Irish need to stay loose and focused to beat Michigan State

Notre Dame have the talent to win this game if they keep the pressure on

Story and Photo Gallery / Notre Dame Leprechaun is in Fighting Irish form for Michigan / Click here

If Notre Dame wants any chance of a possible BCS bid, or to keep Charlie Weis off the proverbial hot seat, they must win out.  And their “season” starts tomorrow, when Michigan State- a team that has found unusual success playing in South Bend- enters Notre Dame Stadium.

When Notre Dame has the ball:

When you have wide receivers like the Fighting Irish have, you must go above and beyond to ensure them the ball.  And for the first two games, that’s exactly what Clausen has been doing.  Mike Floyd and Golden Tate have combined for 23 catches, 494 yards and six touchdowns, living up to the billing as the nation’s most dynamic duo.

Michigan State’s defensive backs on the other hand, had a real tough outing last week.  Central Michigan quarterback Dan Lefevour torched them for over 300 yards passing with simple jump balls to his wide receivers.   

So what does this mean?  The Spartans must drop at least six guys into pass coverage to contain the Domer’s potent passing attack.  If their front four- who are a talented bunch by the way- fail to get pressure on Clausen, it’s going to be a long day for the Spartan defense. 

If they decide to blitz, Notre Dame’s offensive line has been doing a good enough job to give Clausen time to find one of his weapons.  Armando Allen Jr. is becoming a suitable pass catcher coming out of the backfield and tight end Kyle Rudolph is great option down the middle of the field.   

If Weis implements a lot of play- action passing into his game plan, I think he could really confuse the Spartan defense.  He’ll be holding their defensive backs for just as long as it takes for Floyd and Tate to streak down the field.  For this to work of course, the Irish linemen need to be bullies inside the trenches.    

​
Nster.com