However, a holding penalty would bring the play back.
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On the first givewaway, the Spartans recovered a punt that bounced off the foot. of Miles Boykin. After a 2 year hiatus, the Michigan State Spartans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish met for a hard fought top 25 battle.
Halfback Robert Martin rushed for a career-high 169 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown, and Chris Laviano threw a 75-yard scoring pass to Jawuan Harris in helping the Scarlet Knights overcome a big deficit for the second straight week.
After taking a 15-7 lead into the locker room at halftime, Michigan State imposed its will on Notre Dame with a punishing ground game featuring tailbacks Gerald Holmes and LJ Scott, who combined for an nearly evenly divided 198 yards and three touchdowns. Facing a 3rd and 10 at the Irish 22-yard line, O’Connor made his first mistake of the game as he threw into double coverage and was intercepted on a tipped ball by Notre Dame freshman safety Devin Studstill. Among those teams, No. 19 Florida leads the way with 16 sacks, while No. 8 Michigan State, No. 12 Georgia and No. 14 Tennessee each only have three. After another Notre Dame punt, the Spartans scored for the third time in a little over four minutes, this time on a 73-yard Holmes run which capped off a 36-point run for the Spartans and made it 36-7.
“Obviously, from our perspective, we’ve got to do a better job coaching”, Kelly said.
“There is not a referendum on who’s got to carry who, ‘the defense can’t do that, ‘” a testy Kelly said.
“We’ve got to clean up the whole deal”, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said.
Then there was a two-point conversion, and a Notre Dame fumble, and a 10-yard rushing touchdown from RJ Shelton that left it 15-7 at the half. Before a two-year cessation of the rivalry, the Irish have had the better of things as of late, winning four of the last five meetings. But both Texas and Michigan State largely didn’t pass in those two stretches: Combined, Notre Dame faced 18 running plays and only six pass plays as they tried to chew up the second half clock.
Dantonio said he couldn’t recall the last time the Spartans dominated as they had late in the second quarter and early in the third. Holmes scored on runs of 3 yards and 73 yards, and Scott added a 9-yard touchdown against a exhausted defense. The computer is taking Michigan State against the spread and the over on the point total. In 1966, Notre Dame and Michigan State played the most monumental and controversial game in college football history.
The 91 yard touchdown drive was Notre Dame’s longest of the season so far. Another of the few positives was the play of the Notre Dame wide receivers. We missed the tackles, and those are the guys that are going to have to be out there next week against Duke.
“We still had two timeouts”, Kelly said. On the next drive, Kizer pump-faked and found tight end Durham Smyth for a 12-yard TD pass that sliced MSU’s lead to 36-28. That really leaves only Stanford as a last chance after Michigan State to grab the attention of the committee. Michigan St.at Notre Dame 2013-09-21 College Football.[NBC] Michigan State vs Notre Dame L-ive S-tream AM Football on.
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With just one timeout remaining for Notre Dame, the Spartans needed a time-consuming drive. Michigan State will likely leapfrog the Badgers, who struggled in a win over Georgia State earlier in the day.
