Notre Dame did not beat Michigan St.

[ulukinatme]

Contact MICHAEL ROSENBERG: 313-222-6052 or mrosenberg@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @rosenberg_mike.


Yeah, this guy gives journalism a bad name. Maybe he wanted a small piece of the Valenti fame? You gotta have an epic meltdown to achieve that though. You have to lose a close game before ANYONE will believe that you beat yourself in a game. MSU's offensive line could not hold back the ND defenders, especially near the end of the game when Lynch was all over their backfield and the yellow flags started flying due to holding penalties. Notre Dame's offensive line did well enough protecting the QB and opening holes to move the offense...maybe not to the tune of 500 yards like the previous games, but we dominated the line of scrimmage. Thats how you win football games, and hopefully taking care of the football (We're still working on that second step).

 

[phork]

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......

UM and USF scored more points than us, but the argument around here is that we beat ourselves.

 

[rikkitikki08]

We won by 18, lets move on and be ready for PITT

 

[Domina Nostra]

UM and USF scored more points than us, but the argument around here is that we beat ourselves.

- We lost to USF by 3,
- Lost to Michigan with 8 seconds left,
- Gained over 1000 yards on USF and MIchigan
- Turned the ball over 10 times

What we did was blow two games in historic fashion.

MSU is a run-first team that rushed for 29 yards, was +1 on TOs, and still lost by 18. It is not the same argument.

 

[GBdomer]

hahhaha HE mad.

 

[PJWhitfield]

The problem with "if only" arguments is that you could just as easily use them to see a bigger loss for MSU. If only Notre Dame hadn't blah blah blah, then Dame would've won even bigger. Old journalists don't play that game. You have to look at both sides of the ledger with the same tools. Notre Dame has a better team, and the score reflected that reality.

 

[AvesEvo]

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.

+ fricking 1. This guy argues that because Michigan State's trick plays didn't work, they beat themselves. Generally, teams try trick plays when they are already losing. Beating yourselves if muffing punts, fumbling as you run in to your own guy, and throwing balls backwards. Michigan St.'s turnovers weren't because their players were acting like chickens with their head's cut off, theirs were due to dumb *** play calling and pressure from ND forcing the turnovers. He also says that out gaining ND by 83 yards is further proof that Michigan St. beat themselves. Well as ChiefSecond so elegantly put it, "they lost by ****ing 18..." What the hell do you call it when you out gain your opponent by 254 yards and only lose by 3? This Michael Rosenberg is a joke.

Here is my favorite quote: "Notre Dame led, 21-10, thanks largely to a kickoff return for a touchdown." Well actually the kickoff return for a touchdown and the following extra point accounted for only 33.33% of ND's points. I would say "Notre Dame led, 21-10, thanks largely to *** kickings being returned for touchdowns."

 

[military_irish]

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.

Something I find interesting and good for journalism is that he actually emailed you back. Some "personalities" would just ignore someone and go on about their business. He did not. Not like I am sticking up for him because his article had little to no credence to it. But none the less I like people "in the know" to actually write back to people with questions or who disagree.

 

[AvesEvo]

Notre Dame beat themselves, they had 3 turnovers and 6 penalties for 53 yards. Oh wait, ND won.

 

[phork]

- We lost to USF by 3,
- Lost to Michigan with 8 seconds left,
- Gained over 1000 yards on USF and MIchigan
- Turned the ball over 10 times

What we did was blow two games in historic fashion.

MSU is a run-first team that rushed for 29 yards, was +1 on TOs, and still lost by 18. It is not the same argument.

I'm just saying. USF scored those points, UM scored those points.

 

[ndcoltsfan2010]

Take away the 3 turnovers we had during the MSU game and we would have won by two more touchdowns at least in my opinion. This guy is a moron and should not be writing stories if he is blind to the fact that ND outplayed physically MSU.

 

[Jerry]

I feel like the we beat ourselves argument can be made in almost every game but it really isn't relevant unless the score is somewhat close.

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

I feel like the we beat ourselves argument can be made in almost every game but it really isn't relevant unless the score is somewhat close.

To that point, did we beat USC last year or did they beat themselves?

 

[k1ssme1m1r1sh]

The Detroit Free Prees needs to stop spiking their coffee with mescaline and everything would stop looking so damn green. ND kicked the crap out of MSU, is it really that big of a shock? It wasn't to me.

 

[Domina Nostra]

I'm just saying. USF scored those points, UM scored those points.

The idea that the winner always outplayed his opponent is just not true. While you always hope that both teams play up to their full potential, you expect them to at least play competently. Sometimes one team just lays an egg. The other team leaves with a W, but not much else (see USF).

Good teams have bad days (2008 Alabama blown out by Utah), bad teams have good days (Duke beating Navy last year), and mediocre teams have awesome days (2008 Oregon St. blown out by Penn State then beats a sick USC team) and terrible days (2008 Notre Dame loss to Navy).

I had no idea what to take away from last year's Miami game considering they just fired their head coach and their starting QB played like an idiot. I think we would have won, but that was certainly not Miami's "best shot."

 

[Whiskeyjack]

In the 4th quarter, MSU gained 145 yards and ND gained 0. ND was in a Dime or Prevent scheme the entire time, which gives up underneath throws in order to take away the deep ball. It's similar to what USF did to us in the 2nd half of our season opener.

Tommy's ~300 yards in a single half against the Bulls looks great on paper, but USF had conceded much of that schematically. Cousins' 145 4th quarter yards are equally diminished in relevance. Props to him for taking what was there; Cousins and Cunningham were the only ones keeping the Spartans in the game (with some help from ND's super conservative playcalling). But as USF fans were quick to remind us after our loss, yardage gained through short passes against Dime and Prevent defenses isn't really something to hang your hat on.

Through the 3rd quarter, ND outgained MSU 275-213. That's a more accurate reflection of how the game went.