3 Instant Takeaways from Michigan State's Loss at Notre Dame
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Hey, that wasn’t the total shallacking it easily could have been.
Michigan State actually hung with No. 3 Notre Dame for a while, but the Fighting Irish proved to be too good on Saturday night in a 27-10 result. These are three instant takeaways from the loss that has dropped the Spartans to 2-1 entering Big Ten play:
Too Many Early Mistakes to Have Serious Shot
It didn’t feel like Michigan State was *completely* outmatched in this one. Somewhat outmatched, sure. Notre Dame was certainly the better team and the deserved victor by a wide margin. A fairly big reason for that, though, was because of a few unforced errors on MSU’s part.
The most costly one was Kenneth Williams’ drop of drops in the end zone during the second quarter. That essentially cost the Spartans four points, swinging the score from 10-7 (Notre Dame still ahead) to 10-3. Mistakes like that are costly in any football game, but they especially hurt against an Irish defense that isn’t ever going to make it that easy again.
This trend began before that, though, and it continued after. The very first play of the game was a 61-yard pass for Notre Dame, which happened because safety Devin Vaught bit as hard as one could on a play-action, and corner Tre Bell got beat by his man.
Michigan State’s defense did a good job after that, forcing a field goal. The offense opened with a three-and-out, but the big issue was allowing Notre Dame to partially block the ensuing punt. That gave the Irish’s offense the ball in Spartan territory, which they converted into a touchdown, despite the defense making UND run 11 plays to get 41 yards there.
Alessio Milivojevic also threw his first interception of the season late in the first quarter. It wasn’t the costliest of interceptions, it being in semi-arm punt territory, but it was hardly a great decision on a first-and-10 play. Milivojevic didn’t look off Notre Dame safety Luke Talich, who had a great beat on the throw and took it away.
Wide Receivers Remain a Weakness
MSU’s wide receivers have been underwhelming to start the season. They were certainly underwhelming against the first high-level secondary that they’ll face this season. Michigan State’s wide receivers only finished the day with five catches for 84 yards, and 53 of those yards came on one play from Rodney Bullard Jr. The very first non-Bullard catch from a receiver came on the final play of the third quarter to Fredrick Moore.
Notre Dame’s corners against Michigan State’s receivers was a matchup that seemed pretty clear on paper, but there were so many pass plays where Milivojevic waited, and waited, and waited, and nobody was getting open. This became clearer towards the end of the game when MSU was being forced to pass, and Milivojevic got crunched a couple of times because of it.
It’s tough to figure out what the fix there is. The wide receiver group is what it is this year. Michigan State lost an alpha receiver in Nick Marsh, and while expecting an addition of a similar caliber to Marsh would be unrealistic, going with two Power Four retreads (Moore and Notre Dame transfer KK Smith) and a FCS WR3 (Jameel Gardner Jr.) probably wasn’t the way to go.
This is the offense’s biggest limitation right now. Other teams probably won’t expose it as the Fighting Irish did, but the lack of a truly reliable option in that group that Milivojevic can turn to is huge. Tight end Jayden Savoury might be the best option on those obvious third-down passes at this point.
Belonging on the Field with the Best (Kinda)
The fact that the first takeaway is about mistakes costing Michigan State a real shot, and not about Notre Dame just running through the Spartans, can actually be a glass-three-quarters-full type of thing. MSU played well enough to make this game interesting for some time, which was probably the best that realists could’ve hoped for this one.
The other good part is that it probably won’t get any more difficult than this. Michigan State doesn’t play a team of the Fighting Irish’s caliber the rest of the way (Oregon could regain title contender status, but the Ducks certainly haven’t played like it thus far).
Saturday felt like a game between a mid-tier Big Ten team and a national title contender. It’s a bit of a backhanded compliment, but it’s been pretty difficult to consider the Spartans “a mid-tier Big Ten team” in some time.
Next week’s home game against Nebraska is going to be pretty huge. The next five games, all of which are against unranked teams and certainly gettable, will also be huge. Michigan State’s game against the Cornhuskers on Saturday, Sept. 26, has a 5 p.m. ET kickoff time on the Big Ten Network.
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A 2025 graduate from Michigan State University, Cotsonika brings a wealth of experience covering the Spartans from Rivals and On3 to his role as Michigan State Spartans Beat Writer on SI. At Michigan State, he was also a member of the world-renowned Spartan marching band for two seasons.
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