Notre Dame Football: Irish Will Upset Michigan State This Weekend

After two weeks into the 2011 college football season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish find themselves outside the Top 25 rankings and sitting with an 0-2 record.

Despite a slow start, Notre Dame is poised to pull off one of the bigger upsets this week against the Michigan State Spartans.

In Week 1, the Irish scored 20 points in the second half to almost pull off a come-from-behind victory against the South Florida Bulls.

Last Saturday, they gave up 20 points in the fourth quarter allowing for a shocking loss against the Michigan Wolverines.

Since the meltdown, the Irish have been leading the headlines.

Due to the losses, there is a lot of negativity surrounding the team. Most of the talk is how they can't pull off the victory in clutch time.

Because of this, we forget about how talented this team really is.

Quarterback Tommy Rees is currently ranked ninth in the nation in passing yards with 611. Running back Cierre Wood has 238 rushing yards over the two games, placing him at 18th-best in the nation. Wide receiver Michael Floyd has dominated the competition the first two weeks, catching 25 passes for 313 yards. The amount puts him as third-best in college football.

Despite the talent level, the Irish have struggled putting the ball in the end zone at the end of drives. They have averaged 25.5 points per game, an abysmal 74th-best in the nation.

The reason? Turnovers.

Stupid mistakes have killed this team over the first two weeks of the season. If they can correct these mistakes, this is a talented team that could very well knock off a Top 25 opponent this weekend.

No. 15 Michigan State is probably one of the more unusual stories in college football. This is a team that won the Big Ten championship last year despite not having any big-name talent on the roster.

An offense led by Kirk Cousins and Edwin Baker isn't something that many people get hyped up about. However, they do manage to win games.

On paper, these are two very evenly matched teams. The primary difference is that Notre Dame makes mistakes while Michigan State doesn't.

If the Irish can limit the mistakes this weekend, expect another game to come down to the final seconds.