Spartans stumble, lose to Irish
33-30 loss ends streak of six straight in South Bend, sends Spartans to 1-2
By Matt Bishop (Last updated: 09/21/09 12:10am)South Bend, Ind. — Kirk Cousins walked off the field at Notre Dame Stadium surrounded by a frenzied mob, a blank expression on his face.
Just minutes earlier, the sophomore quarterback was driving his team down the field in search of a potential game-tying field goal or game-winning touchdown.
Down three points and with the ball at the Notre Dame 18-yard line and about one minute to play, Cousins was hurried out of the pocket. Throwing on the run, his pass across the middle was intercepted by Notre Dame’s Kyle McCarthy, ending the rally and dropping the Spartans to 1-2 with a 33-30 loss.
“I made a poor decision, made a costly error,” Cousins said. “I needed to throw the ball away, take a sack, anything. … It was a major mistake and I have to learn from it and we have to bounce back.”
But Dantonio remained supportive of his young quarterback, who threw for 302 yards on the day.
“We’re not getting down the field without Kirk Cousins,” Dantonio said. “He did an outstanding job. No one feels worse than he does about this. He will rise again. He will rise up.”
Following last week’s stunning loss to Central Michigan, the Spartans looked shell-shocked in the early going.
On Saturday, after MSU went three-and-out on its opening drive, Notre Dame marched down the field in four plays. Quarterback Jimmy Clausen found tight end Kyle Rudolph wide-open on the left sideline. He scampered 52 yards before going out of bounds. Two plays later, running back Armando Allen found the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown run out of the Wildcat formation.
The Spartans offense would bounce back with a 12-play drive that saw senior kicker Brett Swenson nail a 42-yard try to cut the lead to 7-3.
But Notre Dame’s offense would not be stopped, as Clausen again marched his team down the field with ease, hitting receiver Michael Floyd for a 22-yard touchdown. The five-play drive went 2:12.
Swenson would miss a 51-yard field goal on MSU’s next possession and Clausen would continue riding high. At the end of the first quarter, Clausen was 9-for-9 for 128 yards and the Fighting Irish never handed the ball to a running back.
But when the teams changed sides of the field to start the second quarter, the tide of the game changed, as well.
On the fifth play of the quarter, Clausen went down with a toe injury and the Irish punted two plays later. He missed a long third down play but returned.
“He wasn’t full speed the rest of the way,” Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis said.
Sophomore quarterback Keith Nichol took over at quarterback for MSU and, aided by two Notre Dame personal fouls, drove the team 50 yards in three plays. Then, after Weis called a timeout to presumably calm his team down, MSU went into its book of tricks, as sophomore receiver Keshawn Martin took a reverse and found senior receiver Blair White open down the right sideline for a 30-yard touchdown.
With the momentum shifting, Dantonio called for an onside kick. Swenson hit it perfectly, as the ball hit barely past the 40-yard line and was recovered by MSU.
Now down three points, MSU looked to tie or take the lead, but redshirt freshman running back Caulton Ray fumbled on a screen pass and Notre Dame recovered.
“We left plays on the field,” Dantonio said. “We can’t do that against a good football team.”
Notre Dame tacked on a field goal, but MSU bounced right back with a 81-yard drive culminated in freshman running back Larry Caper’s first career touchdown, a 1-yard plunge, giving the Spartans a 17-16 lead heading into halftime.
The Irish came out firing in the second half, scoring on their first two drives, a touchdown and a field goal, to take a 26-17 lead.
Weis said he told his team it needed to score on its first possession of the half.
“We flipped the momentum back in our favor,” he said.
But MSU did bounce back, as Caper scored his second touchdown of the game late in the third quarter. Swenson’s extra point, however, was blocked, making it 26-23.
After forcing a punt and backed by a 55-yard gain on third down, Cousins found White two plays later for a 17-yard touchdown, giving MSU a 30-26 lead with 9:33 to play.
One of the game’s most crucial plays came later in the quarter as junior cornerback Chris L. Rucker missed a wide-open interception attempt.
Notre Dame receiver Golden Tate broke off a route and Clausen threw the ball deep. With no one around him, Rucker timed the ball poorly and it went off his hands and harmlessly out of bounds.
The Irish would take the lead for good five plays later on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Clausen to Tate.
