For a game that was billed as a defensive showdown, we’ve seen some rather decent offense so far. Fortunately for Notre Dame, it was the team that converted better on its scoring opportunities. The result is a 7-3 Irish lead over Pittsburgh after the first quarter.
Ian Book took control on the game’s opening possession, leading a drive that included using both his running and passing abilities to achieve third-down success. During that drive, Book became the second quarterback in Notre Dame history to eclipse 8,000 total yards in a career, joining Brady Quinn (11,944). It culminated on a 34-yard touchdown pass to Northwestern transfer Ben Skowronek. In the Irish’s fifth game, that’s their longest touchdown reception of the season.
On Pitt’s opening possession, the Irish uncharacteristically surrendered a pair of third-down conversions to start but held serve on the third series of downs thanks to some nice play from their secondary. The Panthers settled for a 45-yard field goal from Alex Kessman. After that, we started to see more of that defensive showdown we thought we were going to get as neither offense was able to do much for the rest of the quarter. We’ve also seen penalties make a difference in the course of the game, which is typical for a game involving Pitt, so keep an eye out for those.