Notre Dame Loses in Familiar Fashion

The play looked familiar. So did the outcome as Michigan State beat Notre Dame for the fifth consecutive time.

For the second year in a row, Michigan State ran a quick slant with Notre Dame blitzing, and it again resulted in the game-winning touchdown.

The 17-10 victory Saturday marked the third straight year the Spartans (2-0) completed a long scoring pass to beat the No. 23 Irish (0-2) in the fourth quarter.

“We wanted to keep that tradition alive,” said Charles Rogers, who caught the 47-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Van Dyke with 7:51 left. “The seniors had been talking about it all week.”

So had Notre Dame.

“It’s definitely not a good feeling,” Irish quarterback Matt LoVecchio said. “I don’t even know what to say right now.”

The only other times the Irish have lost more than four consecutive times to an opponent was to USC from 1978-82 and Michigan State from 1955-63.

The key play came on third-and-six and the Irish (0-2) blitzing. Rogers ran across the middle, caught the pass, spun out of cornerback Vontez Duff’s attempted tackle and raced down the sideline and dove into the end zone for the Spartans (2-0).

The play was reminiscent of last season’s game-winning play when Jeff Smoker connected with Herb Haygood with a 68-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 with 1:48 left.

“I got to feel like Herb Haygood for a while,” Rogers said.

The year before, Gari Scott took a short pass from Bill Burke on third-and-10 and scored an 80-yard touchdown with 5:11 left to break a tie.

“Like the past two years, it was just one play that killed us,” Notre Dame tailback Tony Fisher said.

The Irish had two last chances to tie. They attempted a fake field goal on a run by kicker Nicholas Setta on fourth-and-six from the Michigan State 17, but he was tackled almost immediately by Mike Labinjo for a three-yard loss.

The Irish hopes for a comeback ended when a pass by LoVecchio bounced out of Julius Jones’ hands and was intercepted by Broderick Nelson.