MSU vs. ND Prediction

You know when you wake up at 5 am after "falling asleep" on the couch.  You wake up a little confused, wondering where you are, but ultimately you manage to gather yourself and make it to bed.  You wake up finally just before college football starts but inside your head it feels like a cesspool.  That cesspool is Notre Dame.  The constant pain in  everyones head.  Always begging for your attention.  Sloshing around inside you ruining your afternoon.  But thankfully you can abort that pain with some Advil. 

OFFENSE: The front seven for Notre Dame is the strength of their team.  Michigan State's offensive line better come to play.  Along with that, Bell will need to have the best game of his career.  Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o will look to punish Bell and Maxwell.  Taking that aggressiveness and using it against them will be necessary for MSU. Look for the MSU offense to try to establish the run both between the tackles and on the edge.  This will set up play action passes where MSU will gain large chunks or yards.  After finally getting a catch last week, I see Arnett having a much larger impact in this game.  There is virtually no film on him in the MSU offense and that could help as no one is really sure how he will be used.  Look for this game to really be the Bennie Fowler coming out party.  He is a receiver that can use his big body and get down the field in a hurry.  Bennie should be tearing up the less than impressive Irish secondary.  The Irish will certainly try to make MSU one dimensional, though the air and these MSU receivers will make them pay.

DEFENSE:  Notre Dame is going with their more spread quarterback Golson.  He has a lot less experience than Reece.   MSU will look to attack early and rattle the inexperienced quarterback.  Spartan Stadium will be absolutely rocking throwing off some of the Irish timing and helping the MSU defense early in the game.  Defensively the corner backs, Dennard and Adams, will need to  be in lock down mode.  Narduzzi will be dialing up blitzes, like usual, from all over the field.  This will also help to stymie their great running back who is making his return this game, Cierre Wood.  MSU will certainly give up a couple big plays, but as long as they are not runs, I do not see how the Irish will score on long bombs through the air.  Gholston will command a lot of attention like usual and this will help free up Denicos Allen for some plays in the backfield.  For the MSU defense to be successful, they will need to keep ND one dimensional.  Just like ND will look to to against Michigan State, we will try to make Notre Dame throw the ball under duress.

PREDICTION:  I was at the game two years ago.  I have to say, MSU v. ND is my favorite game to go to.  I despise Notre Dame.  The game is usually really close and the fans in the stadium are rabid.  After some early scoring from both teams, they settle down and starting grinding against each other for two quarters.  This is perfect because this is exactly what MSU wants to do.  As the game rolls along and the crowd gets louder and louder look for MSU to string together big drives and tire out the Irish defense.  This game will remain close but MSU will prevail, call it 27-21 MSU.