The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are still undefeated after Saturday and will likely find themselves inside the top four teams this week thanks to a loss by Georgia. After finding themselves engaged in an absolute slugfest against Pitt, the Irish overcame arguably their worst game of the year to emerge victorious. With that being said, here are the three things we learned coming into the bye week.

Miles Boykin is Clutch

The Notre Dame offense has been given a lot of praise since the insertion of quarterback Ian Book, and for good reason. The thing that seems to have gone unnoticed by the national media, however, is just how important Miles Boykin is to the team’s success. Saturday proved that very point. With the offense struggling to find the end zone, it was Boykin who broke free to reel in a deep 35-yard touchdown. The score gave Notre Dame its first and only lead of the game.

“Yeah, Miles made a great move and stuck it on the post and like I’ve said many times, he’s really rangy, so just got to put him up there and give him a chance,” said Book. “That’s something I was focusing on all week was giving our guys a chance, not overthrowing. Can’t doing anything with that. Throw it and Miles will go get it.”

Boykin allows the offense to keep defenses honest and not solely focused on the running game. Look for the senior to make a few more big plays before the season is over.

Special Teams Needs Improvement

The special teams play was the unquestioned story of the day until the late heroics of Boykin. In the first quarter, a penalty on fourth and four gave Pitt a new set of downs. They would go on to score their sole offensive touchdown on that very drive. Then coming out of halftime, Pitt returned the kickoff for a 99-yard touchdown to extend their lead to 14-6.

Fortunately for the Irish, Pitt was not much better on special teams. Sophomore Alex Kessman missed two field goals that proved to be the difference in the five-point loss for the Panthers. Ultimately, Notre Dame will have to improve in this area before facing the back half of their schedule.

Defense Wins Championships

The Irish defense gives spectators plenty of reasons to be excited. After facing some things they hadn’t seen this year and allowing 49 rushing yards in the first quarter, Notre Dame allowed just 67 yards on the ground through the remainder of the game. In fact, they were able to shut down the passing game as well. Pitt managed a measly 126 passing yards on the day.

“I was talking to Jack Swarbrick, our athletic director, a little about this,” said head coach Brian Kelly. “Some of the statistical things that are interesting. We’re about 115th in the country in terms of completions per game. I think we’re like 10th or 12th in terms of yards per completion and a lot of that is because we don’t have to big pressure because our four-man rush is getting pressure. So you may get some completions, but they are very short completions. We’re coming up and making tackles. We’re keeping the ball in front of us and that’s the kind of defense that we’re playing right now.”

The Irish will now have a week off before hitting the road to face another tough matchup with Navy.