Game Recap: Notre Dame 23 Pittsburgh 17

I was at home in PA visiting my family this week, which is why I took my bye a little earlier than the team's (apologies for that).  Saturday I attended the second real game ever at Consol Energy Center, the Penguins' shiny new igloo.  When I left the car to walk to the arena, Notre Dame was up 23-10 and I was feeling rather comfortable.  I immediately started monitoring the game on my phone and saw the Jonathan Baldwin touchdown.  I was considerably less comfortable at that point.

As my friends and I started to explore Consol, my only goal was to find a television carrying the game, which I thought might be possible considering Pitt's campus was 2.7 miles away.  While I'm sure a TV was turned to NBC in the club section, we riff raff were treated to dozens of screens showing Penguins pregame or hockey highlights from around the NHL.  It was hell.  Thankfully Rob stepped in with play-by-play via BBM and I was assured of our victory before the puck dropped.  On the drive home, I was checking Twitter and the usual sites and assumed the fourth quarter must have been some mismanaged disaster where the team barely held on, like the majority of 2009 wins.

When I finally got back to my parent's place and fired up the fourth quarter on DVR, things never seemed to be that hairy.  Now, of course they're not going to seem as scary when I knew victory would be achieved, but while Pitt was one big play away from taking the lead, they were never really threatening.  There were a couple of silly drops, some offensive penalties that cost the Irish yardage and points (I thought the Riddick offensive pass interference was pretty blatant, but the way Kelly complained about it in his press conference leads me to believe I don't have enough experience in judging such matters) and Jamoris Slaughter made a really, really dumb play on that Baldwin touchdown that I'm sure he was reminded of repeatedly.  People complaining about too much passing in the fourth were somewhat justified in their anger, but when so many of the passes are quick throws to the perimeter or shovel passes inside, they really are just long handoffs and not that much more dangerous than running toss sweeps.  If Mike Ragone doesn't drop that ball on second down, the game is over and we don't get any of the goal line theatrics when Pitt had the ball on their final possession.

I think we really need to give credit to this defense for finishing off games, because with the large and painful exception of Denard Robinson, they have suffocated the opposition late in the game.  For example:

• Purdue got the ball back down 23-12 with 4:30 left in the game.  They had an eleven yard rush on first down, then went sack, short completion, completion for no gain and incompletion.  Game over.
• Against Michigan State, the Spartans got the ball with 6:03 left on the Notre Dame 44 after a failed conversion.  The series went tackle for loss, short completion, short completion, punt.  They got the ball back deep in Michigan State territory with 1:44 left, and after two quick completions for a first down, it went sack, holding penalty, short rush, illegal forward pass, punt.  In overtime, the Spartans rushed for a loss, got a decent gain on the ground on second down before being sacked on third.  I don't know what happened after that.
• Against Pitt, the Panthers got the ball back down six with 7:23 to play.  The drive went short rush, short rush, incomplete pass, dumb timeout by Wannstedt, punt.  After the Notre Dame offense couldn't finish off the game, Pitt got the ball back with over three minutes to go.  That drive went near-safety, near-interception, short completion, incompletion, game over.

Now obviously ignoring the end of the Michigan game is some very selective remembering by me, but I'm not saying this is an elite, lockdown defense.  It is, more accurately, one that has risen to the occasion this season more often than not through six games.  It is not yet a unit you can rely on to win you games if nothing else is working, but if the offense is clicking and David Ruffer is doing his record-breaking thing, Bob Diaco's defense is not going to lose you many games.  This is an improvement over the last couple years, and something Irish fans can be thankful for.

A few more notes on the season thus far and the season to come:

• Before the season started, I thought a 3-3 start would be acceptable.  When it was 1-3, things were not feeling particularly acceptable, but the team took care of business and sits at .500, a few plays away from 5-1.  Again, individual wins and losses in the first season of a new regime are not as important as an overall improvement in the program, but it's nice to set little benchmarks and hit them on the way.  Speaking of goals, these next three weeks should all be relatively comfortable wins going into the bye week and Utah, although it's been a long time since the game with Navy has been described as "comfortable."
• Michael Floyd looked like a man motivated and ready to kick some ass Saturday, which was a nice thing to see.  Kyle Rudolph looked like a man who needed to spend a week or two stretched out on a couch watching some crappy television and letting his body heal for the stretch run in November.  Let's see what Eifert and Ragone can do these next couple weeks and try to limit Rudy's actions, as the guy has tried to be a solider, but he's just not 100%.
• I don't think there's a storyline from this season I love more than Manti Te'o and Carlo Calabrese watching Bob Ross before the games.
• I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but if Utah beats TCU and Notre Dame doesn't do anything stupid and comes into the game on a five-game win streak, I think it's very possible College Gameday comes to town.  Looking at the competition, the biggest hurdles would be South Carolina at Florida (this seems like the big favorite) and possibly Penn State and Ohio State, but considering how awful the Nittany Lions are, I think we can write that off.
• It seems like the tackles are having trouble early in games, but after some sort of adjustment (be it by the coaches, or just getting used to the speed of the rush end), they look themselves in the mirror ("You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, you need to protect Dayne Crist's blindside.") and take care of business the rest of the game.  Playing offensive tackle is one of the more thankless jobs in the game, as when you're doing your job everyone just forgets about you, while any time you mess up you're going to get multiple replays pointing out your error to millions.  It's been a good sign for the Irish that my untrained eyes haven't really noticed our tackles much this season.  
• Even if Floyd and Rudolph move on next year, you've got to love the options in the passing game that TJ Jones and Theo Riddick are starting to provide.  You'd like to see a little more production from the reserves, but the kids are improving every game.