Notre Dame did not beat Michigan St.

[military_irish]

...At least according to Michael Rosenberg.

Spartans Beat Themselves, not Notre Dame

 

[phork]

I guess if its good enough for us to play that card, they can as well..

 

[Irish4Life09]

And now everyone can see why newspapers around the country keep going out of business. If that is the kind of writing that paper gets, it won't be long for them.
I couldn't help but laugh reading that "article." It was as if he didn't even watch the game.
Very amusing read.Check out the comments.

 

[ChiefSecond]

sooo the only thing i got out of that article was that msu lost because of the fake FG? WHAT? they lost by ****ing 18...

bad play calling isn't beating yourself....having a pretty solid O and D but avg 5 turnovers a game is beating yourself.

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

Joke.

 

[tommyIRISH23]

Did he write articles on how Michigan didn't beat ND, ND beat themselves.

ND was in control the whole game. This guy is really reaching

 

[MacIrish75]

It's the FREEP. Enough said.

 

[Zwidmanio]

So he completely ignores the fact that we shut down their running game, which is the cornerstone of their offense. It's unlikely that they would have had to resort to the plays he mentioned if their offense would have been able to move the ball effectively.

He's making excuses and trying to pin the blame on a couple calls, which I'll admit are questionable, but fact is ND fielded the superior team yesterday and that's why MSU lost.

 

[loomis41973]

Thanks for wasting my time. ; )

 

[BobD]

LOL

 

[irishff1014]

Thats fine now they know how we feel and all that matters is we got the W in the win column.

 

[irishfanjho15]

This Rosenberg cat did not watch this game. MSU was physically dominated in this game, especially on the O- and D-lines. Like most MSU teams over the years, you beat them up with physicality they fold. Most recently, Iowa and Bama last year.

"I didn't see exactly what happened on the next play, because I was looking for the Spartans to try the hide-the-ball-under-the-jersey trick while pulling down Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly's pants and discreetly placing Whoopee cushions throughout the Notre Dame locker room. But I assume it did not go well."

^^^ This should be enough to fire someone.

 

[WhoDeyIrish]

This guy is an idiot.

 

[koonja]

If who beat who mattered, I'd gladly take that to reflect our record. We'd be 3-0 (or 2-1 according to this guy's article) rather than our current record of 1-2.

 

[BGIF]

...At least according to Michael Rosenberg.

Spartans Beat Themselves, not Notre Dame

Yes they won the Total Yards battle as ND did against USF and UM but the difference was ND gave those games away with excessive fumbles, ints, and unforced penalties. ND had 100 yd rushers and receivers in those games - a balanced attack. MSU was one dimensional and paid the price for it.

Yesterday ND stiffled the run on a Power Running Team. 29 net yards, 1.3 yds/carry. The Spartan Run Game hit the Bermuda Triangle and vanished. Their offense was forced to pass and everybody knew it (apparently except Rosenberg). MSU had a bunch of penalties but they were predominately False Starts and Holding. The penalties a team gets when they're getting beat in the trenches. ND had 10 QB hurries, 2 sacks, a fumble, an int and a bunch of TFLs all caused by pressure from the ND defense. MSU's OLine couldn't handle Nix and Lynch all day. Had MSU's OLs not committed holding on almost every pass play, Cousins probably would have ridden back to East Lansing in an ambulance.

Yes, the trick plays didn't work but it was do to the ND DLine blowing up the MSU OLine on each of those plays. ND probably was thinking Fake on the FG but they didn't know where. Usually it's a run around the end or a pass to a receiver who slipped a block. The fake FG shovel pass, like a screen pass, relies on overpursuit by the defenders blindly charging in toward the kicker, not pushing back the OLine into the area where the shovel pass is targeted. The Cousins flea flicker failed because ND had a defender on the line of scrimmage that was totally ignored. Whether that play was to be a pass or run it was going to be a loss due to the unblocked defender at the line of scrimmage.

The Spartans didn't beat themselves, they were beaten at the LOS from whistle to whistle.