MSU had chances on the final drive. Cousins had Caper wide open in the end zone but overthrew him.
“In that situation, you don’t really want to throw a ball up and lob it up for grabs,” Cousins said. “I didn’t realize how open he was, so I tried to lead him and I overled him. Really, he was a last-second thought and when the defense did what it did, I kind of reacted and overthrew it.”
After Cousins’ interception and the Spartans out of timeouts, Notre Dame took a knee twice to end the game.
“That’s not the way we wanted it to end,” White said. “We’ll continue to go and practice hard everyday on the two minute drill. We’ll learn from it, but you can’t expect guys to be perfect all the time.”
Originally Published: 09/19/09 7:23pm
ChipMan
09/19/09 7:51pmEXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
MSU chocks two games in a row! Football program in turmoil! Doubts casted over the ability of Mark Dumb-antonio to lead! John L. Smith can no longer be used as a scapegoat! Resurrection of MSU football a farce! Fans were misled and tricked to believe they were contenders when they were pretenders!
09/19/09 8:34pmwe fought hard and fell short on a SERIOUSLY boneheaded play (and play call) at the end of the game.
On the upside, we played a lot more penalty-free than last week.
But did we tackle ANYONE the first time we hit them?
And can we PLEASE learn how to stop an 8-yard pass to the flats????
Calm down
09/19/09 8:43pmI hope Kirk Cousins doesn’t take too much heat for this came considering he played wonderfully for four quarters in his first big-time game of his career. Yes, he made a mistake at the end, but what more can you ask of a sophomore?
If you want to find fault in anybody, look at the front four that couldn’t get pressure without help from linebackers blitzing. And when the Spartans didn’t blitz, the secondary really struggled (Trenton Robinson should be in the doghouse and Chris L. Rucker dropped a gimme pick.)
Cousins didn’t lose this game. Dantonio or Treadwell didn’t lose this game. It was just about no push on the front four and poor tackling in the secondary.
So Tired!!
09/19/09 9:06pmWE SUCK!!! End of story. Another year of the same old crap. We’ll be lucky to win two more games this year. When does basketball start? I’m ready to watch a team that actually wants to win and proves it.
Spartypants
09/19/09 11:24pmThis was a good loss as far as I am concerned. Last week was not. This week, they played almost penalty-free football, showed discipline and acted like adults. This week it was a pleasure to watch them. No they didn’t win, but there is more to the college game than winning and this week they showed that.
spartan
09/19/09 11:49pmI feel bad for all these people jumping off the bandwagon. It says a lot about how little informed people are.
First of all, we have to recognize that the team played much better and the offense was more effective. On the other hand, the defense is still a work-in-progress. The lack of open-space tackles was one of the things that cost us the game. Still, the coaches made much better decisions and, frankly, we must recognize that the game was lost in the last play; without taking merit to Cousins and, also, MSU had a several opportunities (interception in open space and TD at the end of the game). But whatever, they played better.
...Now, lets put the game in context.
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MSUAlum
09/19/09 11:51pmThere is no good loss. Dantonio lost this game when he decided to forfeit 14 points to “watch” Nichols progress. Cousins is a far better QB but the team remains in search of direction and a leader. How stupid to be playing around with QBs at this point. The team totally lost its momentum, field position and ultimately the game when the game was turned over to Nichols – again.
lol
09/20/09 12:23amhow many more games this team will have to lose before people realize that this team sucks big time?!…This is exactly why I’ve never supported Spartan football in my 4 years in MSU, I didn’t want to waste my time.
Randy Larscheid
09/20/09 1:03amAs much as I don’t like Dantonio, this game wasn’t a bad loss. Cousins is a keeper for sure!! This kid can play. ND had a TD taken away early on so we shouldn’t gripe too much. Lots of missed opportunities on defense. Wish Cousins connected on that wide open end zone play just before the interception. No credit to Dantonio. Cousins kept us in this game.
Julius Holmes
09/20/09 1:54amSUCKY LOSSS
I do agree with “Spartan” though. Our team is very young and inexperienced. So its understandable. Kirk Cousins played well…and larry caper more than impressed me. Its good to see people from the west side of the state handling business.
As long as we get a bowl game and win it, ill be satisfied.
09/20/09 2:19amI’m all about progress, not perfection and it is great to see the Spartan’s progress!
