Boasting a defense that has outscored its opponents, Notre Dame must stifle Cam Edwards and force Michigan State into uncomfortable passing situations to remain undefeated tonight.
The 3rd-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (2-0) are off to a hot start in 2026 and the Irish defense is a big part of that success. In fact, Notre Dame's defense has scored more points (14) than it has allowed (13) this season. Notre Dame gets a tough test tonight when it takes on the much-improved Michigan State Spartans.
If Notre Dame is going to continue its fast start it will need its defense to continue playing dominant football. To do that, the defense needs to thrive in four key areas.
1) Start Fast - Much like the offense, a fast start from the Irish defense would prove incredibly beneficial. Michigan State hasn't been a fast starting offense this season, and if they can put some early drives together it could give a portal built unit much-needed confidence. On the flip side, if Notre Dame comes out and dominates early that confidence quickly dissipates and the Irish should roll. The longer this game is competitive the more Michigan State believes it can win, but a fast start from the defense makes that very difficult for the Spartans to achieve.
2) Win On First Down - Michigan State wants to run the football, throw short to intermediate throws and stay on schedule with its offense. It's not a team that is built to handle playing from behind, and it's also not an offense that is built to thrive in obvious passing situations. Through two games against MAC opponents, Michigan State quarterback Alessio Milivojevic has attempted just four passes that traveled at least 20 yards down the field and over 57-percent of this throws have traveled nine yards downfield or less (PFF). If Notre Dame, with its impact pass rush and talented cover players, can get Michigan State into more obvious passing situations they should thrive.
That means dominating on first down and keeping Michigan State off schedule.
3) Shutdown the Downhill Run Game - The biggest key to keeping Michigan State behind the sticks and off schedule is to shut down the downhill run game. Transfer running back Cam Edwards is a talented back that has rushed for 250 yards and three touchdowns in two games. Last season, at UConn, Edwards rushed for 1,240 yards (5.9 YPC) and 15 touchdowns. When he is churning out yards the Michigan State offense looks much, much different.
Notre Dame must have a plan to keep him from gashing the defense. The Irish defensive tackles needs to be as stout at the point of attack this week as they were the first two games, which is a big reason why the defense held its first two opponents to just 65.5 rushing yards per game and 2.02 yards per carry. When the defensive tackles are getting a push and eating up blocks it allows the talented Irish backers to play downhill, and if they can do that against Edwards they should be able to keep him in check.
4) Be Prepared For Trick/Gadget Plays - Michigan State was going to come at Notre Dame's defense with trick plays, gadget plays and double moves anyway, but I'm sure that thought became solidified after watching Notre Dame giving up four big plays against Wisconsin on double moves. The Spartan coaches have to know they can't match up with Notre Dame when playing straight up football, so they'll need to use motions, shifts, post-snap switch concepts, double moves and trick plays to generate the kind of chunk plays they need to get points on the board.
Of course, if Notre Dame is more disciplined in this game than they were against Wisconsin those plays will get snuffed out and the Irish defense will dominate.
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