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FACTS & STATS: Site: Heinz Field (65,050) -- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Television: ABC. Home Record: ND 1-1, Pitt 2-0. Away Record: ND 0-1, Pitt 0-1. Neutral Record: ND 0-0, Pitt 0-0. Conference Record: ND 0-0, Pitt 0-0. Series Record: Notre Dame leads, 45-20-1.

GAME NOTES: The Notre Dame Fighting Irish continue to navigate a tough early- season schedule, as they visit Heinz Field to take on a familiar foe in the Pittsburgh Panthers.

This marks the 67th meeting between these long-time rivals in a series that dates back to 1909. Notre Dame owns a 45-20-1 lead in the all-time series, and that includes a 23-17 victory over the Panthers last October.

Notre Dame is coming off its first win of the season, a 31-13 rout of 15th- ranked Michigan State last Saturday. It was a much-needed victory for the Irish, who opened their season with heartbreaking losses to South Florida and Michigan to fall out of the national rankings and temper preseason BCS hopes. However, a win this weekend at Pitt would help restore some faith in the program and build some momentum heading into another tough month ahead.

Pittsburgh blew a 21-point second-half lead in last week's 31-27 setback at Iowa to fall to 2-1. In his weekly press conference, Panthers' first-year head coach Todd Graham called Notre Dame the best team on Pitt's schedule this season, so expect his players to be ready. Of course, Graham has some familiarity with this week's opponent as his Tulsa squad upset the Irish in South Bend last year, 28-27.

Notre Dame's offense has been able to move the ball and generate points against some pretty good defenses so far. Against nationally-ranked Michigan State, the Irish leaned a bit more heavily on the run as Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood combined for 126 yards (4.8 ypc). Wood was the headliner, rushing for 61 yards and two scores on 14 carries. Tommy Rees, who took over the starting quarterback gig during the season-opener, completed 18-of-26 passes for 161 yards and another TD. A week earlier, Rees completed 27-of-39 passes for 315 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions in a last-minute loss at Michigan. Also in that game two weeks ago, Michael Floyd became the program's career leader in receiving yards and matched a school record with his 15th career 100-yard receiving game. He followed that up with 84 yards on six catches against the Spartans, coming just short of establishing the solo record. T.J. Jones added a TD reception for Notre Dame, which won despite a 358-275 deficit in total yards.

One of the main reasons the Irish were able to come out on top last week was because they held Michigan State to a touchdown and a field goal on five trips to the red zone. On one of those occasions, Robert Blanton came up with a key interception at the Notre Dame six-yard line with less than four minutes to play and returned it 82 yards the other way, essentially sealing the outcome. The defense came out on a mission from the beginning, holding MSU to 13 rushing yards in the first half. For the game, the Spartans were limited to 29 rushing yards on 23 attempts. There were several standouts on the UND defense, as Manti Te'o led the way with 12 tackles, followed by Gary Gray with 10. Harrison Smith notched eight tackles and a team-high five pass breakups, while Blanton posted six tackles (3.0 TFL), three pass breakups and a sack in addition to his late pick. Aaron Lynch was a handful for the Spartan offensive line, as he registered six quarterback hurries on the day.

Pittsburgh posted 20 first downs and 422 yards of total offense against Iowa. However, the Panthers converted just 4-of-13 third downs and had to settle for field goals on two of their three trips to the red zone. Most importantly, while Iowa was making its comeback bid with touchdown after touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Panthers saw their final three drives end with a turnover on downs, an interception and a punt. The offense has struck a nice run-pass balance thus far, but as the Panthers found out last week, failed opportunities can be haunting. Tino Sunseri is completing a solid 62.5 percent of his passes, although he has thrown more interceptions (four) than touchdowns (three) to this point. His favorite target has been Devin Street, who paces the receiving corps with 236 yards and a touchdown on 15 catches. In the backfield, Ray Graham is the latest in a string of productive tailbacks for the Panthers in recent seasons, as he leads the Big East with 419 rushing yards (5.3 ypc) and six touchdowns.

To say the Pitt defense suffered a meltdown against Iowa would be quite the understatement. They allowed three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter as the Hawkeyes rallied back from a 21-point deficit late in the third quarter to mount the biggest comeback in school history. Iowa's James Vandenberg carved up the Panther defense for 399 yards on the day, including 162 in the final frame. In addition, the Panthers were hurt by two critical pass interference penalties late in the game. Iowa amassed a total of 27 first downs and 475 yards. The Panthers were able to shut down the Iowa ground game to the tune of 76 yards and an average of only 2.3 yards per carry, but Vandenberg found all kinds of holes in the Pitt secondary, particularly in the fourth quarter. That was also a theme in the Panthers previous outing against Maine, as they allowed 334 yards and three TDs through the air, two of which came after the midway point of the third quarter.

Both of these teams have been besieged by turnovers and late-game collapses. While Notre Dame was able to rebound with a win last week, it remains to be seen how Pitt will respond from its first adversity of the year. Playing at home should help, but the Panthers need to find a way to tighten up their pass defense late in the contest. If not, it could be a big day for Rees and Floyd.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Pittsburgh 28, Notre Dame 24