Michigan State vs. Notre Dame: Game Grades, Analysis for Irish
If your goal at the beginning of the season is to reach the College Football Playoff, one sure-fire way to destroy your chances of reaching that goal is to lose two of your first three games. That's exactly what Notre Dame has done in 2016, and the CFP is now all but an impossible dream.
After taking a few seasons off, Michigan State and Notre Dame renewed their rivalry in South Bend tonight. Despite the Fighting Irish being favored at home, it was MSU that controlled the game for much of the evening.
Once again, Notre Dame's defense came up woefully short, and don't be surprised if the calls for coordinator Brian VanGorder's job start growing louder.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's take a look at what went on between the sidelines before we get to the coaching issues. Here, for your reading pleasure—or displeasure—are Notre Dame's game grades.
Pass Offense
1 of 6
Ordinarily, one would think that 20-of-37 for 344 yards and two scores is a downright impressive night. It would have been, too, if that production had been a bit more consistent.
Truthfully, though, DeShone Kizer was pretty streaky for much of the night, with long stretches of incompletion after incompletion. His eight throws of 19 yards or more also helped his yardage totals.
Torii Hunter Jr., in his return to action, came up with five receptions for 95 yards. That's good news moving forward, but MSU held him out of the end zone tonight.
The numbers were, on the whole, good (minus Kizer's one interception), even if the result came up short. We're still liking the offensive output, and it's Notre Dame's passing game that really gives the Irish a chance late in games when mounting a comeback.
Pass Offense grade: B+
Run Offense
2 of 6
Michigan State isn't Nevada. Michigan State isn't Texas. Michigan State is Michigan State, and that assures you that it brings a talented, powerful defensive front to the line for each and every down.
Still, we expected Notre Dame to be more like Notre Dame in this contest. The Spartans held the Irish to just 57 rushing yards. Part of that was due the situation on the scoreboard, but a lot of that also had to do with the coaching staff realizing that the run wasn't working against MSU.
Josh Adams led the Irish with just 29 yards on 12 carries. DeShone Kizer added 14 more yards on nine carries—and had Notre Dame's two rushing touchdowns as well.
The Spartans overpowered the Irish offensive line for much of the night, and running holes that did open up closed quickly. Michigan State won the battles in the trenches—no doubt about it—and the Irish will have to get better up front to avoid losing to teams like Stanford down the stretch.
Run Offense grade: D+
Pass Defense
3 of 6
Tyler O'Connor has now been the starting quarterback for Michigan State in two true road games. Both of those games were against ranked opponents. Both games were epic, meaningful battles.
Tyler O'Connor is 2-0 in those games.
Sadly for the Notre Dame faithful, the Irish didn't do much on the defensive end to keep Michigan State's offensive options limited. While MSU is certainly capable of running some "big boy" football on the ground (which we'll get to in a moment), Notre Dame's secondary coverage tonight meant the Spartans could run or throw on any given down and distance.
O'Connor torched the Irish defense to the tune of 241 passing yards and two touchdowns on a 19-of-26 performance.
Devin Studstill did have an impressive interception off a tipped ball early in the second quarter, but Notre Dame needed more and bigger contributions from the defensive secondary to come out on top against a team like Michigan State.
Pass Defense grade: C
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Run Defense
4 of 6
Those with a weak constitution may want to turn away.
For the second time in three weeks, we are about to flunk the Notre Dame run defense, and this is turning into a disturbing pattern. Defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder's crew has been completely hapless against teams with a solid run game.
In fact, the Irish have performed so poorly against the power run that the entirety of the FBS now has a complete blueprint titled "How To Beat Notre Dame in 2016."
It goes a little something like this: overload one side of the offensive line with power. Run your most powerful backs toward that side. Lather, rinse, repeat and repeat and repeat.
Just how much did MSU run on Notre Dame? Well, there were 52 credited attempts on the evening. Compared to just 26 passing plays, it's safe to say that anyone within earshot of this contest could tell that the Spartans were running the ball a lot.
Heck, even Notre Dame knew MSU was going to be running the ball a lot. But did that knowledge help?
Not one bit.
On those 52 carries, Michigan State averaged five yards per rush for an even 260 yards on the night. Oh, yeah, and three touchdowns, too.
The scheming was bad, the execution was bad—the whole run defense was just pitifully bad.
Run Defense grade: F
Special Teams
5 of 6
It's probably not a good sign when one of the most memorable plays from your entire team in a game is a 71-yard boot from the punter.
Tyler Newsome kicked the ball from inside Notre Dame's own 10-yard-line and completely flipped the field. We're not using that phrase here in the colloquial sense that we hear all the time from commentators nowadays. He literally flipped the field position with a massive 71-yard punt.
Sadly, that was the lone highlight for the special teams unit.
We kept expecting C.J. Sanders to break open one of those late MSU kicks and give the Irish a spark that would cap off the comeback, but it never happened. Sanders returned just two punts for a total of nine yards.
Special Teams grade: B
Coaching
6 of 6
This was going to be the year, wasn't it? It wasn't supposed to be like this.
In his third season as defensive coordinator, Brian VanGorder was finally going to put a defensive product on the field that made opposing offenses look foolish.
Instead, it's VanGorder and his defense that look preposterous.
After the Week 1 defensive debacle against Texas, there (rightfully) were some grumbles about the defense's performance. After all, the Irish gave up 50 points to a Longhorns squad that was held to just three points against them the previous year.
The performance improved mightily against Nevada, but it was Nevada.
Then, along came Michigan State, a team that looked to struggle offensively against FCS Furman in Week 1. This should have been a low-scoring slugfest, right?
Yeah, we thought so, too.
As pointed out earlier, the scheming was bad and the execution was worse. At times, it looked as if Notre Dame's defensive players had never run a proper tackling drill since high school.
The bottom line is that this Notre Dame defense isn't the product we were promised. Now, whom do we see about getting a refund?
Coaching: D
All recruiting information via 247Sports. Stats from NCAA.com, cfbstats.com or B/R research. Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow Bleacher Report CFB Featured Columnist and Notre Dame Live Correspondent David Luther on Twitter @davidrluther.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
