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Michigan State Spartans at Notre Dame Fighting Irish

The Line: Notre Dame -11 1/2
Two teams that suffered tough losses last week will meet in South Bend as they try to get back to a winning record for the 2009 college football season.

Both the Michigan State Spartans and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish lost tough games last week, both were games that each team could have very well won.

Notre Dame led Michigan early and into halftime but couldn’t hold the lead. A few flaws of the Irish were exposed in that game, and it will be interesting to see how other teams take advantage, or if they are able to take advantage of them.

What was crystal clear in the Irish loss at Michigan was that Charlie Weis had no answers for Rich Rodriguez’s halftime adjustments, and that Notre Dame has one heck of a time stopping the run. If they don’t remedy these things in a hurry, it could be another long, disappointing season for the Irish.

For Michigan State, it was the same old story. It has seemed over the past several years that when another talented team stands up to the Spartans, the Spartans end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

While the Spartans went to a bowl game last year, they never showed up in any of their big games, and when they played the better teams they were usually on the wrong end of a blowout.

Michigan State owns this series in the games that are played in South Bend. In fact, the road team has dominated the series against the spread, going 7-1 against the number in the last eight.

The Michigan State offense was anemic in their loss last week, and whether it was a confidence killer or a motivator remains to be seen, but the offense will have to improve for MSU to have any chance in this spot.

Jimmy Clausen seemed to have trouble throwing any kind of pass except for a fade last game. He could very well struggle this week because that fade won’t be there in this one.

This is a tough call, but history says Notre Dame hasn’t covered against Michigan State at home in 12 years. With a double digit spread, I don’t see it changing now.

Mitch’s Pick: Michigan State +11 1/2

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