As regurgitated on this site, yesterday, Pitt and ND will take a 2 year break following next season’s game and then play home-and-home for 8 years. This makes Beano Cook happy. It came about with more than a little extra push from the Big East itself.
A nice article on Palko‘s determination and desire to win.
If you have the stomach for it, here is the review of the game from last year.
Notre Dame’s offense has not been consistent. They have gotten just enough from QB Brady Quinn to win some games, and everyone says the kid is getting better in the Irish’s west coast offense. Still, their offense struggles. They are 79th in total offense — 90th rushing and 48th passing.
Pitt on offense, well we know about the running game. Pitt is 100th in rushing, but 32nd passing. Pitt’s total offense, overall is not much better — 76th. The thing will come down to defense.
ND is strong up front on the defensive line that ranks them 10th against the run. While they are bad against the pass, 103rd, you have to figure that they will be looking to overpower Pitt’s O-line like they have done the last couple years and most teams have been able to do against Pitt. We can only hope Mike McGlynn and the rest of the O-line can back-up what they say they want to do against a Notre Dame team that is 45th overall in the nation on defense.
When ND has the ball, well despite Pitt’s supposed decent run defense — 37th overall — we’ve seen Pitt get plowed over by teams with a good running back and a strong O-line. While Darius Walker looked to be that back with 115 yards rushing against Michigan and 98 yards versus Michigan St., he has seen a diminished work load in the last 3 games. Still he averages 3.9 yards a carry. I expect them to test the Pitt run defense early.
Pitt’s pass defense, as we know, has been bad. It is 109th in the country, and given the way we saw both Nebraska and UConn use a West Coast, short passing game against Pitt with great success, I’m very worried. Quinn is very capable of burning Pitt all day long with quick outs and slants over the middle.
I think both teams will have trouble scoring. It will be as ugly as the last couple years. The fact that both teams will not score much will keep it close and force us to watch the whole way through. Unfortunately, I don’t see Pitt winning.
ND 20 Pitt 13
