Notre Dame Needs a Statement Win Against Pittsburgh

On paper, this is not even close. Notre Dame is 8-0 and coming off a huge win against Oklahoma. The other has struggled to a 4-4 record and their four victories are nothing to write home about.  They defeated Virginia Tech, Gardner Webb, Buffalo, and Temple. All of which have losing records. The combined record of those teams is 10-22.

Therefore, this is set up to be a blowout. Notre Dame is supposed to beat them convincingly. That is different from what The Irish had been hearing. It all started when Pittsburgh Alum and Notre Dame hater Mark May predicted Notre Dame to lose to Purdue. Then nobody gave them a chance at Michigan State.

After that, it was Denard Robinson and Michigan that would bring the Irish to reality. It continued through Miami and Stanford and then there was the concern of a let down versus BYU. Even with a 7-0 record nobody gave them a chance at Oklahoma.

Now at 8-0 and #3 in the BCS, the experts are now expecting the Irish to dominate all of their opponents going into USC.  To be honest, this is a scary place to be. It is easy to prepare hard for a team like Oklahoma. However, that makes it easy to look past a team like Pittsburgh. That is dangerous to do.

Even though they have been inconsistent, the Panthers are another rival for Notre Dame and they take pride in beating the Fighting Irish. Mr. May also takes pride in it as well. That is why I personally love beating Pittsburgh as much as anybody else. I would love to see Notre Dame make a wager to May stating that if Pitt can pull off this upset, Notre Dame will surrender it's BCS rights. But if Notre Dame continues it's winning ways then May has to get in an MMA ring with a player of the team's choice and the fight doesn't end until the player gets tired of stomping on his face or ramming his head into the cage.

That ought to motivate the Fighting Irish not to look past this team. Brian Kelly has done a great job of keeping them focused on the task at hand and not looking ahead. That has to continue this week. Senior quarterback Tino Sunseri is one of the best in the nation. He has completed 68.9% of his passes for 1878 yards with 10 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions. His rating is an impressive 159.6.

Senior running back Ray Graham is also a legitimate threat. Coming in with 866 total yards and nine total touchdowns, he can produce in both the running and passing game. Mike Shanahan is their toughest receiver. Having said that, this is not Oklahoma and Notre Dame at it's best should be able to stop this team consistently.

Defensively, Pittsburgh is giving up an average of 22 points a game but that is misleading as they have not been consistent on defense either. They have given up as much as 45 and as little as 6(but that was against Gardner Webb). With the trio of great runners in Theo Riddick, Cierre Wood, and George Atkinson and the  emergence of Everett Golson, this defense will have it's hands full.

What it all boils down to is this. If Notre Dame continues to play like it has all year, this will not be close. However, Notre Dame can easily look past a team like this and have a disappointing result.