Jeremiyah Love had 23 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown, and No. 9 Notre Dame sprinted to a 37-15 win over No. 22 Pitt on Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.
CJ Carr completed 21 of 32 passes for 212 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for Notre Dame (8-2), which won its eighth game in a row. Malachi Fields caught seven passes for 99 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Mason Heintschel completed 16 of 33 passes for 126 yards and an interception for Pitt (7-3), whose five-game winning streak ended. Backup quarterback Eli Holstein took over late in the game and completed 3 of 6 passes for 23 yards and a touchdown.
Notre Dame outgained Pitt 387-219, including a 175-70 advantage on the ground.
Love opened the scoring on a 56-yard run with 8:16 remaining in the first quarter. He dodged a defender with a sudden spin move and raced the rest of the way for the score.
The Fighting Irish defense notched a touchdown to make it 14-0 only 17 seconds later. Safety Tae Johnson intercepted Heintschel and took it to the house for a 48-yard pick six.
Pitt got on the scoreboard with Sam Carpenter’s 24-yard field goal early in the second quarter.
Carr put Notre Dame on top 21-3 late in the first half. He found Fields, who caught a jump ball down the left sideline for a 25-yard touchdown.
Carr and Fields connected again, this time on a 6-yard touchdown strike, to increase the Fighting Irish lead to 28-3 with 10:43 left in the third quarter.
Pitt notched its own interception return for a touchdown late in the third quarter. Rasheem Biles picked off Carr and returned it for a 10-yard score that cut the deficit to 28-9.
On an unlikely play moments later, Fighting Irish safety Adon Shuler intercepted Pitt’s two-point conversion attempt five yards into the end zone and sprinted to the opposite end zone for what’s officially a 100-yard return. The result gave Notre Dame two points instead of Pitt, which boosted the score to 30-9.
Carr made it 37-9 with a 5-yard rushing touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Pitt capped the scoring on the final play of the game. Holstein completed a pass to Malachi Thomas, who sprinted into the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown.
