Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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murphy's Law dan murphy drive for the Irish consisted of seven yards of offense and three personal fouls against Michigan State. A late hit extended Matthias Farley's interception return into the Spartans territory, and two pass interference calls pushed the Irish inside the 10-yard line. Pass interference penalties — a couple of them very questionable calls — plagued Michigan State. Referees called four of them, plus a defensive holding, that changed the game. Both of Notre Dame's touchdown drives were set up by interference penalties, and the holding flag on MSU defender Darqueze Dennard negated an interception. Seven of Notre Dame's 14 first downs in the game came from penalties. Dantonio said in his 30 years of coaching football he had never seen his defense penalized as often. "Never," he said while trying to avoid a fine. "I guess that's why we should stop talking about it right there." Notre Dame gave its receivers plenty of chances to be interfered with. The Irish gave up on beating Michigan State with its running game before leaving the locker room. Dantonio left his talented cornerbacks in one-on-one coverage almost the entire afternoon, and Kelly was determined to make him pay for that. Senior quarterback Tommy Rees teed up one deep ball after another starting on the first drive. He looked for DaVaris Daniels a dozen times, but the junior wideout ended his day with three catches for six total yards. Rees threw over his intended receiver 's head on many of his deep attempts. Despite looking for the long ball consistently, Notre Dame had only two completions of more than 20 yards. Penalty calls bailed Rees and the Irish out of a tough spot. "When you know that the quarterback is going to throw it back shoulder, the defensive back does not know where it is. You have an advantage in that situation," Kelly said. "You're going to get some pass interference calls when you put the ball in a good position." For all of Notre Dame's shortcomings, Michigan State fell consistently shorter. The Spartans' struggles gave the Irish one more week to iron out some of their problems. September has been a month full of growing pains for Kelly on both sides of the ball. The coach referred to his team as a work in progress each week when dissecting its games. Notre Dame toyed with its defensive lineup against MSU and tested its quarterback's ability to "grip it and rip it," as Kelly said. In most years, those experiments wouldn't fly against a Dantonio team with one of the best defenses in the country. An Oklahoma team full of offensive weapons comes to South Bend Sept. 28. Notre Dame enters that game with a 3-1 record and its hopes for a final trip to a BCS bowl still intact. If there was a victory to be had Sept. 21, that was it. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com