Outside The Irish Huddle: A Big Win and Big Injury As Notre Dame Fight On

It was another memorable Saturday in Notre Dame Stadium as the Michigan State Spartans came ready to play, only this time the Fighting Irish held on for the victory.

After the bewildering defeat by Michigan a week earlier, it was nice to see the Irish bounce back and beat an opponent that always savors beating Notre Dame. Here are my grades for this weekend's game:

Quarterback: A

Clausen picks up another terrific grade with a very gutsy and heroic performance. We may look back on this game and see it as a turning point in his career. Shaking off an ankle injury Clausen was nearly mistake free and continues to move the ball down the field.

Right now, dare I say he's quietly making a case for the Heisman?

Running Backs: B+

Armando Allen continues to impress and has officially become the number one back in the Irish staple. He is showing more explosive speed and even more important, strength and toughness to fight for extra yards.

Heck, he even threw for a touchdown pass! We didn't see much of the other backs in this game, but Jonas Gray did rip off a nice long run during his limited time on the field.

Wide Receivers: B+

 I'll have more on the injury to Floyd later, but suffice to say he will be missed. Golden Tate really stepped up against the Spartans and caught the game-winning touchdown as well picking up two key first downs in crunch time.

Tight end Kyle Rudolph seems to be improving each game and he had another stellar peformance. The time has come for the depth of the wideouts to be tested and somebody needs to step up.

Offensive Line: B+

With the way the line is playing there isn't too much to complain about. They did give up their first sack of the year (although it was a missed block by a RB) but they have been generally excellent in pass and run blocking.

Of course, the penalties have been piling up over the past two games and that is something that needs to change.

Defensive Line: C

The defensive line probably had their best game of the year against Michigan State, but they are still decidely average. They made some key stops against the Spartan ground game, but State was able to run the ball pretty effectively a large portion of the game and especially early on.

As far as attacking the quarterback on blitzes, the defensive line is getting shut down.

Linebackers: D

This was a tough game for the Irish linebackers. Brian Smith, Toryan Smith, and Manti Te'o were all but invisible for long stretches at a time and were unable to get much pressure on Michigan State's quarterbacks. Even worse, there weren't any tackles or defensive plays worth remembering.

Defensive Backs: C+

If not for Kyle McCarthy's play, the defensive backs would be in big trouble. I've made it no secret I don't favor the heavy blitzing by Tenuta and it is absolutely killing the Irish defensive backs.

As it is, I don't expect many things to change so the corners are going to have to start making plays, meaning more pass break ups, interceptions, and turnovers.

Special Teams: B

The best thing was that Tausch hit both of his field goal attempts, although he did miss an extra point. However, would Notre Dame have lost this game last year with Walker's leg? There was nothing spectacular or horrible about the special teams in this game, besides the fact that Maust had a couple decent punts.

Coaching: B

If not for the play of the defense, the coaching would have a much higher grade. Charlie Weis did a better job of managing this game and he has the offense working on all cylinders and Saturday was no exception.

The one thing I wanted to see was a score on the third drive of the game and more time burnt off the clock on Notre Dame's last drive. Concerning John Tenuta and Corwin Brown, well they have a lot of work to do this week to fix the defensive problems.

There are only two problems I have with the offense throughout the game against Michigan State. The first is that Weis made some bad play calling on Notre Dame's third possession of the game, a drive which I thought was crucial to the game.

 

Facing a third and four coming out for the second quarter, Weis dialed up a wildcat to Allen that came up just short of the first down. Now, I don't have a big problem with the wildcat (mostly because it's been fairly successful so far this season), but I would have liked the ball in Clausen's hands in that situation.

Also, it was another risky move to run a toss play to Allen on fourth down. Even though he picked up the first down (barely), I question that play call.

Again, I thought this drive was really important because if the Irish scored a touchdown it would have really put State behind in the game and Notre Dame would have all the momentum.

As it was, the Irish were flagged for a false start by Young and a holding penalty on Robinson. Notre Dame was left with a second and 25, and yet again Weis makes me scratch my head and puts the Irish in a two tight end set.

The result was that Clausen was sacked and injured on the play and the drive ended after a screen pass from Crist to Hughes got nothing.

I'm not completely blaming Weis for this drive but it seems like once every game he deviates from the gameplan, or at least from what's been working, and calls some really odd plays. And it always seems to happen when Notre Dame has a chance to put an opponent in a deep hole early.

The other problem I have is that Weis has a tendency to go for the home run, so to speak, instead of chewing up clock when it is necessary. I felt this way when Quinn was leading the Irish down the field against USC in 2005.

It was clear Notre Dame could move the ball but they kept hurrying it down field and passing too much. As a result, the Irish left too much time on the clock and gave USC enough time to come back and win the game.

Same thing happened last weekend for Notre Dame, but instead there was no Bush Push. It was fairly clear that Notre Dame was moving the ball and would get a great chance to score.

Once they got near midfield, I was praying Weis would keep running the ball and eating up the clock.

Instead, he went for it all too soon and Clausen hit Tate on a deep route that gave Michigan State plenty of time to come back and score to win the game for themselves.

On the defensive side of the ball, there needs to be major improvement. Frankly, I don't feel like getting into it much more because it has been talked about ad nauseum for the past three days.

Overall, this was a big win for Notre Dame. I know a lot of people will say that it was "just" Michigan State and that they had previously lost to Central Michigan, but the Spartans are a quality team and they always seem to play 50 percent better than usual whenever they face Notre Dame.

It wouldn't surprise me if MSU stays in the Big Ten race and upsets a team like Penn State or Ohio State along the way either. Even though he gave the game away at the end, Kirk Cousins is a very good quarterback and the Spartans are pretty solid throughout their roster.

The next three games are going to be crucial for Notre Dame especially without the services of Michael Floyd. Will the Irish miss Floyd at wide receiver? Absolutely, but I don't think it's cause for much doom and gloom.

I actually have been wanting to see Notre Dame commit more to running the ball, stretching the field vertically with Rudolph, and running more crossing patterns with a multitude of receivers.

So in a lot of ways, Floyd's injury may be a blessing in disguise because it will force the offense to do all of these things in order to move the ball. If they are able to do this, then the Irish offense will be controlling the ball and clock even more so than in the past and I think it's a winning formula.

Up next are the Purdue Boilermakers in a night game in West Lafayette. Barring a Boilermaker miracle, the offense should be able to score a multitude of points. Determining who will fill the void left by Floyd's injury will be paramount before Washington and USC come to South Bend.

Let's also hope that the Notre Dame defense is learning from its mistakes and changing their game plan for this weekend. As good as the offense is, the Fighting Irish can't become a great team when the defense continues to give up 30-plus points.