The Simulating Irish: Michigan State

Hey guys, had an idea today while I was sitting at my desk at work looking at the EA Sports NFL Simulations on ESPN.com – why not do a weekly simulation with NCAA Football 2009 for each week’s Notre Dame game.  So from now on I will do a simulation of each game towards the end of the week and do a quick recap based on the stats.

Notre Dame at Michigan State

1st
2nd
3rd
4th
final
06 msu
0
7
10
7
24
nd home
14
7
0
0
21

Irish Jump Out to Early Lead, But Fall to Spartans 24-21

Notre Dame used a pick 6 by safety Kyle McCarthy and a Jimmy Clausen to Armando Allen touchdown pass to build a 14-0 first quarter lead but ran out of gas in the second half.  Michigan State scored 17 unanswered points in the final two quarters after Notre Dame build a 21-7 half-time lead.

The Irish successfully contained Javon Ringer, holding the talented Michigan State running back to just 39 yards on 6 carries, but couldn’t keep the Spartans out of the end zone through the air.  Brian Hoyer and Kirk Cousins combined to throw for 201 yards and three touchdowns.  Notre Dame intercepted the Spartans quarterbacks twice with Kyle McCarthy retruning one of the interceptions for a touchdown in the first quarter, but couldn’t keep Mark Dell out of the end-zone on a 30 yard pass from Cousins with less than two minutes remaining.

Notre Dame had a chance to tie the game at the end of regulation, but a 46 yard Brandon Walker field goal couldn’t find its way through the uprights to force overtime.

Third down efficiency was the difference in the game with Michigan State converting on an impressive 9 of 18 attempts.  Notre Dame meanwhile strugged converting third downs as they have the previous two weeks with just 2 conversions on 11 attempts.  Notre Dame also struggled on fourth down converting just one of three atempts.

Scoring Summary

First Quarter
11:35 Notre Dame TD Kyle McCarthy, returned interception 43 yards (Walker Kick)
2:27 Notre Dame TD Armando Allen, 4 yard pass from Jimmy Clausen (Walker Kick)
Second Quarter
11:07 Michigan State TD D. Curry, 18 yard pass from Brian Hoyer (Swenson kick)
7:50 Notre Dame TD Armando Allen, 28 yard pass from Jimmy Clausen (Walker Kick)
Third Quarter
9:50 Michigan State FG Swenson, 40 yard FG
6:59 Michigan State TD Jimmerson, 18 yard pass from K Cousins (Swenson Kick)
Fourth Quarter
1:44 Michigan State TD Mark Dell, 30 yard pass from K Cousins (Swenson Kick)

Individual Stats

Passing
Notre Dame Clausen (16-26-1; 121 yds, 2 TDs)
Michigan State Hoyer (14-18-2; 80 yds, 1 TD); Cousins (15-22-0; 121 yds, 2 TDs)
Rushing
Notre Dame Clausen (13-50); Aldridge (6-42); Schwapp (3-11); Gray (2-7); Allen (1-4)
Michigan State Jimmerson (13-57); Ringer (6-39); Ray (5-11); Cousins (3-(-10))
Receiving
Notre Dame Tate (4-13); West (4-9); Allen (3-65, 2 TD); Schwapp (2-23); Kamara (2-6); Parris (1-5)
Michigan State Dell (9-94, 1 TD); F Smith (7-9); D Curry (4-44, 1 TD); Jimmerson (3-33, 1 TD); Cannt (3-20); Hawken (3-1)

Team Stats

Notre Dame
Michigan State
21
Score
24
8
First  Downs
14
235
Total Offense
292
25-114
Rushes – Yards
29-91
16-26-1
Comp/Att/Int
29-40-2
121
Passing Yards
201
2-11
3rd Downs
9-18
1-3
4th Downs
2-2
0-0
2 point
0-0
2-1-0 (50%)
Red Zone Att – TD – FG
2-2-0 (100%)
2
Turnovers
2
1
Fumbles Lost
0
47
PR Yards
16
127
KR Yards
86
409
Total Yards
394
6-42.5
Punts – Avg
5-44.6
5-25
Penalties – Yards
1-5
25:30
Time of Poss.
34:30

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5 Comments

  1. @pkl, I guess that’s why its a simulation 🙂 I figured this wouldn’t be too accurate, but I think it could be a fun feature to the blog each week.

  2. I got 0-41 MSU.

    Scoreless 1st quarter. Would have been better had Clausen not decided to play like Mike Vick. The dude is painfully slow. Golden fumbled at the MSU 10.

    MSU opened with a 8 play TD drive, capped by a Ringer dive. After ND going 3 and out, another long MSU drive capped by a play action pass to Curry, I believe.

    Jimmy threw a pick 6 on his first pass. 0-21 MSU.

    ND drove 50 yards, and missed a FG in the last 50 seconds.

    MSU got an FG just as time expired.

    After halftime, ND got the ball back and went three and out (really, a draw on 3 and 8?!)

    Ringer took the handoff 72 yards for a TD.

    Jimmy threw another pick 6.

    Then I shut off the PS3 and went to go set myself some beer for the real game. In fairness, the ground game was working, just like we expect it to today. ND tried to pass almost every play once they were down 0-14 in the early second quarter.

    Ringer was 12 for 87. Hoyer was 19 of 20(!) for 200 yds. Clausen was 15-22 for 118 and 2 pick-6’s. Rushing was a combined 21-81. Schwapp had the longest rush of the day(!) with 8 yards on a shotgun draw. Honestly, they looked more like last year’s team than this year’s.

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