After rallying last week to defeat unbeaten Temple, the Irish face another real challenge today in Pitt.

ND never should have had to rally to win last week. In fact, the final score does not show how much ND was in control of the game but turnovers prevented them from winning by a comfortable margin. Give Temple credit, the Owls are a fine team and deserving of the recognition they have received to date. But DeShone's Kizer's two interceptions in the red zone and the Irish offense only getting 10 points out of four trips into the red zone, kept Temple in the game.Interceptions aside, Kizer had another big game statistically. He rushed for 143 yards on 17 carries and two scores. He also completed 23 of 36 passes for 299 yards. As I say each week, he is getting better and he is only a red shirt freshman.ND's running game struggled in the contest because the Owls were able to bottle up running back C.J. Prosise, who had only 25 yards on 14 carries. Total rush offense was 168 yards.The Irish defense again played two games. At times the Irish "D" was dominating, then at times it looked horrible. But overall, the defense made the plays when it had to, including KeiVarae Russell's key interception to preserve the win with less than two minutes to play.The Irish moved up one spot to 8th in the national rankings and are still in the playoff tournament hunt. The first rankings of teams in contention for a playoff spot has the Irish 5th. But there are still plenty of key games ahead for most teams on the list. And as I wrote last week, the Irish must finish unbeaten in their final four games. November, of late, has not been a good month for coach Brian Kelly. Prior to coming to ND Kelly was 48-13 in games played in November. He then won 11 of his first 12 at ND in the month. However, in his last eight November games he is 2-6. A case could be made that the schedule and injuries have played a role in the won/loss record.Kelly has not been that successful against Pitt. The one loss that I will never forget and one of the reasons I don't think Kelly will win a national title at ND, was the 2013 game. ND entered the game in a hunt for one of the then upper tier bowl games under the old national title system. It meant prestige for the Irish program and for the school a big payday, something like a $10 or $12-million payout to the teams in those bowl games. Pitt entered the game at 4-4 and not setting the college football world on fire. Well, Pitt won the game and ruined ND's chances for a big payday and prestige. The loss was all on Kelly, as the team played flat and was not prepared, much like the title game with Alabama. Enough said.Pitt enters the game at 6-2 with wins over Youngstown State, 45-37; Akron, 24-7; Virginia Tech, 17-13; Virginia, 26-19; Georgia Tech, 31-28; and Syracuse, 23-20. The losses were to Iowa, 27-24, and last week to North Carolina, 26-19.The Panthers are led by QB Nate Peterman, who has completed 120 of 178 passes with three interceptions and 10 touchdowns. Top receiver is Tyler Boyd with 63 catches, 578 yards and four scores. The rushing attack is led by Qadree Allison who has 738 yards on 128 carries and eight TDs.ND leads the series, 47-21-1. The last ND win was in 2012, 29-26 in three overtimes. The last Pitt win was 2013, 28-24. The game will be televised nationally by ABC-TV with a 12:10 p.m. kickoff.IRISH NOTES ... Temple holding Prosise in check was no surprise because of their high defensive ranking ... The rest of the Notre Dame schedule includes more teams like Temple, whose defense is well-equipped to stop the Irish run attack and also have a pass defense that could contain Fuller. Kizer is the equalizer, so to speak, because of his running ability that makes defenses worry about another component of the ND attack. Of course, having your QB run the ball a lot is not good either, due to the chance of injury. Remember, the next in line QB is a true freshman.For the season Kizer has 318 rushing yards on 72 carries, for a 4.4 per-carry average and five TDs. That total is more yardage than ND's second-leading rusher in 2014, Greg Bryant, who had just 299 yards on 54 carries for the season ... Kizer's 79-yard TD run resulted in more rushing yards on that play than Temple had given up on the ground in the entire game in four of its seven games ... ND is playing today in another NFL stadium, Heinz Field, home of the Steelers. ND is 25-8-1 when playing in one of 31 current NFL stadiums …. ND is now 12-7-2 against teams with a record of 7-0 or better in the past 50 seasons ... Fuller caught five passes for 46 yards and the winning score last week. Chris Brown had six catches for 72 yards, Prosise had five for 43 and Torii Hunter Jr., had five for 62 ... LB Jaylon Smith is a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award given to college football's defensive player of the year. RB Prosise is a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, which honors college football player of the year ... A total of 13 freshmen made the travel roster for the Temple game ... Former ND running back Greg Bryant won't be returning to the Irish football program. On Wednesday Bryant, who left the school after being academically suspended for the 2015 season, announced that he will continue his college football career at the University of Alabama-Birmingham .... Many thought that Kizer was mocking the Temple Owls by flapping his arms during TD celebrations but, according to Kelly, the QB was paying tribute to his childhood favorite NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles, whose home field is Lincoln Financial Field. Kelly was not amused by Kizer's actions, calling it, "Totally unacceptable." Kelly added, "It's not what we're about. He was mimicking a lot of the Eagles' players. That's what they did. But it's not who we are as a team or as a program. It won't happen again.".... In my preseason picks I have Pitt pulling an upset today. I won't change that prediction because I have a lot of reservations about Kelly's coaching in critical games. He has had a hard time keeping his teams up and prepared in critical points of the season. ND is in the hunt for a national title game, but I just don't trust Kelly.