Despite Three More Turnovers, Irish Finally Get Win

Cierre Wood ran for two touchdowns as the Irish finally get a win, 31-13 over the 15th ranked Spartans.  Notre Dame still turned the ball over three times in the game, but were able to make defensive stops when they needed to throughout the contest. In fact, they held one of the best rushing teams in the country to 29 yards on the ground.

So what does this tell us about the Spartans?  They aren't very good unfortunately.  They started off 2-0 playing very weak teams, which made them look impressive.  Playing a good team in the Irish today made them look like an average team at best.  This is what happened to State last year.  They won a school record eleven games only to be annihilated by Alabama in the bowl game.  The good news is next weekend they have Central Michigan, who was pounded by Western today 44-14, so they should get an easy win to build their confidence back up before they get into the big ten schedule. 

 As for the Irish, they should be able to coast through the remainder of their games until they face Stanford in the season finale.  If Stanford beats them, the Irish are still 9-3 and get a legitimate bowl game.  Michigan State plays a tough schedule in the Big Ten, so I look for them to drop four or five games this year and will play a bowl game before New Years.