Last night was crazy, exciting, and amazing in a lot of senses. This game went from all of us Notre Dame fans saying “Here we go again,” against MSU…to one of the best comebacks in recent Irish history. I was taking notes on the game from the first snap to the final gun, and I have a ton of stuff here. All of this stuff is strait from my notebook to the computer screen. It may look a little lengthy, but all of these are in bullet form so it really isn’t that long. I watched this game on television so hopefully you caught some of the stuff that I did. Notice how throughout my observations get very angry at times, and then very good and happy…it’s just the way the game went. Hope you enjoy and can relate to some of the things I noticed.
- I was reminded how poor the Irish played versus Michigan approximately 471 times between 8:00-8:13.
- Geoff Price made a textbook tackle on the first MSU punt return, at times of this game I thought he should be playing linebacker for the Irish.
- MSU first drive = 3 plays, 73 yards, which is about 24 yards per play…all in 58 seconds.
- Took exactly 12 minutes to bring up the flag incident.
- Zbikowski fumbled twice…on one punt return…and the ball was picked up by the punter…sheesh.
- I’m screaming at my TV for Notre Dame to bring up the safeties a little bit to help out the linebackers over the middle…Stanton is tearing us apart through he middle of the field.
- 4:41 left in the 1st quarter, and we are once again reminded how poorly the Irish played against Michigan.
- For how fast our defense is supposed to be, Stanton just made them look silly on that 3rd down run of 37 yards.
- The first quarter may have been Quinn’s worst quarter in 2 years.
- Total ND yards in 1st quarter? 20.
- Frome doing a nice job of containing the outside lanes against Stanton…playing the option pretty well too.
- When the Notre Dame offense went into hurry up mode…so did I in taking notes for the blog…that was brutal recording pass by pass by pass…it was effective though…hoping the Irish stick to it.
- Bob Davie says the Brady threw that INT because the MSU jerseys blend in with the grass…Bob, you are a genius.
- Charlie is getting compared to Tyrone a lot lately…but honestly, would Tyrone have thrown the ball 20 yards downfield on 4th and 1 like Weis did? Great call.
- Offsides penalty on kickoff after the 2nd touchdown brought MSU from the 13-yard line to the 41-yard line…costing us 28 yards…MSU would score on the drive.
- 9:35 pm est.…we are again reminded of the Michigan game.
- Darrin Walls got eaten up on that screenplay touchdown. It just looked like he guessed at where the ball carrier was going and took himself right out of the play, making for an easy block on him.
- Not a single 3rd down conversion through entire 1st half.
- MSU = 143 yards rushing in 1st half
- First 3rd down conversion came with 12:30 left in 3rd quarter.
- Loved to see John Carlson secure the ball at the end of his TD catch and run…probably learned from Fasano’s mistake against Southern Cal on 10-15 last year.
- On the same play, great read by Quinn to notice the broken coverage by the MSU safety…really shows the great coaching he gets.
- Carlson has some wheels for a big boy as you probably saw on that TD.
- 80,193 in attendance…3rd largest in MSU history.
- 4th and 8 call from the MSU 38 was the right call. Too close to punt and the way the defense was playing…I would not want the ball back in Stanton’s hands. Ball should have been caught by Anastacio anyway.
- 3 minutes left in 3rd…Javon Ringer runs 8 yards behind line of scrimmage, and with pure speed burns ND for 16 yards…I’m waiting to see the “fast” ND defense show me how fast they are.
- TOUCHDOWN ZBIKOWSKI! Oh wait, looks like a clipping call on Brady Quinn will bring this one back.
- Great! The wind has confidently done a 180 and is now blowing AGAINST Notre Dame to start the 4th quarter!
- This may be the worst tackling display that Notre Dame has put on in the past 3 or 4 years.
- Good downfield blocking by Grimes on Samardzija’s 2nd touchdown.
- Chinedum Ndukwe continues to show how valuable he is to this defense and how improved he really is with the strip of Stanton…one of the biggest plays of the year.
- While down 37-27, it looked like for a few plays Brady and the receivers were playing some backyard football. “You go deep I’ll hit you.” To their credit, it eventually worked…on 2nd and 27 there was a pass interference call in the end-zone to give the Irish a first down and eventually, a touchdown.
- I don’t know what to say about the kicking game…hopefully Burkhart is learning something and we can improve it for next year.
- Lambert just finally showed why he was so heavenly recruited out of high school! What a pick 6! Bout time Terrail!
- Flashbacks of Monday night football and Antonio Freeman went through my head as soon as I saw the replay for the 2nd interception…great heads up play by Lambert not to give up on the ball.
- For the lack of heart that the Irish played with against UM, they made up for it by showing unbelievable heart during the 4th quarter of this game against Michigan State. This is the type of win that can really propel a team to new heights, and with ND not really playing well in 2 of their first 3 games, they needed this one badly.
Well, those are all the notes for the game…. check out the blog for a breakdown on how Brady Quinn distributes the ball to each receiver. Interesting stuff.
