“We’re too sloppy overall as a football team”, he later added during a press session in which he was noticeably and understandably quite upset.
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“Came down here and felt like we needed to win on toughness”. It felt like they certainly were going to run the football.
“Those are the typical questions that you get when, after three games, we give up some points”, a defensive Kelly said.
Notre Dame is coming off a 39-10 win against Nevada, in which signal-caller DeShone Kizer threw for 156 yards and two TDs on 15-of-18 passing.
“Twenty times”, Dantonio said Tuesday. No, Kizer is not going to be asked to carry us.
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.
“In the third quarter, when we hit that low (a 36-7 deficit), that’s 100 percent on me, from communication errors to balls in the dirt to not making plays on my feet like I’m supposed to”, Kizer said.
Kizer threw for a career-high 344 yards, two touchdowns, and rushed for two. Notre Dame holds a 48-28-1 edge, as 10 of the past 14 meetings (dating back to 2000) have been decided by seven points or fewer. But in the case of Michigan State – which forced 90 turnovers from 2013-15 compared to 54 by Notre Dame – the one-turnover-per-game disparity is a lot.
“Big win”, Dantonio said.
“We can cry all we want about what we didn’t do, but we got to start doing it”. Tyler O’Connor plays well, shows some moxie, made some huge plays.
Barring some sort of 2007-like level of chaos, Notre Dame has been eliminated from playoff contention, meaning we probably don’t have to worry about the “quality” of the losses going forward. Facing a fourth-and-7 from their own 32, Kelly made a decision to punt it away to the Spartans, but Notre Dame’s two timeouts weren’t enough to gain one last possession once Corley found an opening in the secondary.
The Irish have an excellent quarterback, but an excellent quarterback doesn’t make a team unless you’re a mid-major outfit.
That sloppiness was often apparent in the Notre Dame defense, which once again faced issues with tackling, particularly in the secondary.
Notre Dame’s preseason strength was considered the offensive line, particularly the left side, while Michigan State Achilles heel was maybe the defensive line. The ball fell into Cole Luke’s hands in front of Corley, but the rookie receiver ripped it away from the veteran cornerback for his first college touchdown.
“We had great situation there late to make a couple tackles, and we just simply didn’t make it”, he said. “They got two verticals, pretty standard deal, corner’s trying to midpoint two vertical, we buzz it with the underneath coverage guy, and we’re not in good position”. “I thought we did that”. Michigan State CB Darian Hicks was called for pass interference twice against Furman. We didn’t do it, and we will game plan tomorrow and figure out how to go about it. It was an emphatic performance from the Spartans, but it said more about the Irish than Michigan State.
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In college football, momentum can be a devastating weapon, and Michigan State took full advantage of it in the third quarter, capitalizing on a variety of mistakes from the Irish, and eventually opening up the floodgates on offense, scoring on three straight drives and ballooning the lead to 29 points.
