It’s our weekly column looking back at the last Notre Dame game. It’s essentially hits and misses, but since our weekly radio show is the Irish Football Fix, we’ll call it Hits and Fixes!

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GAME: Notre Dame 27, Michigan State 10

RECORD: Irish are now 3-0

HITS

The Irish Defense

This was a one-possession game for most of the contest, but it never felt like Notre Dame was ever in trouble. That’s because of the play of the Irish defense, which has now given up just 23 total points in three games. The rush defense ranks among the very best in the country in multiple categories.

Start of the 4th Quarter

After Notre Dame extended its lead to 20-10 late in the 3rd quarter, Michigan State started the 4th quarter at the Irish 43, looking to get it back to a one-possession deficit. Two sacks (by Loghan Thomas and Boubacar Traore) and a pass breakup by Leonard Moore later, and MSU faced a 4th and 31 and was forced to punt.

CJ Carr then hit Micah Gilbert on passes of 28 and 39 yards to lead to a TD to put ND up 27-10. Captain Adon Shuler picked off Michigan State’s next play from scrimmage, but the Irish missed a field goal to cement what would have been a nearly perfect first six minutes of the 4th quarter.

Micah Gilbert

Last week, I questioned whether Notre Dame had a true #2 wide receiver behind Jordan Faison. Micah Gilbert was one of those contenders, but I wanted to see more, and boy did he show it Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium. Gilbert caught eight passes for 170 yards, the most yardage for a Notre Dame receiver since 2017. Gilbert is proving to be a deep-play threat the Irish need.

Game Control

CJ Carr’s numbers were really good. The Irish quarterback was 18-of-24 for 234 yards while rushing for a touchdown. This game marked the first of his career as a starter where he didn’t throw a touchdown pass. What Carr did best was lead the Irish on significantly long drives. Notre Dame won the time of possession battle by more than 13 minutes as Carr had scoring drives of six minutes, five minutes and nearly 10 minutes.

That game control led MSU to have just 43 offensive snaps, keeping the Irish defense fresh throughout the night.

Luke Talich

With the injury to Brauntae Johnson against Wisconsin, Luke Talich made his 2nd start of the season at safety. The Wyoming native had an interception, pass breakup, sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.

Turnover Margin

The Irish have yet to turn the ball over through three games while taking it away from Michigan State twice.

FIXES

Run Game

If you look just at the final box score, this may not stand out, but for everyone that watched the game, the Irish run game was the most noticeable concern yet again.

It took 5 rushes for an Irish running back to just get positive yards on a play. Notre Dame didn’t get its first rush from a running back of more than 10 yards until the 3rd quarter. That marked the 29th carry of the game for ND before they reached over 100 yards. It got better in the 2nd half as Nolan James Jr. got the bulk of the work at RB.

James had 121 yards rushing and a touchdown, although his 26 carries on the night are a concern long term. Starter Aneyas Williams had just 25 yards on 9 carries with a questionable touchdown.

Don’t Celebrate Good Times, Come On.

I’m still not sure Williams ever got in for the touchdown, but it was the celebration of the TD that caused head coach Marcus Freeman to lose it on the sidelines after Williams was flagged for an excessive celebration. Freeman was so upset he actually bumped Williams while chewing him out.

Here’s the part I don’t understand. The entire offense was a part of the celebration, including captains Jordan Faison and CJ Carr. Yes, Williams was the one that scored the touchdown, but I’m not sure he should have been singled out in the way he was.

And it didn’t end there. Williams was benched for a long time at that point, which led to all the carries for Nolan James Jr.

Tight Ends

They make the Fix list for the 2nd week in a row. Last week, Cooper Flanagan at least scored a touchdown. This week, the tight ends didn’t even have a single catch. And when it comes to blocking, they actually got run into by the Irish running backs a number of times in the 1st half.

Not so Special Teams

The special teams weren’t bad, but so far in 2026 they haven’t been the difference-maker like they were in 2025. There was good and bad. Spencer Porath made his first two field goals but missed his 3rd attempt in the 4th. The Irish, who were superb at fake punts in 2025, failed to convert a first down on a fake punt attempt on Saturday.