Michigan State vs. Notre Dame: Score and Twitter Reaction

In the 78th meeting between two of college football's best programs, the Michigan State Spartans held off the Notre Dame Fighting Irish by a final score of 36-28 at Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday night. 

Notre Dame made a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, cutting a 36-14 deficit down to eight points with just over six minutes remaining. 

Even though things got interesting at the end, ESPN's Brett McMurphy did point out that Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio thrives in these kinds of games:

Spartans quarterback Tyler O'Connor was excellent early and late. After throwing an interception on Michigan State's second drive, the senior was in complete command of the offense to finish with 241 yards on 19-of-26 passing with two touchdowns. 

O'Connor got Michigan State on the board with a terrific pass to Donnie Corley, who wrestled the ball away from Notre Dame cornerback Cole Luke for the 38-yard score. The Spartans got a two-point conversion to take an 8-7 lead in the second quarter. 

NBC Sports Network tweeted out Corley's tremendous effort on the touchdown:

The Lansing State Journal pointed out O'Connor appeared as if he was trying to get rid of a certain label attached to him following the season opener against Furman:

Michigan State isn't often listed among the top offensive programs, yet Dantonio always seems to have a wealth of skill-position talent to put up a lot of points against anyone in the country every single year. 

Joe Rexrode of the Tennessean also noted that O'Connor had a dimension to his game that few recent Spartans quarterbacks have been able to utilize:

For all of the good things Michigan State's offense did, Notre Dame's defense continues to show major holes.

Two weeks after giving up 50 points and 517 yards to Texas, the Fighting Irish allowed 36 points and 501 yards this week.  

Even when Notre Dame is in position on defense, which was the case with Luke when Corley stole the ball from him, something goes wrong. 

Per Chris Vannini of CoachingSearch.com, when Michigan State went into the locker room with a 15-7 lead, Notre Dame's offense wasn't doing much to help its defense:

The Irish held the ball for less than 12 minutes in the first half and had two turnovers, allowing Michigan State to control the tempo.

Notre Dame's offense struggled to find a rhythm due to near-constant pressure from the Spartans, who routinely forced quarterback DeShone Kizer out of the pocket so that he had to make many off-balanced throws. 

Kizer looked like the player who accounted for six total touchdowns in the game against Texas on Notre Dame's second drive, which was capped off with this run to the end zone, via Notre Dame football on Twitter:

After the two teams exchanged punts on their opening drives of the second half, Michigan State seemed to pull away with two quick scores. 

The Spartans' ground game went to work on a 10-play drive, as LJ Scott and Gerald Holmes ran for a combined 39 yards with Holmes capping things off on a three-yard romp into the end zone. They also got 15 yards on a pass-interference penalty against Notre Dame. 

On Notre Dame's following possession, Kizer was again forced into making a bad throw thanks to Michigan State pressure, and Jon Reschke intercepted the pass.

It took only three plays for Michigan State to reach the end zone after the turnover for a 29-7 lead, with Scott getting all 39 yards on the drive.

USA Today's Nicole Auerbach noted the best defender on Scott's touchdown run was, in fact, Scott himself:

Notre Dame followed that up by going three-and-out, allowing Michigan State to go back to work. The offense needed just two plays to go 78 yards, with Holmes getting his big moment on a 73-yard touchdown run. 

It was quite the breakout moment for Holmes, with Sean Merriman of the Big Ten Network noting the stark difference for the running back compared to Michigan State's first game:

J.J. Stankevitz of Comcast SportsNet Chicago pointed out what Notre Dame's defense needed to get off the field:

When Notre Dame made things interesting late in the game, it was because Kizer was creating time in the pocket and showing the accuracy that made him so dangerous against Texas.

On Kizer's touchdown pass to Durham Smythe, the once-disruptive Michigan State pass rush had nothing going, per Notre Dame Football on Twitter:

The Spartans were able to bring that pressure back on Notre Dame's next drive after making it 36-28. Raequan Williams pulled Kizer down on a 3rd-and-2 to force a punt.

Michigan State appeared as if it was going to play things conservatively, calling back-to-back running plays that Notre Dame easily shut down. After an Irish timeout on 3rd-and-7, O'Connor took the snap out of the shotgun formation with two runners on either side of him in a decoy that allowed him to find Corley wide- open for a 28-yard gain and a first down. 

After getting Notre Dame to use its final timeout, O'Connor hit R.J. Shelton on a shovel pass that went for 23 yards on 3rd-and-3 to seal the victory. 

This was always going to be a rebuilding year for the Irish defense after losing Jaylon Smith, KeiVarae Russell and Sheldon Day, but no one predicted that things would be this rough. 

Sandwiched around last week's game against Nevada, the Irish have given up 1,018 yards and 86 points against two good opponents. The schedule does lighten up with games against Duke, Syracuse and North Carolina State before hosting Stanford on October 15. 

Michigan State needed a game like this after a lackluster season-opening win over Furman. The Spartans lost their share of talent on both sides of the ball after last year, so going into a hostile environment against a team that hadn't lost at home since November 2014 gives them a statement win early in 2016.

Postgame Reaction

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly did not mince words after his team's second loss of the young season, putting blame on himself, per Sports Illustrated's Brian Hamilton:

According to Tim Prister of Scout.com, Kelly added that the Irish are "a sloppy football team" right now. 

Per Nick Ironside of 247Sports, Kelly had some very interesting words about the players on his defense:

According to Ironside, Kelly added that Kizer is "not going to be asked to carry us" in 2016, though he did give credit to Michigan State for coming "up with more plays today than we did.”

According to Hamilton, Dantonio laid out Michigan State's brief game plan coming into the game and how things played out:

Also per Hamilton, Dantonio said teams "have to be able to measure up. You gotta make plays when the lights come on."

Michigan State did that early and often against Notre Dame, making all the plays necessary to get a marquee win in September.