 

[Bubba]

Didn't even click the link. I don't want to give this guy any more hits. This got him some attention. An article about how the game really went would not have.

 

[BearGB]

The other thing you have to realize, is that our total yards would look a lot better if we don't have the kickoff return and blanton doesn't return that interception so far. Obviously I'm overjoyed those happened, but our offense would have had more total yards otherwise.

It does show that make sure you consider all of the game features before you rely too heavily on stats.

 

[TerryTate]

Losing by 18 points makes his argument kind of difficult to prove.

 

[kmoose]

Michael Rosenberg: Spartans beat themselves, not Notre Dame, with silliness

While the article is bunk, he at least got the headline right. The Spartans beat themselves with silliness. They sure did not beat Notre Dame with silliness.

 

[EifertPower]

Rosenberg's article is a joke. i'm usually the first one to admit the other team beat themselves if it's true but that's not true yesterday. ND gift-wrapped turnovers to Michigan State of which only the sack was any part of Michigan State's doing.

ND beat them up early in the game, Michigan State had to fight back. I thought the fake field goal was a terrible coaching move that changed the game but still what exactly did michigan state do to deserve to win that game? They had to hold Lynch in the 4th quarter because they had no other option. They had to interfere with Floyd because otherwise he'd catch it. Those weren't "stupid" penalties. Those penalties of necessary because ND was outplaying them.

 

[micks60]

I actually emailed him and he emailed me back and referred me to another article where basically he talkes a different stance. Kind of a cop out if you ask me. Have one opinion and stick with it.

 

[laservet]

I actually emailed him and he emailed me back and referred me to another article where basically he talkes a different stance. Kind of a cop out if you ask me. Have one opinion and stick with it.

He had a vendetta against Michigan's last coach, trashed them as often as he could and sucked up to MSU and ignored their problems. Michigan fans trashed his book on Amazon as revenge, according to a post elsewhere a few days ago he was in tears about the effect on his book sales.

Amazon.com: War As They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest (9780446580137): Michael Rosenberg: Books

 

[IrishSteelhead]

That's so weird. The box score says ND had 31, and MSU 13. Clearly he must understand the team that scores more points "beat" the other team right? At least that's how I thought it works......

 

[meowmix]

This argument might hold if they lost by single digits and didn't get rocked and lose by 18. Just because Cousins threw for a bunch of yards, it doesn't mean they should win, especially when the running game is held to 29 yards on 23 carries. I wonder how he explains that gem of a stat.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

This argument might hold if they lost by single digits and didn't get rocked and lose by 18. Just because Cousins threw for a bunch of yards, it doesn't mean they should win, especially when the running game is held to 29 yards on 23 carries. I wonder how he explains that gem of a stat.

Anybody could clearly see over 100 of his yards were during garbage time when a very soft shell defense was playing "keep the guy in front of you." Where that was last week is another story altogether. Grrrrrrrrr. And yup, their running game was humiliated beyond recognition.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Losing by 18 points makes his argument kind of difficult to prove.

^This...if it was 7 points are less he would have an argument.

 

[kmoose]

Michigan State gave up 31 points. ND's 4 TD drives were:

76 yards
92 yards
92 yards
71 yards

Michigan State certainly beat themselves.............by not being able to stop ND's offense!!

 

[Grahambo]

ND actually averaged 0.1 more yards per pass then MSU. Cousins threw the ball 54 times vs 26 for Rees.

Technically, Cousins threw 6.2 yards per pass as Rees did but the fake FG counts as a forward pass so it dropped to 6.1.

Yes, I am debating semantics with myself and talking to myself in my own post.

 

[ACamp1900]

I guess if its good enough for us to play that card, they can as well..

as long as someone actually says that in the media... how we should be a strong 3-0 or whatever... and have only beat ourselves... then I have no issue either... the double standard gets to me a bit though

 

[BobD]

I think he's right ND didn't beat the Spartans....it was much worse than a beating.