know what they are not. Leaning into strengths and just doing enough with weaknesses has worked well for head coach Marcus Freeman’s team in their last two games.

Saturday in South Bend against the visiting Pittsburgh Panthers, very well.

Notre Dame built a three-score lead at halftime and ultimately demolished Pitt, 58-7. The Irish scored five touchdowns on offense, two on special teams and one on defense. That is where understanding what the Irish are and what they are not factored into the ability to boat race a visitor for the second consecutive game in what was a result that paralleled that of when the USC Trojans were in town for a 48-20 bludgeoning.

“If you score three touchdowns on non-offensive plays, I’m sure the stats would tell you it’s probably close to 100 percent, 99 percent you’re going to win that game,” Freeman said. “That was huge for our team to do today.”

The Irish, even with graduate student quarterback Sam Hartman at the controls, do not have a potent offense. Hartman actually threw 2 interceptions before the Irish offense got into the end zone for the first time Saturday. No matter. Leave it to special teams. Senior wide receiver Chris Tyree shot down the field like a cannonball for an 82-yard punt return touchdown to get the Blue and Gold on the board midway through the first quarter.

Hartman didn’t have too bad of a day in spite of the two interceptions. He actually completed 9 of his first 11 pass attempts. The 2 picks were his only incompletions. And he eventually woke up enough to go 18 of 25 for 288 yards. Running back Audric Estimé ran 19 times for 114 yards and 3 touchdowns, the 10th, 11th and 12th scores of his junior season.

“This week was definitely a big step forward for our offense and our team as a whole,” Estimé said.

Yes, Estimé is right. The Irish offense was good in some spots and eventually piled up a whopping 535 total yards. Similar to what Freeman said with three non-offensive TDs, 500-plus yards works against anyone. But the afternoon absolutely still belonged to the other two phases of the game, and that isn’t debatable.

Senior safety Xavier Watts intercepted Pitt quarterback Christian Veilleux twice. Freshman Christian Gray, playing more than usual because sophomore Benjamin Morrison was unavailable with a quad strain, had the first pick of his career. Sophomore Jaden Mickey was in the same boat as Gray — playing more without Morrison available — and he returned his first career interception for a touchdown. Less than two minutes of game time later, senior safety Ramon Henderson fell on a muffed punt in the end zone for a second Notre Dame special teams touchdown.

“Those things are huge in terms of momentum, in terms of winning a football game,” Freeman said.

Estimé scored his second and third touchdowns thereafter to make it 51-0 before Pitt, playing with its backup quarterback, got on the board for the first time with 8:18 left in the game.

The Notre Dame offense eclipsed 400 total yards for the first time since Sept. 16, finishing with 535. For the most part, especially after waking itself up after a shaky start, coordinator Gerad Parker’s unit did its job. But when the Irish defense and special teams is flying to the ball as much as those units were Saturday, Parker’s crew can take a back seat — as much as Notre Dame fans might not want it to.

That is who this Irish team is, and, as much as they can, they’re sticking to it.

“Coach Golden talks a lot about, ‘We gotta win the turnover margin,'” graduate student defensive back Thomas Harper said. “‘We gotta get two-plus.’ Whenever we do that, I think we put our team in a great situation to win.”