Michigan State was outcoached and made far too many mistakes to defeat Notre Dame yesterday.  Their 31-13 loss included just three points made off of 3 Irish turnovers, with the Spartans coming up empty after two drives within the ND 10-yard line.  That was truly unfortunate.  One of those, a pick of Cousins at the end of the game at the ND 3 was brutal, just a bad throw and poor decision by Cousins.  I didn't understand Dantonio's decision to punt late in the game, but he must have known the Irish were going to fumble, and they promptly coughed it up.  Unfortunately, Cousins threw that INT three plays later, and the game was over.

The OL gave Cousins time to throw, but could open no holes for the MSU rushing game... this looks like one of those years of an "average" O-Line at best. With only 25 yards rushing and 53 pass attempts -- that is a recipe for a loss every time, particularly for the Spartans.   The offense struggled all day to get into some kind of rhythm, but just could not have any sustained drives into the end zone, other than the 11-play, 80 yard drive that ended with the TD pass from Cousins to Sims.  Some of the trickery (failed reverse to Cunningham; failed direct snap to Martin) was as if the Spartans were trying too hard, being cute a la Treadwell instead of getting to basics to be successful.  And, the timing of these plays was most unfortunate; on third downs don't get so tricky, particularly with an Irish D-line that is stuffing the run all day.

The fake-FG at the end of the first half was poor decision-making by Dantonio.  Everyone new the fake was on, and... with the Irish stuffing the interior all day, why bother with an inside shovel pass?   MSU should have put its offense on the field to go for it, instead of coming up with an unconvincing fake FG try.

In the second quarter, the pass interference penalty on Gardiner after stopping ND deep in its own territory was brutal - it led to a 92-yard scoring drive by ND.  And, the ND score off a kick return didn't help. 


Still, MSU had plenty of opportunities to win throughout the second half... but had too few points off the opportunities and ND turnovers.  Give ND credit, they made the plays when they needed to, and the Spartans didn't make the plays at critical times.

The key stats?  #1: ND outgaining MSU 114 to 29 on the ground; and, #2: MSU just 5 of 17 (29%) on third downs.  That means lots of stalled drives for MSU and a one-dimensional offense.

So, what does this loss mean?  This doesn't look like an 11-1 Spartan team... at this point it looks more like an 8-4 team.  Unless the running game gets going, it will be tough for this team to win the line of scrimmage against Wisconsin and at Nebraska. It also puts into further question the Spartans chances against Michigan, at Iowa, and at Northwestern.  I figure of those five games, there may by three losses: that equals an 8-4 mark.  Coach Dantonio can turn this ship around, but the Spartans need to be more advantageous of their turnovers, and need to do a better job converting third downs.   MSU should bounce back just fine vs the Chippewas next week, considering the CMU team was crushed by WMU, 44-14 yesterday.  But the long term prognosis is questionable without some remedy along the front line, and better decision making in critical junctures of the game.

              Team Statistics (Final)
                          2011 Michigan State Football
      #15 Michigan State vs Notre Dame (Sep 17, 2011 at Notre Dame, Ind.)

                                    MSU       ND

FIRST DOWNS...................       21       18
  Rushing.....................        1        6
  Passing.....................       18        8
  Penalty.....................        2        4
NET YARDS RUSHING.............       29      114
  Rushing Attempts............       23       32
  Average Per Rush............      1.3      3.6
  Rushing Touchdowns..........        0        2
  Yards Gained Rushing........       54      141
  Yards Lost Rushing..........       25       27
NET YARDS PASSING.............      329      161
  Completions-Attempts-Int....  34-54-1  18-26-1
  Average Per Attempt.........      6.1      6.2
  Average Per Completion......      9.7      8.9
  Passing Touchdowns..........        1        1
TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS...........      358      275
  Total offense plays.........       77       58
  Average Gain Per Play.......      4.6      4.7
Fumbles: Number-Lost..........      1-1      3-2
Penalties: Number-Yards.......    12-86     6-53
PUNTS-YARDS...................    6-238    4-166
  Average Yards Per Punt......     39.7     41.5
  Net Yards Per Punt..........     36.8     41.5
  Inside 20...................        1        2
  50+ Yards...................        1        1
  Touchbacks..................        1        0
  Fair catch..................        3        0
KICKOFFS-YARDS................    4-257    6-407
  Average Yards Per Kickoff...     64.2     67.8
  Net Yards Per Kickoff.......     28.8     39.7
  Touchbacks..................        0        2
Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD.    0-0-0   2--3-0
  Average Per Return..........      0.0     -1.5
Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD  4-129-0  4-142-1
  Average Per Return..........     32.2     35.5
Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD..   1-34-0   1-82-0
Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD.    0-0-0    0-0-0
Miscellaneous Yards...........        0        0
Possession Time...............    32:28    27:32
  1st Quarter.................     6:32     8:28
  2nd Quarter.................     7:52     7:08
  3rd Quarter.................     7:16     7:44
  4th Quarter.................    10:48     4:12
Third-Down Conversions........  5 of 17  5 of 12
Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 3   0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      2-5      2-2
  Touchdowns..................      1-5      1-2
  Field goals.................      1-5      1-2
Sacks By: Number-Yards........      1-7     2-18
PAT Kicks.....................      1-1      4-4
Field Goals...................      2-2      1-1