No. 3 Notre Dame spent the second half shutting the door on Michigan State and rolled to a 27-10 win Saturday night in South Bend, Ind.
The Fighting Irish got big nights from multiple playmakers, including a receiver who finished with eight catches for 170 yards, as well as quarterback CJ Carr, who went 18 of 24 for 234 yards, threw a touchdown and added another score on the ground. Nolan James Jr. handled the heavy lifting on the ground with 26 carries for 121 yards and a touchdown.
Notre Dame (3-0) controlled the game statistically, outgaining Michigan State 395-167 and limiting the Spartans to just 44 rushing yards. The Irish also held Michigan State without a point after halftime, and they never paid for the two turnovers by Alessio Milivojevic, who finished 9 of 17 for 123 yards with two interceptions.
The tone of the game shifted late in the third quarter when Spencer Porath drilled a 35-yard field goal with one minute left to stretch Notre Dame’s lead to 20-10. That kick finished off a grinding 17-play, 77-yard drive that ate 9:42 off the clock.
Carr then put the game away early in the fourth. He hit Gilbert on a 39-yard pass to get Notre Dame to the Michigan State 3-yard line, then finished the series himself with a quarterback keeper that pushed the margin to 27-10.
Notre Dame opened fast and never trailed. Porath got the scoring started with a 25-yard field goal, then James Jr. scored the first touchdown of the night when he bounced off a defender and fell into the end zone from 2 yards out with 4:31 left in the first quarter.
Michigan State (2-1) answered with a 32-yard field goal from Liam Boyd at the 10:05 mark of the second quarter, but Notre Dame quickly restored control. Aneyas Williams scored on a 1-yard run with 4:46 left in the half to make it 17-3.
The Spartans cut it back to one score before halftime when reserve quarterback Cam Fancher rushed for a 15-yard touchdown with 3:21 remaining in the second quarter. That made it 17-10 at the break, but Michigan State never found the end zone again.
Fancher was responsible for the Spartans’ only touchdown. Cam Edwards led Michigan State’s rushing effort with 38 yards on 12 carries, though he hobbled off in the fourth quarter with an apparent left leg injury.
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Michigan State Showed Fight But One Problem Still Looms
Michigan State had enough sparks to make the trip against Notre Dame feel competitive for stretches, with both sides of the ball showing moments that suggest there is something to build on. The Spartans hit a long touchdown pass and found the end zone on the ground, and their defense had enough stand-up sequences to keep the game from getting away completely.
Still, the larger picture for Michigan State was less about the highlights than the lapses around them. Notre Dame kept control with steady scoring and good clock management, and the Spartans were left sorting through the kind of mistakes that can change a game before it ever really turns. Pat Fitzgerald and Alessio Milivojevic both pointed back to the finer points of execution afterward, and the frustrating part for Michigan State is that the next step may be as much about cleaning up what it did to itself as it is about creating more big plays. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Hall Gave Michigan State One Bright Spot In A Brutal Loss
Jordan Hall was back on the field for Michigan State against Notre Dame after sitting out the previous game with an injury, and his return offered a rare lift in an otherwise rough afternoon. Playing with a bulky black brace on his right arm, the veteran linebacker was around the ball from the start and gave the Spartans the kind of physical, steady presence they needed.
Hall finished with 13 tackles and was piling them up early, including six before Notre Dames seventh offensive snap. Pat Fitzgerald praised both the production and the leadership, and in a game where little went right, Halls effort stood out as one of the few reasons Michigan State could point to and say it had something to build on. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State's First Loss Raised A Bigger Question Than The Score
Michigan States first loss of the season came with more than just a lopsided final score attached to it. Against Notre Dame, the Spartans were competitive early and hung around through the first half, but they never found enough rhythm on offense to match a game that quickly tilted in the Fighting Irishs favor. The result was a 27-10 defeat that exposed how thin the margin can be when a teams first real setback arrives against a physical, well-drilled opponent.
The bigger concern for the Spartans was how often Notre Dame was able to dictate the game at the line of scrimmage and force Michigan State into uncomfortable decisions. Alessio Milivojevic spent much of the afternoon under pressure, and the offense could not consistently recover once the Irish started winning in the trenches. For a team trying to prove its early start was sustainable, the loss raised a familiar question: how much of Michigan States success depends on playing from ahead, and how well can it respond when an opponent takes away its first plan? [Read more 🡒]