Crappy that we lost, but we did play better!
ZT
09/20/09 4:03amDefense was awful as usual. Clasuen was hurt, their WR was out so they ran it and we couldn’t stop it. Other than 1 or 2 long passes, most their stuff was underneath. As mentioned though, no one can tackle and 2-3 yard gains turned into 8-12.
Also not sure if it is the line or what, but I have not seen 1 “big play” out of any RB yet.
Tim
09/20/09 9:02amTimmy wrong. Timmy say ND blowout. Timmy sorry. Timmy say we humiliated…Timmy wrong.
Facts:
MSU played better this game.
In position to win game at the end.
Missed opportunities (missed pick, missed TD throw to wide open Caper, not taking sack and allowing Swensen to work his magic) sealed fate.
Running game better, but still not good.
Outcome:
Cousins should be named starting QB.
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Spartan Pete
09/20/09 9:54amObviously this will be a growing year. With virtually no senior leadership and a roster full of inexperience, this team will take its lumps this year. With set backs like this, this reminds me of 98 going to 99 and 07 to 08. It may take a year, but we cannot have the Michigan mindset that we have to win every game. Be real. I know we want to be the caliber of OSU and PSU, remember, those schools earlier in the decade we not as good because of young personal and look where they are now. Give this time, we are going in the right direction…
09/20/09 11:26amI’m so sick of immediate expectation levels of the highest caliber. We are still building and the trash talk about MSU and Dantonio is GRAND BS. If you’re a turn coat Spartan fan, kiss my ass. If you’re hating on Coach D and his staff, do the same. We are strong and getting stronger, so to that I must say:
GO GREEN
GO WHITE
GO SPARTANS!!!
GO IRISH
09/20/09 11:52amWOOT! GO IRISH!!
lol
09/20/09 12:10pmTo: Joshua Vincent,
We’ve been building for the last 10 years and still no success, sure lets spend another 10 years building so we can actually not let the other team score right at the end…second game in a row.
Fact: MSU needs to cut down on funding this bloody team, invest in something else. MSU football is hopeless
TRUE SPARTAN
09/20/09 12:50pmAll of you “fans” jumping off ship should be embarrassed of yourselves. You are a horrible representation of yourself and this university and there’s no need for you to be on any blogs taking shots at the institution you claim to support. Anybody who actually has any clue about MSU football knows that we HAVE made a LOT of progress since Dantonio came to town.
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re
09/20/09 12:57pmThis is simple. Go back and check the first couple of seasons of MSU’s king, Tom Izzo. You will see that they were barely average and, in his case, the transition was great because Heathcote retired and he left the job for Izzo. On the other hand, Dantonio is doing a remarkable job of fixing the disaster others created. These are: lack of good and continuous recruiting; lack of recognition of MSU’s greats, lack of team identity, lack of direction for the program…
The people that criticize MD and his staff (who will be the same cheering for him when we win the Big Ten and the National Championship) really don’t care about the program.
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TRUE SPARTAN
09/20/09 1:10pmAnd by the way, anybody who recommends we stop funding the spartan football team is extremely uneducated. The football team is the reason why we have all of our other sports teams. Football brings in enough money to fund itself and 90% of the other programs. So, if you want to stop funding the football team then go ahead and kiss our basketball program goodbye also.
09/20/09 1:20pmGo Green!
RS3
09/20/09 1:26pmGO WHITE!
Joesph
09/20/09 1:56pmSame old sparties. lol.
What was that? Pride comes before the fall? haha.
Go BLUE! State will finish 1-11.
@ lib
09/20/09 3:07pmspartan- fyi, javon ringer was NOT a juco transfer. def. watched him when he was a true freshman. you could be confused with devin “i’m a piece of shit” thomas- he was a juco transfer.
lol- we have been building since 2007. when you hire a new coach, especially one that runs a completely different offense than the predecessor, you start the building.
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Darko
09/20/09 4:12pmSome idiot here said he has never supported the football program in his four years at MSU.
Let that sink in. This MORON does not support his OWN SCHOOL because they have been a frustrating team to watch.
What a waste of air. Worst type of fan.
I wouldn’t mind if he got injured badly. Like, I would laugh if he fell down some stairs and couldn’t walk again.