Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from victory over Michigan State

Notre Dame came out hot and dominated the Michigan State Spartans. Here are my three takeaways from the 38-18 decisive victory for the Irish.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the Michigan State Spartans 38-18 on Saturday night in East Lansing, Mich. The Irish officially have the Megaphone Trophy and Brian Kelly’s seat has simmered a bit from scalding hot. Mark Dantonio‘s seat has warmed up a bit but I really don’t think this will force him out, but it may force him to reconsider his offensive coordinator choice in Jim Bollman.

While the Irish didn’t put together great offensive numbers, they didn’t need to. An early interception returned for a touchdown and scoring off of short fields helped the Irish come out to a hot start. That’s a good thing for Kelly’s team after struggling to throw against Boston College and losing in a horrible offensive effort to the Georgia Bulldogs.

The Irish entered the game ranked 18th in the S&P+ while Michigan State was ranked 39th. The Irish jumped out to get the lead and didn’t come close to letting it go during the entire game. Sparty poured on some late game passing yards but they were held to around 300 total yards until the final drive where they added a few big passes including Lewerke’s second touchdown throw of the night. Let’s see the three takeaways from the Irish victory.