by Leprechaun Express & Steve Welsh
There’s really no defense for this. #NotreDame began the college football season ranked No. 10 in The Associated Press poll, and after just three games the Fighting Irish are more likely to end the year in the Quick Lane Bowl than the College Football Playoff.
Notre Dame Saturday in prime time played the second contest in a three-game home stand against a Michigan State team that qualified for the College Football Playoff a year ago. Here are some Irish takeaways from their 36-28 loss to the eighth-rated Spartans: 1. Turnovers against good teams are lethal. Notre Dame after three games ranks 48th in turnovers, after the Irish didn’t commit any in the opener at Texas and what proved to be only one harmless interception against Nevada. ….
Video highlights from Notre Dame’s 2016 contest vs. Michigan State.
… No. 12 Michigan State took advantage of mistakes by No. 18 Notre Dame and held on for a 36-28 victory …. The Spartans (2-0) turned what had been a close game at halftime into a 29-point lead with three third-quarter touchdowns. But Notre Dame made it close as DeShone Kizer threw for two touchdowns and ran for another and the Irish (1-2) cut the lead to 36-28 with 6:02 left on a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end Durham Smythe. On Notre Dame’s next possession, Kizer was sacked for a 5-yard loss by Raequan Williams on third-and-2 and Notre Dame punted with 3:37 left in the game and the Spartans ran out the clock. … Kizer threw for a career-high 344 yards, completing 20 of 37 passes with one interception with heavy pressure at times from the Spartans.
… Notre Dame … (1-2) fell behind by 29 points in the second half, rallied with three consecutive touchdowns but eventually fell to Michigan State (2-0), 36-28, in front of a sellout crowd of 80,795 at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday night. The Spartans took control of the game with three straight rushing touchdowns in the third quarter, establishing a 36-7 lead. Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer attempted to rally the Irish with three straight scores, two passing, one rushing, but the Irish defense could not get the stop necessary at the end of the game to get the offense an opportunity to tie.
Brian Kelly post-game press conference after Notre Dame’s 2016 game vs. Michigan State.
Michigan State opened the season with an uninspiring performance against Furman, an FCS team that finished with a losing record last year. The Spartans didn’t dominate the time of possession, the turnover battle or line of scrimmage, and as a result, they didn’t dominate on the scoreboard. … Mark Dantonio … [has] seen Michigan State play down to its competition for years, including throughout the 2015 season that saw the Spartans land in the College Football Playoff. … Michigan State let teams like Western Michigan, Air Force, Purdue and Rutgers hang around. … pushing the eventual conference champions to the limits. * * * The Spartans will get Notre Dame’s best effort …. The Fighting Irish are desperate after losing the season opener and can’t afford to drop a home game and fall to 1-2. … Michigan State is an eight-point underdog …. But the build-up to this game feels a whole lot like last season’s MSU-OSU game, in which the Spartans were 13.5-point underdogs. Nobody expected Michigan State to win in Columbus, especially without Cook, but three hours later, the Spartans came out on top.
Brian Kelly spoke with reporters on Thursday, leading up to Notre Dame’s upcoming game with Michigan State. The Fighting Irish take on the Spartans in The House That Rockne Built on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 7:30pm, broadcast nationally on NBC and IMG Notre Dame football radio.
Brian Kelly met with reporters on Tuesday to preview Notre Dame’s upcoming game with Michigan State. The Fighting Irish take on the Spartans in The House That Rockne Built on Saturday, Sept. 17, at 7:30pm, broadcast nationally on NBC and IMG Notre Dame football radio …. [Click here for transcript]
Ara Parseghian still bristles 50 years later at the notion No. 1 Notre Dame played for a tie against No. 2 Michigan State …. ‘The only play that we ran that would be suggestive of going for a tie was the last play of the game’ …. * * * That 1966 game has been described as the Game of the Century, as was another Notre Dame tie , a 0-0 game between top-rated Army and the second-ranked Irish at Yankee Stadium in 1946.
The Irish finished No. 1 both times while their undefeated opponent finished No. 2 in the AP poll – the only two times that’s happened. …