Notre Dame football survived a wild CFB weekend with a 37-15 win over Pitt. This is the Irish’s eighth straight victory and they are 8-2 heading into the season’s final two games. From 30,000 feet, it’s as good of a win as you could ask for but lets see what nuggets we can pull from data tables.
Scoring Context
The Irish’s average differential per game through Week 12 is +20. The Pitt game differential was +22, right above that season average. The team put 37 points up on the scoreboard and their season average is around
38.5.
The defense is where the big scoring trend story lies for Notre Dame. The 2025-26 season started off rocky for the unit but they’re allowing an average of 18 points per game with two matchups left to play. Things didn’t deviate much from the recent trend this week and the Irish defense held Pitt to 15 points.
Total Offense Context
The offensive stats took a bit of a drop off against Pitt. Notre Dame is averaging 456 yards of total offense per game so far and they only produced 387 yards of total offense in Week 12. Similar performances were the 389 offensive yards against Boise State and 314 yards against Miami (FL) in the season opener. It was the team’s second worst offensive outing, from the efficiency perspective. ND averaged 5.7 yards per offensive play and the floor up to this point is 5.4 yards against Miami (FL).
Passing Context
Notre Dame pressed the issue through the air a bit more against Pitt. The team is averaging 27 pass attempts per game and had let up a bit in the USC, Boston College and Navy games. But the Irish threw 32 times against Pitt.
Production didn’t necessarily follow, though. The team finished the game with 212 passing yards and the season average is 285 yards. It was their second lowest production total, with the 136 passing yard performance against USC being the floor.
CJ Carr’s completion rate was 66%, he averaged 6.6 yards per attempt and unfortunately threw two picks.
Receivers
Wide receiver Malachi Fields and tight end Eli Raridon were the star ball catchers for Notre Dame against Pitt. Fields recorded seven receptions for 99 yards and both of the team’s touchdowns through the air. Raridon pulled down six catches for 67 yards and an average of 11.2 yards per catch.
Rushing Context
Notre Dame matched the season average of 36 rush attempts in Week 12 against Pitt. They tallied up 175 yards for those efforts, with the season average per game for rushing yards being 193. The rushing group averaged just 4.9 yards per carry, which is generally the middle of the pack for stats through Week 12. Their least efficient rushing performances were 3.9 yards against NC State, 3.5 yards against Texas A&M and 3.3 yards against Miami (FL).
Rushers
Another weekend, another set of monster stats for CFB’s best running back, Jeremiyah Love. Love logged 23 carries in the Pitt game and turned those into 147 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback CJ Carr finished the game with five rush attempts on one touchdown on the ground.
Defense (Passing)
The Irish secondary has improved a lot since we kicked things off this season, but teams continue to throw at them a lot. On average, Notre Dame is having to defend 34 passes per game. And if you remove the Navy outlier from the data set that stat is 37.
Pitt made 39 pass attempts and completed only 19 of those a less than stellar 49% completion rate. Those 19 completions translated to 149 yards through the air. Excluding the Navy game, it was the defense’s best game in terms of limiting passing yards.
And standout freshman safety Tae Johnson nabbed one interception that was returned 49 yards for a touchdown during the first quarter.
Defense (Rushing)
Notre Dame’s defense continues to put the clamps on opponents’ rushing attacks. They held Pitt to 70 yards on the ground and only 2.8 yards per carry.
Defense (Impactful)
Defensive lineman Joshua Burnham was the defense’s standout for impactful plays. Burnham finished the Pitt game with two sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss. Safety Adon Shuler recorded impact plays at all levels with one sack, one tackle for loss and one pass deflection. Jason Onye recorded one sack and one tackle for loss while Bryce Young and Luke Talich had two pass deflections a-piece.
Final Thoughts
We’ll get to see the Irish take the field two more time before they hit what we can all assume will be the College Football Playoff. The Committee ranked Notre Dame #10 in their first 2025-26 list and the program inched up to #9 last week.
Pitt was sitting in the #24 spot and improved to #22 before this loss. It’s expected that there’s going to be some movement at the top and the bottom and I don’t get the impression that Notre Dame will move much in either direction on the next list. They continue to look solid against the opponents they face and that can’t be said for teams that are being more highly touted. It’s obvious that the Irish are locked in every week, regardless of what the Committee has communicated in the past or the future. You’ve got to feel good about that.
