Greg McElroy makes pick in Notre Dame vs. Pittsburgh showdown

A matchup between Notre Dame and Pittsburgh carries potential College Football Playoff implications this weekend, and Greg McElroy broke it down. The ESPN analyst offered his key takeaways with College Gameday headed to Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Firstly, McElroy addressed the offensive transformation for Pittsburgh since making a quarterback change to Mason Heintschel. He noted that the Panthers are 5-0 since making the switch and scoring at a rate better than any team in the country.

“This team has undergone a bit of an offensive metamorphosis,” he said. “Their 5-0 streak has been mostly because of what they’re doing on that side of the ball. During that five-game run, they’ve scored 200 points, which is pretty remarkable. It all centers around the coaching staff’s decision to bench the incumbent starter Eli Holstein and hand the offense to a true freshman quarterback, Mason Heintschel. He has been named as a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander award as the top freshman in the country and I don’t know how many people have seen Heintschel play.

“He has been so good this season for a guy that’s young, and has really been the engine of the offense that’s now one of the best in the country when it comes to passing the football. His connection already with his wide receivers has been really good. Raphael Williams presents that quick strike ability on the outside. You just didn’t have that as much with Eli Holstein and this transformation has really invigorated this offense and it’s powered almost exclusively through the air. The rushing offense, not great. It’s in the hundreds. So their only viable path right now is through the air, so the game essentially rest on the arm of a true freshman.”

So far this season, Heintschel has thrown for 1,547 yards and 12 touchdowns to only five interceptions. However, McElroy expressed concern for how his offensive line will do protecting him against the Fighting Irish pass rush.

The ESPN analyst pointed to the large number of sacks they’ve already given up this season, ranking 123rd in the country with 3.1 sacks allowed per game. To McElroy, that has to be better to beat a team like Notre Dame.

“Pitt’s offensive line has not been great when it comes to giving up sacks,” he said. This is not new. This is something that’s been a little bit problematic for a while. If you look even to last year, they gave up 43 sacks. They’ve allowed 26 this season and the low point came against Syracuse, who is fine, but not elite by any stretch in getting after the opposing quarterback. They gave up seven sacks in that performance and that’s one thing Notre Dame has done a great job with. As the season’s gone along, their pass rush has steadily improved.

“On paper, if you look at Notre Dame’s pass defense, it’s kind of vulnerable. They are, right now, 90th in college football giving up over 230 yards per game. If you look at how things went prior to the game against the run-heavy, one-dimensional Navy Midshipmen, things didn’t look good prior to that game. Is the secondary a problem? We’ll see. I think they’re improved a little bit from where they were at the beginning of the season, but it might not matter because that pass rush could be so aggressive it might overwhelm Pitt’s offensive line.”

On the other side, Notre Dame has a legit Heisman candidate in running back Jeremiyah Love. He has rushed for 988 yards and 13 touchdowns so far on the season.

McElroy pointed to the matchup between him and a Panthers run defense that ranks third in the country with 80.9 yards allowed per game. That, in his mind, could be the most important factor.

“This game will mostly be decided between the rushing attack of Notre Dame and Pittsburgh’s defensive front,” he said. “This is true strength-on-strength collision. The Irish offense, which is very balanced, they’re a top 25 rushing attack. Just under 200 yards a game and we all know how talented their backs are. Jeremiyah Love is starting to charge as a legitimate Heisman Trophy contender. He’s nearing 1,000 yards, 13 touchdowns, he’s electric and explosive and you’ve seen so many times over the course of the last two seasons him just take over the game. He has an ability to break the game open with just one run.

“Now, he’s going against a great defense led by Pat Narduzzi, who’s not the defensive coordinator, but the head coach. If you look back at Narduzzi’s tenure as a defensive coordinator at Michigan State and his time as a head coach at Pitt, they’re all about stopping the run and they have been very successful with that this year. They are the third-best rush defense in the country They allowed just over 80 yards per game. More impressively, they’re No. 1 in yards per carry. This is a group that’s built on disruption. They are really good playing behind the opposing offensive line. They make a lot of plays in the opponent’s backfield. So getting the Irish behind the sticks and tackling (Jadarian) Price and Love will be a challenge Pitt might very well be up for.”

Finally, McElroy mentioned a number of injuries that Pitt is dealing with heading into this contest. That includes several players on defense as well as running back Desmond Reid.

He specifically highlighted Reid as being a difference maker. The RB has 266 yards rushing and two touchdowns through six games this season.

Ultimately, McElroy is leaning with the Notre Dame to take care of business against Pittsburgh. However, he still expects the Panthers to put up a fight and for it to be a close game.

“I’m gonna take Notre Dame, but I will take the points in this game,” he said. “I think the Irish are legit. I think this will probably be the best team they’ve seen in a while on the defensive side of the football. I think Pitt can and will be very sound against the run. I think their pressure packages could cause some problems for a young quarterback. I think Notre Dame wins, but I expect it to be close there in Pittsburgh.”