Michigan State football falls 27-10 in hard fought battle at Notre Dame

Michigan State fought hard and beat the spread, but couldn't find the plays on offense or the stops on defense to pull off a road upset at No. 3 Notre Dame Saturday night. MSU fell 27-10, dropping to 2-1 on the season while closing out the nonconference schedule and shifting attention to a visit from Nebraska next Saturday back home in East Lansing.

The primetime matchup marked the 80th all-time meeting between the two programs, a series dating back to 1887 that is the fourth-most played in ND's history.. MSU trails ND 50-29-1 with the loss, and also trails the Megaphone trophy record 39-18. The Irish again retain the rivalry trophy sponsored by both programs' Detroit alumni clubs after winning it back from the Spartans in East Lansing in 2017. The Spartans last won it in 2016 in South Bend.

Alessio Milivojevic finished the night 9-17 passing for 123 yards with two interceptions. Cam Fancher also saw action but threw incomplete on his lone attempt. Fancher added 18 yards on the ground on two carries that included a touchdown, the only one for MSU on the night. Cam Edwards led the ground attack with 38 yards on 12 carries but was helped off the field late after losing his footing on the wet turf when trying to block.

Jaden Savoury led the receiving corps in catches with 30 yards on his three grabs of four targets. Rodney Bullard Jr. led in yards for the night thanks to a long of 53 among his two catches for a total of 66 yards. On the defensive side, Jordan Hall returned from an elbow injury and led the team with 13 total tackles, including nine solo. Tre Bell added five tackles, all solo, alongside a pass breakup.

For the Irish, CJ Carr finished 18-24 passing for 234 yards. Carr also added a touchdown on the ground. Nolan James Jr. led ND in rushing with 121 yards on 26 carries, including one touchdown. Aneyas Williams also added a touchdown among his nine carries for 25 yards.

First Half

The Spartans couldn't have asked for a much worse start. The Irish on the opening play saw Carr connect with Micah Golbert for a 61-yard gain, ND's longest play of the season at that point, putting the home team inside the red zone. From there the MSU defense managed to stand firm and hold the Irish to a field goal four plays later.

MSU then turned around and had to punt after a three-and-out to open its own first drive of the game before special teams managed to let Matt Jeffrey get a hand in the way for a partial block. That set ND up at the MSU 41 yard line, an excellent field position from which it used to score a touchdown 11 plays later. After the PAT, the Irish led 10-0 with 4:31 left in the first quarter.

Disaster then struck yet again for the Spartans as Milivojevic threw an interception on the third play of his team's second drive, killing the momentum initially built by a four and 13 yard gain on the first two plays, respectively. It initially looked like MSU stole it right back as Devin Vaught picked off Carr on the very next play, but that play was overturned by a pass interference call against Charles Brantley and the Irish received an automatic first down. MSU forced ND to punt on its next series, but a holding penalty against the Irish brought the ball back with a 10-yard penalty on top of it to try again. Instead, the Irish faked it and tried to run the 13 yards for a first down. MSU was ready for it and brought down Brayden Robinson two yards shy of the line, giving the Spartans the ball at the 50 yard line and :34 remaining in the first quarter.

Using strategic substitutions at quarterback on the drive, MSU capped off a 12-play drive with a 32-yard field goal to make it 10-3 with 10:05 remaining in the half. A wide open Kenneth Williams dropped a pass from Fancher in the end zone two plays earlier, and the drive stalled from there to settle for the kick.

Notre Dame made quick work after the kickoff, marching down the field in just 10 plays over 5:09 on the clock for another touchdown, opening its lead up to a 17-3 advantage. The scoring play was reviewed, and while there didn't appear to be a camera on the actual goal line to be completely sure for the officials, it did seem obvious to anyone watching the replays at home that Aneyas Williams, the ballcarrier for the Irish on the play, fumbled the ball before he had it across the line and recovered it well short of the yardage needed while on the ground. However, the play was ruled a touchdown on the field and remained after review.

Answering right back, Milivojevic connected with Bullard on the second play for a 53-yard gain into the red zone at ND's 15 yard line. The play was also reviewed but Bullard clearly had control of the ball prior to it making contact with the ground, so the catch was upheld. On the next play, the coaching staff again pulled out the quarterback swap, and Fancher took the snap and ran it in on a keeper for a Spartan touchdown. After the PAT, MSU trailed just 17-10.

With just 3:21 left after MSU's score and a light rain starting to fall, neither team was able to do anything for the remainder of the half. Despite the rough start, Michigan State performed fairly competitively against Notre Dame, trailing total yards 190-127 overall, but having a competitive 3.1 yards per carry on 14 attempts compared to 3.4 ypc on 20 carries for the Irish.

Second Half

While MSU remained competitive in the first half, the second saw ND's offense come out and take control. The Spartans were forced to punt it away from their own 38 yard line on their opening drive and the Irish ran it down the defense's throat. On nine carries out of a total 17 plays, ND ran almost 10 minutes off the clock before settling for a field goal from 35 yards out to extend the Irish's lead to 20-10 with only one minute left in the third quarter.

As the clock rolled over into the fourth quarter, MSU was able to advance to ND's 43 yard line, but then two sacks by the Irish in between an incomplete pass saw the Spartans punting it away from their own 36 yard line. Carr connected on two big passes, 28 and 39 yards, respectively, in between a rush attempt that saw a two yard loss before Carr finished the drive in its fourth play with a three yard run up the middle for the game's final score. After the PAT, it was 27-10 for Notre Dame.

Milivojevic opened the next drive for MSU with an interception on the first play. The Spartan defense held the Irish to another field goal attempt, and the kick went wide left, giving the Spartans the ball back at its own 21 yard line. MSU only managed to advance to its own 44 yard line before another tough sack on Milivojevic set up a third and long the Spartans couldn't overcome. MSU punted it away with 5:02 left and the Irish ran the clock out from there.

MSU returns on Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time when the Huskers visit Spartan Stadium to open Big Ten play. UNL is coming off a 34-7 victory over North Dakota at home Saturday night, closing out its own non-conference play 3-0.