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Notre Dame tacked on another touchdown in the third quarter to drive Michigan State into a deeper hole after three quarters, 28-10.
Tommy Rees found T.J. Jones for a 26-yard score in the frame to increase the Irish lead, as Michigan State’s offense continued to stall.
The fourth quarter was not kind to Notre Dame last week in Ann Arbor however, so the game is by no means over yet. Michigan scored four fourth quarter touchdowns to erase a 24-7 lead and pull out a 35-31 win last Saturday.
Stats After Third Quarter
Passing
Kirk Cousins, MSU: 16/25, 184 yards, TD
Rees, ND: 15/23, 157 yards, TD, INT, FUM
Rushing
Cierre Wood, ND: 12 rush, 62 yards, 2 TD
Edwin Baker, MSU: 10 rush, 26 yards
Receiving
Michael Floyd, ND: 5 rec, 79 yards
T.J. Jones, ND: 3 rec, 40 yards, TD
B.J. Cunningham, MSU: 5 rec, 77 yards
Dion Sims, MSU: 3 rec, 38 yards, TD
Notre Dame has turned the ball over twice already against Michigan State, but they have not imploded like the past two games yet and lead 21-10 at halftime.
Cierre Wood has rushed for two touchdowns and George Atkinson returned a kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown for Notre Dame, but they could have been up more if not for an interception and a fumble by quarterback Tommy Rees.
MSU quarterback Kirk Cousins struggled somewhat in the first half, turning the ball over on a fumble, but did throw a touchdown to Dion Sims that cut the lead to 14-10.
Michigan State tried to get tricky again with the Irish, faking a short field goal near the end of the half with the ball inside the Notre Dame 5-yard line. MSU faked a field goal that resulted in the game-winning touchdown during last year’s overtime win, but this time Notre Dame snuffed out the play and maintained their 21-10 lead.
Halftime Stats
Passing
Cousins, MSU: 12/18, 141 yards, TD
Rees, ND: 7/11, 83 yards, INT, FUM
Rushing
Wood, ND: 9 carries, 64 yards, 2 TD
Edwin Baker, MSU: 7 carries, 13 yards
Receiving
B.J. Cunningham, MSU: 4 rec, 64 yards
Michael Floyd, ND: 3 rec, 45 yards.
Notre Dame might be a good football team if they could hold onto the ball.
The Fighting Irish lead 14-3 after one quarter of play, but two turnovers have limited even further success on offense.
Notre Dame turned the ball over five times in each of their first two games against Michigan and South Florida, but have been able to work through a fumble and an interception after one quarter. Sparking the Irish attack was an 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by George Atkinson moments after Dan Conroy’s 40-yard field goal cut the Irish lead to 7-3.
Notre Dame drove 76 yards in eight plays on the game’s opening drive, capped by a 22-yard dash by Cierre Wood for the game’s first score.
Notre Dame forced a punt and was looking for more, but the Irish caught the turnover bug again when quarterback Tommy Rees fumbled as his own 46-yard line.
MSU returned the favor when quarterback Kirk Cousins was sacked and fumbled at midfield, giving the Irish the ball right back. However, Notre Dame ran into trouble again when Rees’ pass on the ensuing drive was intercepted by Kurtis Drummond.
(Sports Network) - In serious jeopardy of starting the season 0-3, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish welcome the 15th-ranked Michigan State Spartans to South Bend on Saturday.
The Spartans made quick work of Florida Atlantic last week, crushing the overmatched Owls, 44-0. A Member of the Big Ten Conference, Michigan State is now 2-0 on the young season, as it cruised past FCS foe Youngstown State to open the campaign by a 28-6 final.
As for Notre Dame, it appeared to be on its way to a victory over rival Michigan in the first-ever night game at the Big House last Saturday. Unfortunately for Brian Kelly and his Fighting Irish, they yielded a touchdown with two seconds remaining to remain winless on the year. Notre Dame lost its opener to South Florida at home and has gone from a ranked team to a club at risk of letting the season slip away in a very short span of time.
"They know how to win," said Kelly of his players. "They've got to obviously stop making those little mistakes, and we've got to give them a game plan each and every week that puts them in a good position."
Notre Dame owns a 45-28-1 series advantage over Michigan State, but the Spartans have won three of the last four meetings.
Michigan State standout quarterback Kirk Cousins finished 16-of-21 for 183 yards and threw two touchdown passes to lead his squad to victory over Florida Atlantic. B.J. Cunningham became the Spartans' all-time receptions leader in the tilt by hauling in a first-quarter pass for his 149th career grab. Cunningham caught five passes for 73 yards on the day.
"I told him he needed one catch before the game and I said, 'Make it a good one,'" said Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio. "I thought he did. We were punting if he had not made that catch."
Le'Veon Bell ran for 69 yards and a score, while Edwin Baker added 50 yards and a touchdown for the Spartans, who posted 434 total yards in the clash.
