Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from huge road win over Pitt

Pitt was expected to be the toughest test for Notre Dame football to date, but the Irish took care of business and blew the Panthers out.

Notre Dame had a lot to prove heading into Saturday’s game. The Irish were 4-0 before facing a tough Pitt squad but there was an overwhelming feeling that their record was a little deceiving. They had beaten teams like Duke, South Florida, Florida State and Louisville and only looked dominant in that one non-conference battle.

That changed on Saturday as the Irish bounced back from an ugly 12-7 win over Louisville last week to beat Pittsburgh in dominant fashion 45-3.

Pat Narduzzi and the Panthers had been known for being giant-slayers over the years, but couldn’t quite get the job done on Saturday to lose their fourth straight game after beginning the year 3-0.

What’d we learn from Notre Dame’s win over Pitt?

3. Notre Dame tight ends are scary

Once again, Notre Dame has a couple of tight ends that could strike fear into just about any defense and that was the case on Saturday as Michael Mayer had a huge game.

Tommy Tremble came into the year as a tight end to watch for on a national level and he’s been kind of quiet, but he’s always going to be a threat in the receiving game. He has 10 catches for over 100 yards on the year and even though he was held in check against Pitt and that usually-stingy defense, the Irish had another tight end step up.

Mayer, a freshman, looks like Rob Gronkowski and even earned the nickname “Baby Gronk” and played like it against Pitt. He caught five passes for 73 yards and a touchdown and looks like a future NFL star.

Can we just officially call Notre Dame ‘Tight End U’ yet?