Michigan State, Notre Dame football making most of red zone scoring chances

EAST LANSING – Michigan State is nearly perfect in the red zone. And coach Mark Dantonio is quick to point out if not for LJ Scott’s goal-line fumble, the Spartans would be unblemished.

Notre Dame has scored on all 15 of its trips inside opponents’ 20-yard line. The Irish have two field goals and 13 TDs.

Those efficient early efforts make Saturday’s showdown at Spartan Stadium (8 p.m./Fox) a situation where both the Spartans and the Irish must continue to score while figuring out how to stop each other in order to win.

“This year, we're scoring,” MSU coach Mark Dantonio said today. “I think it’s execution, I think it’s a mindset – not just from your coaching staff, but your players. It was a big point of emphasis. Right now, we’re getting that done.”

When these two teams met a year ago, the Spartans went up big and hung on late for a 36-28 win in South Bend, Indiana. It was a touchdown fiesta under Touchdown Jesus, with MSU going 3-for-3 and Notre Dame getting into the end zone on all four trips to the red zone. The Spartans after that were perfect in red-zone scoring chances through two games to begin the season, with four TDs and three field goals.

However, their inability to put up six points the rest of the season was one of the big reasons for losing their next seven games and finishing 3-9. MSU scored just 20 touchdowns in their final 36 red-zone trips, with five in five trips during a blowout win over Rutgers, the Spartans’ only other win after the 2-0 start.

“I think last year, that’s one of the things maybe we didn’t do as well,” Dantonio said. “Even if you look back to the Penn State game, four times inside the 10 in the first half last year, six times inside the 20 against Michigan last year. You know, we had to kick field goals.”

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That hasn’t been an issue this season, and new kicker Matt Coghlin has yet to attempt a field-goal try. MSU has scored seven touchdowns in eight trips, with Scott’s fumble against Bowling Green in the opener the lone red-zone visit without points. The Spartans are averaging 24.1 points and 461 yards per game through two games.

“It hurts a team when you get down there and you get 3 points or no points” senior center Brian Allen said. “It’s just having an attitude going down there and knowing you’re going to get points and that you’re going to score. And it makes it a lot easier on its defense and takes stuff off them.

“It’s just a relief getting points down there.”

Notre Dame, meantime, has experienced a mixed bag in its 2-1 start. After scoring touchdowns in 68% of their red-zone trips last season (30-for-48), the Fighting Irish are finding the end zone at an 88% clip through three games. They are averaging 39.1 points, including a 6-for-6 red zone touchdown performance in Saturday’s 49-20 win at Boston College.

But Notre Dame’s two field goal drives came in its 20-19 loss against Georgia, a game in which the Irish’s run-heavy offense struggled to move the ball on the ground and quarterback Brandon Wimbush found marginal success through the air. They are averaging 494 yards a game, including 330.7 a game on the ground.

“You’re fighting for every inch when you’re playing Michigan State because they're going to take care of the football on offense. They're going to play really good defense. That will have to be the case on Saturday,” Irish coach Brian Kelly said during his news conference today. “We can’t turn the football over like we did against BC. We're going to have to play really good run defense, which we did last year.

“We’re going to have to put some points on the board.”