Notre Dame’s speed zaps Pitt

Associated Press

SOUTH BEND, Ind.

Brian Kelly’s baby, his spread offense, was clicking for a half. Notre Dame’s no-huddle was snapping off plays so rapidly that Pitt’s defense was hurrying to get organized. The speed early on was almost dizzying.

But the 17-3 lead the Irish forged by halftime — thanks also to Pitt’s struggles to score from inside the 20 — didn’t end in a comfortable win for Notre Dame. Not that style points mean anything to Kelly.

“Again, got off to a pretty good start offensively, but as we’ve shown, we are really good at stubbing our toe, whether it be a penalty here or a drop here. But that’s us,” Kelly said after the Irish held on to beat the Panthers 23-17 Saturday.

“It’s not a beauty contest yet for us. It’s certainly not that. But my job is to get Notre Dame to win football games and we’re starting to do that.”

Quarterback Dayne Crist passed for a TD and ran for another in the first half, completing 12 straight passes at one point.

And the Irish got three field goals from David Ruffer, who stayed perfect in his career (16-for-16) while setting a school record for consecutive makes.

“You can just see the way we operate it, it can be really effective,” Crist said. “We’re happy with the way we were moving the ball while we were in that tempo.”

Still, the Panthers climbed back into it. Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri hit Jon Baldwin on a 56-yard TD to bring the Panthers within 23-17 with 7:23 left.

Pitt (2-3) got the ball back twice thereafter — at its own 10 with 4:45 to go and again at its 7 with 1:37 remaining. But on its final series, Gary Gray broke up a fourth-down pass intended for Baldwin and Notre Dame (3-3) ran out the clock for its second straight win following a three-game losing streak.

Pitt moved inside the Notre Dame 20-yard line three times in the first half — reaching the 9, the 10 and the 19 — but managed only three points.