Michigan State football suffered its first loss of the Pat Fitzgerald era on Saturday night, but there's things to be happy about for fans as we look ahead to the rest of the season.
As a four-touchdown underdog, Michigan State gave No. 3 Notre Dame more of a fight than many expected on Saturday night. Michigan State trailed by only a touchdown heading into halftime, but failed to add any points to the scoreboard after the break, falling by the final score of 27-10.
With the loss, Michigan State drops to 2-1 on the season and will have its Big Ten opener next against Nebraska. Before we turn our focus to Big Ten play, let's look at a few key takeaways from Saturday night's performance from the Spartans...
No moral victories for Fitz, but fans should be inspired
Fitzgerald said he was "pissed" after the
game and clearly wasn't going to accept any moral victories out of this matchup against the highly-ranked Fighting Irish. But that doesn't mean fans can't wake up on Sunday morning feeling good about the future of the program under Fitzgerald.
Statistically, Notre Dame dominated this game with an advantage of more than 200 total yards, plus two in the turnovers battle and nearly 10 more first downs. But the game didn't feel like it was dominated by Notre Dame -- it felt different than the games we saw Michigan State play against top 10 teams in recent years.
Perspective and optics are key following this loss as Michigan State is in a rebuild with a wins total of 4.5 entering the season, while Notre Dame is on a short list of true contenders to win the national championships. I won't have this same "happy" feeling after a loss of this nature two years from now. But at this moment, I think it's fair for Spartans to look at last night as a positive outcome for a program that is looking to get off the mat.
Offense needs to be better
We can be happy about the performance of last night, but we can also still be critical of the offense and their inability to move the ball with consistency against the Fighting Irish. Michigan State's lone touchdown came on two back-to-back explosive plays and the other points (a short field goal) came after a failed fake punt attempt by Notre Dame that set up the Spartans with great field position. Otherwise, the Spartans offense struggled against Notre Dame -- finishing the night with only 167 total yards on 45 plays.
Keep in mind that Notre Dame has arguably the best defense in the country, and Michigan State shouldn't see another secondary as talented as the Fighting Irish. But being held to under 200 total yards just simply won't cut it and there certainly is areas to point to for improvement on that side of the ball.
Defense continues to impress
While the offense was having a hard time early on in this game, the Spartans defense were keeping them in it. And really, throughout the game, they were a bright spot for Michigan State.
Michigan State ultimately gave up 395 total yards but it was across 67 plays for an average of 5.9. For some perspective, Notre Dame averaged 5.7 yards per play against Wisconsin in their opener so Michigan State is right in line with the Badgers -- who they play in two weeks.
There were some lengthy drives and critical fourth down conversions Michigan State's defense gave up that could have changed this game. So, there's that of course. But Notre Dame starting quarterback CJ Carr is one of the best at his position in college football and it showed a few times throughout this game -- especially on those critical scenarios where you just have to tip the cap to him.
Overall, I'm impressed with the defense out of last night's game and excited to see if they can back that up against Nebraska next week. More on the Cornhuskers soon...
Monitoring Spartans' health
A few key Spartans left the game with injuries that could be concerning moving forward for Michigan State.
Starting linebacker Brady Pretzlaff left the game and never returned with an undisclosed injury. Fitzgerald wouldn't comment on his status following the game. He was off to a strong season this year so losing him for any extended amount of time will be a tough blow.
Maybe even more concerning was a late game injury to starting running back Cam Edwards. He slipped on the wet field surface when going to pick up Notre Dame blitzer and had to be helped off the field by the training staff. After the game, Fitzgerald said Edwards wasn't included on his postgame injury report so that hopefully is a positive sign for his status moving forward. But it's definitely something to monitor with Edwards being arguably the most important player on the offense.
Starting linebacker and team captain Jordan Hall also got banged up in the game, with what appeared to be a aggravation of the same injury that kept him out last week against Eastern Michigan. He completed the game, though, which makes me believe he will be fine to play next week. This just appears to be an injury that he'll unfortunately need to deal with throughout the season given the nature of his position.
Season-defining game coming up
Arguably the toughest game of the season is now behind the Spartans, and we can look ahead to Big Ten play. That starts with a game that I believe will define the rest of this season for Michigan State.
Nebraska on paper is similar to the Spartans and a team I predicted Michigan State to beat before the season began. The Cornhuskers have dominated their lower tier competition to start the season and are 3-0 -- but my opinion of them hasn't changed. So this is a game Michigan State simply needs to win to stay on track for reaching a bowl game.
It's obviously still early in the season, but 3-1 with a road game at Wisconsin coming up looks a WHOLE lot better than 2-2 with a road game at Wisconsin coming up. This should be a close game, and Michigan State needs to find a way to win it if they're going to find themselves bowling this year.
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This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Five takeaways, analysis from Michigan State football's loss at Notre Dame