The Spartans are averaging 36.0 ppg and 415.0 total ypg through two outings. Cousins has completed 81 percent of his passes for 405 yards with three scores and no picks, tremendous numbers to say the least. Cunningham already has 14 catches, and Bell has run for three scores.
The most impressive stat from Michigan State's shutout of Florida Atlantic is that the Spartans permitted only one first down in the contest.
"Anytime you throw a shutout in 2011 I think you get a phenomenal performance by your defense," said Dantonio. "I thought our players played and executed the defense very, very well. Offensively, we controlled the football, controlled the tempo."
The fact that the Spartans have only permitted three points through two games says it all about the stellar play of the defense. The team has permitted a total of 302 total yards and has been impressive against both the run and the pass.
On a night when Michael Floyd became Notre Dame's all-time leader in receiving yards, the Irish made one fewer big play than did Michigan in the four-point loss in Ann Arbor. Floyd caught 13 passes for 159 yards, and fellow wideout Theo Riddick scored twice, including a 29-yard touchdown with 30 seconds left which figured to win the game. Quarterback Tommy Rees threw for 315 yards and three scores, but his two interceptions did prove costly. Still, his coach was impressed with the effort.
"If you look at what Tommy did out there, almost throwing for 70 percent completion, getting us into a lot of good run checks, playing against a team that shows all kinds of different pressure packages, that's a very good situation at the end of the day," said Kelly of his quarterback.
Rees began the season as the second string quarterback but was far more impressive than Dayne Crist in the opener against USF and is now firmly entrenched as the starter.
For three quarters, the Notre Dame defense was tremendous against Michigan, limiting the Wolverines to seven points. Unfortunately for the Irish, the Wolverines were able to score four touchdowns in the final stanza, including a TD pass with two seconds left that capped a three-play, 80-yard drive.
Notre Dame is generating 25.5 ppg and 510.5 total ypg through two outings while permitting 29.0 ppg and just 353.0 total ypg.
This Notre Dame team seems to be far too talented to fall to 0-3, but Michigan State is simply the better team. Cousins is one of the top signal callers in the nation and will shine once again.
Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Michigan State 24, Notre Dame 23
The last time Michigan State and Notre Dame played in South Bend, the Fighting Irish picked up their first win at home in this rivalry since 1993. The Spartans saw their winning streak in South Bend come to an end after Kirk Cousins threw a late interception right in front of the end zone. A play earlier, he overthrew a wide open receiver who would have easily scored the go-ahead touchdown.
Michigan State got its revenge on Notre Dame for the 2009 loss in 2010 by scoring the game-winning touchdown on a fake field goal in overtime. The play was known simply as "Little Giants," and it gave Notre Dame yet another heartbreaking loss to recover from.
This year, Notre Dame is recovering from a couple of heartbreaking losses. In the first week of the season, the Fighting Irish dominated South Florida statistically, but thanks to a flurry of turnovers, they lost at home by a score of 23-20. Last week, Notre Dame blew a 24-7 lead, as well as a 31-28 lead in the final seconds to lose to Michigan, 35-31. Once again, the Fighting Irish were the better team statistically, but their turnover problem prevented them from winning.
This week, Notre Dame will attempt to prevent a 0-3 start from happening. Michigan State, on the other hand, will look to open the season 3-0 and turn up the heat on their rivals in South Bend by handing Brian Kelly and company another loss.
Here's the important information for Saturday's game:
Michigan State At Notre Dame: Irish Look Much Better In Defeating Spartans, 31-13
Notre Dame had another rough day with turnovers. Fortunately for them, Michigan State returned the favor.
The Irish turned the ball over three times, but the Spartans had two of their own to even things out as Notre Dame looked much better in picking up a 31-13 win.
No. 15 MSU (2-1) had a chance with four minutes left to cut the game to a one-score affair, but quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a costly interception at the goal line to effectively seal the win.
Cierre Wood punched in two rushing scores for Notre Dame and Tommy Rees threw for another despite throwing an interception and fumbling once. Notre Dame also muffed a punt late in the fourth quarter that was recovered by MSU, but got timely stops on defense to overcome their turnover woes.
MSU also shot itself in the foot with penalties, committing 12 infractions for 86 yards. The running game never got going either, as MSU compiled just 29 total yards on the ground.
Wood opened things off on the game’s opening possession by scampering for a 22-yard touchdown, and Notre Dame would have had more if not for turnover woes. The teams went back and forth in the turnover department in the first quarter, with Rees squeezing a fumble and pick around a Cousins fumble.
Cousins got MSU back within 14-10 on a 6-yard strike to Dion Sims in the second, but Wood restored the 11-point advantage with his second score near the end of the half.
MSU then tried to get cute, faking a field goal just before halftime inside the Notre Dame 5-yard line, much like they did in last year’s thrilling overtime win. However, this time the Irish sniffed it out and took a 21-10 lead into the locker room.
Things didn’t get better after the break. Rees hit T.J. Jones on a 26-yard score to increase the lead to 28-10 as Michigan State’s offense never got going after halftime.
Sep 17 7:03p by Ryan Weiss