Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/728553
24 SEPT. 26, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED nerback Cole Luke was in good posi- tion on the coverage and nearly had an interception, but Corley ripped the ball away. The Spartans added a two- point conversion to make it 8-7 with 9:30 left in the first half. After a 71-yard punt by Notre Dame's Tyler Newsome, Michigan State drove 92 yards on 11 plays to take a 15-7 lead with 23 seconds left in the half. The drive was capped by a 10-yard touchdown reception by senior wide receiver R.J. Shelton. Michigan State (2-0) had a bye week before playing Notre Dame. The Spar- tans struggled in their season opener against Football Championship Sub- division Furman, but looked sharp as a 7.5-point underdog against the Irish. "We've been working," Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio said. "We had a little extra time to work, and when you don't play well and people sort of write you off a little bit, you have a tendency to rise up a little bit. "… We came into this football game with something to prove. We talked all along that we needed to measure up, and I thought we did that." During a dominant third quarter, Michigan State scored three straight touchdowns to take a commanding 36-7 lead with 3:45 left in the period. The last score — a 73-yard run by junior running back Gerald Holmes — went through the teeth of Notre Dame's de- fense and found little resistance. "They ran the same stuff all game, pretty much the same run plays," Irish senior linebacker James On- wualu said. "It's just the consistency of fitting it and the toughness." Facing the largest margin of defeat in a home game since 2007, Kizer led the offense back into the game. In pass-only mode, Kizer found senior wide receiver Torii Hunter Jr. for a 47- yard gain down to the MSU 18 and hit sophomore wide receiver Equanime- ous St. Brown three plays later for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 36-14. On Notre Dame's first drive of the fourth quarter, it marched 80 yards on nine plays and used just 2:23 of the clock to cut the Michigan State lead to 36-21. Kizer found freshman wide re- ceiver Chase Claypool and sophomore slot receiver C.J. Sanders for gains of 33 and 34 yards, respectively, setting up a three-yard touchdown run himself. "We threw the ball virtually every down," Kelly said. "We obviously tried to run the football, we had some success early and then got behind the chains. We missed some pressures, missed some protections. It just wasn't clean. We never got into a good flow. We got into a better flow when we started to throw the ball on first down." The momentum had shifted, and Dantonio said he could feel it. "That wave starts to roll on you, just like it started to roll on them in the third quarter, and it's tough to stop," Dantonio said. "They get their momentum going, and they're mak- ing some plays and made some nice catches, had good coverage on guys a couple times, made great catches, great throws, but we found a way." Notre Dame tallied once more — a 12-yard pass from Kizer to senior tight end Durham Smythe — to make it 36-28 with 6:02 left. Kizer finished 20-of-37 passing for 344 yards with two touchdowns. He was sacked twice and threw an inter- ception. Sophomore running back Josh Adams had just 29 yards on 12 car- ries, while senior running back Tarean Folston had 14 yards on four carries. "I take this 100 percent on my back," Kizer said. "We didn't score as many points as we should have to win the game, and as the commander of the offense that's 100 percent on me." ✦ Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer threw for 344 yards and two touchdowns, but was inconsistent most of the game. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA MICHIGAN STATE 36, NOTRE DAME 28 Sept. 17, 2016 ✦ Attendance: 80,795 Notre Dame Stadium ✦ Notre Dame, Ind. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Tot. Michigan State 0 15 21 0 36 Notre Dame 7 0 7 14 28 FIRST QUARTER MSU ND ND Kizer 14-yard run (Yoon kick) 3:07 0 7 Drive: 9 plays, 91 yards, 4:24 SECOND QUARTER MSU Corley 38-yard pass from O'Connor (Price pass from Macksood) 9:30 8 7 Drive: 1 play, 38 yards, 0:08 MSU Shelton 10-yard pass from O'Connor (Geiger kick) 0:23 15 7 Drive: 11 plays, 92 yards, 4:43 THIRD QUARTER MSU Holmes 3-yard run (Geiger kick) 7:48 22 7 Drive: 10 plays, 75 yards, 4:53 MSU Scott 9-yard run (Geiger kick) 6:28 29 7 Drive: 3 plays, 39 yards, 0:47 MSU Holmes 73-yard run (Geiger kick) 3:45 36 7 Drive: 2 plays, 78 yards, 0:41 ND St. Brown 15-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 2:40 36 14 Drive: 4 plays, 65 yards, 1:05 FOURTH QUARTER ND Kizer 3-yard run (Yoon kick) 11:45 36 21 Drive: 9 plays, 80 yards, 2:23 ND Smythe 12-yard pass from Kizer (Yoon kick) 6:02 36 28 Drive: 8 plays, 69 yards, 1:45 MSU ND Total First Downs 22 19 Rushing 9 3 Passing 12 14 Penalty 1 2 Rushing Attempts 52 25 Yards Gained Rushing 277 74 Yards Lost Rushing 17 17 Net Yards Rushing 260 57 Net Yards Passing 241 344 Passes Attempted 26 37 Passes Completed 19 20 Had Intercepted 1 1 Percent Completion 73.1% 54.1% Yards Per Attempt 9.3 9.3 Yards Per Completion 12.7 17.2 Total Offensive Plays 78 62 Total Net Yards 501 401 Average Gain Per Play 6.4 6.5 Fumbles: No.-Lost 0-0 2-2 Penalties: No.-Yards 3-45 4-51 Punts: No.-Yards 7-266 6-302 Average Per Punt 38.0 50.3 Average Net Punt 37.0 50.3 Punt Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 3-7 Kickoff Returns: No.-Yards 3-42 3-60 Interception Returns: No.-Yards 1-0 1-30 Fumble Returns: No.-Yards 0-0 0-0 Miscellaneous Yards 0 0 Possession Time 37:57 22:03 Third-Down Conversions 9-18 4-11 Percentage 50.0% 36.4% Fourth-Down Conversions 1-1 1-1 Percentage 100.0% 100.0% Sacks By: No-Yards 2-11 0-0