Michigan State left South Bend with a result that felt pretty much in line with the night itself: the Spartans were competitive for stretches, but the mistakes piled up fast enough to make a win unrealistic in a 27-10 loss to third-ranked Notre Dame on Saturday night.
That part mattered. This was the kind of game that was supposed to tell MSU where it stands, and while the Spartans did not threaten to flip the outcome, they also never let the Irish turn it into a runaway. Against a team this good, that has to count for something.
One of the clearer bright spots was Cam Fancher, who got a heavy dose of work at second-string quarterback and made a real case for a larger role in the offense. He should have had both a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown in the first half.
The rushing score came through with 3:21 left before halftime, when he finished off a designed 15-yard run. The other opportunity slipped away when Kenneth Williams dropped what should have been a touchdown catch.
Fancher had already seen action against Toledo and Eastern Michigan, but Saturday pushed him closer to a bigger conversation. Michigan State even got to field goal range after he entered the game, which makes his mobility and usage moving forward one of the more interesting things to watch coming out of this one.
Jordan Hall also returned after missing last week’s game against Eastern Michigan, and he looked like the linebacker MSU needed right away. He was active all over the field early and finished the first half with nine total tackles.
No one on either team had more than four at the break. His presence helped a run defense that actually held up better than expected, especially with Notre Dame continuing to struggle to get its ground game rolling.
The Irish were sitting at just 3.4 yards per carry at halftime, and Hall was a major reason.
Still, the Spartans spent too much of the night giving ground in the secondary. Tre Bell was beaten on the very first play of the game for a 61-yard Notre Dame gain, although Devin Vaught probably should have been there with help.
Bell then drew a pass interference penalty on a key second-quarter third down after Jordan Faison got him on a double move. Bell never turned to find the slightly underthrown ball from CJ Carr, and the flag moved Notre Dame to the MSU 3-yard line before the Irish scored two plays later.
Bell did bounce back a bit later, when he handled a near-identical look much better late in the third quarter.
Charles Brantley had his own rough night. He’s now appeared in this weekly piece in all three games, after being a faller in Week 1 against Toledo and a winner last week against Eastern Michigan.
This time, he had two costly errors. The first wiped out an interception when he committed pass interference.
The second came in the fourth quarter with Michigan State down 10, when the Spartans played Cover 1 and Brantley got beaten for a 39-yard gain that set up Notre Dame at the 3-yard line. The Irish scored on the next play.
Kenneth Williams had one play that ended up defining his night. Early in the second quarter, with MSU driving and trailing 10-0, Nick Sheridan called a strong design with Fancher at quarterback that left Williams wide open in the end zone.
The catch just didn’t happen. Williams tried to secure the ball with his hands and couldn’t hold on, and the drop forced Michigan State to settle for a field goal moments later.
That miss effectively cost the Spartans four points.
The receiving production was thin all the way through. One of the big questions going in was how MSU’s wideouts would hold up against Notre Dame’s secondary, and the answer never really got any prettier.
With seconds left in the third quarter, Rodney Bullard Jr. was the only Michigan State receiver with a catch. One of his grabs was a 53-yard gain on a beautiful pass from Milivojevic.
The first catch by any other MSU receiver came on Fredrick Moore’s grab on the final play of the third. As a group, the Spartans’ receivers finished with five catches for 84 yards.
In the end, Michigan State simply needed more from the passing game to have a real shot. Notre Dame deserves credit for squeezing it down, and MSU may not have even looked Leonard Moore’s way more than once or twice all night. But this was also a clear prove-it game for the Spartans’ receivers, and the results were mixed at best.
In Other News...
Michigan State Showed One Encouraging Sign In A Frustrating Notre Dame Loss
Michigan States 27-10 loss to Notre Dame had plenty of familiar frustrations, but there was still one part of the night that offered a little encouragement. The Spartans defense, with Jordan Hall helping set the tone, battled hard and played with real grit for much of the game, even if missed tackles and costly penalties kept knocking them off schedule.
The bigger concern remains on the other side of the ball, where Michigan State had a difficult time handling pressure and never found much rhythm. Quarterback Milivojevic threw two interceptions, and Cam Edwards was limited late after an injury, leaving the Spartans with even fewer answers as the game wore on. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Showed Something Against Notre Dame Fans Can Rally Around
Michigan State left South Bend with a 27-10 loss to No. 3 Notre Dame, but there were enough flashes on both sides of the ball to keep the night from feeling like just another straight-line disappointment. The Spartans made some strong defensive plays and showed a few encouraging offensive moments, even if mistakes and penalties kept them from turning those stretches into real pressure on a top-tier opponent.
Rodney Bullard Jr. and Cam Fancher helped the Spartans trim the margin before halftime, giving the game a brief sense of momentum and a reminder that there is at least something to build on. Add in the way fans responded to the effort and the early Pat Fitzgerald era, and the takeaway was less about the final score than about a team still trying to piece together a more complete performance. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan State Faces Its First Real Measuring Stick This Season
Michigan State has handled the early part of its schedule exactly the way a team wants to, taking care of Toledo and Eastern Michigan to open the season and keep its record spotless at 2-0. The next step, though, is a much stiffer one, because the Spartans are about to find out where they stand against a Notre Dame team that has already looked dominant in its own right.
Notre Dame is coming off a 52-0 win over Rice, and the stage for this one is a big one even before the ball is kicked. It is the kind of matchup that can tell Michigan State plenty about its progress, and with national eyes on the game, the Spartans will have a chance to see how their start stacks up when the competition level jumps sharply. [Read more 🡒]