John Walters

EAST LANSING, Mich. -

Last Saturday in South Bend, Notre Dame welcomed back its 1988 national championship team. This Saturday in East Lansing the Irish were paid a visit by their 2007 team.

Notre Dame was not awful in a 23-7 loss at Michigan State. This was not a Code Blue and Gold, Notre Lame, 38-0 embarrassment the likes of which occurred twice last season. In fact, the Irish trailed by just six points early in the fourth quarter at Spartan Stadium.

However, Notre Dame reminded us too much of their ’07 selves today, of the squad that finished 3-9. The Irish filed into the tunnel at halftime without having scored a point, something that happened five times in 2007. There were turnovers and sacks and penalties that occurred at the most inopportune times. Field-goal attempts that were fruitless. Worst of all, though, was an Irish offense whose most identifiable trait is its lack of an identity.

Under blue skies in East Lansing, the Irish ran the ball seven consecutive times to start the game. That those rushing plays took place over the course of three offensive series, or that Notre Dame gained a total of seven yards on the first six carries, is plenty troubling.

“Our offense came out in the first half trying to win the line of scrimmage and that wasn’t taking place,” said coach Charlie Weis, who wore a brace on his left knee under a pair of blue warm-up pants. “It wasn’t like some exotic defense (the Spartans) were playing. We weren’t getting outnumbered. They were getting the best of us.”

The Irish ran the ball on their first seven offensive plays of the game. The Irish passed the ball, working out of an empty backfield alignment, on their first seven offensive plays of the second half. Subtract the “rushing” plays in which quarterback Jimmy Clausen was involved (i.e., sacks), and the Irish ran the ball just twice in the second half.

Twice. Out of 31 plays. Take out any Clausen sacks or sneaks, and Notre Dame, after opening the game with seven consecutive running plays, passed on 36 of their final 38 plays. In Lubbock, Texas, Mike Leach is wondering if he should be getting royalties.

You can forgive the Irish offense its inexperience. Notre Dame has scored nine touchdowns in three games and eight have been housed by freshmen or sophomores (today’s being a 26-yard touchdown reception by Michael Floyd). Nineteen of Clausen’s 24 completions were caught by underclassmen, as were 12 of the 16 rushing attempts. In other words, 75% of the offense from a skill-position vantage point is the burden of players who will make a return trip to Spartan Stadium.

Yet what’s worrisome is how much the Irish offense nibbles. There is no center to it, no consistency. No rhythm. Certainly there is less of a cadence to the Irish offense than there was to Weis’ postgame reply as to what makes Spartan tailback Javon Ringer so special.

“They can give him the ball 39 times in a game,” said Weis, “and you can hit him, and hit him, and hit him, and hit him, and he just keeps on coming.”

Ringer did carry the ball 39 times, in fact, for 201 yards. He was the only player Spartan quarterback Brian Hoyer handed off to all day. Everyone watching knew that Ringer was going to carry the ball, to paraphrase a term most popular with Irish players and coaches, “each and every play.” That never stopped the Spartans from calling his number.

“We knew they were going to give him the ball fifty million times or so it seemed like,” said sophomore linebacker Brian Smith, who had an outstanding day with 10 tackles and a forced fumble.

It’s the difference between having a leading man and working with an ensemble cast. Offensively, Michigan State is House. Notre Dame is Grey’s Anatomy..

In his postgame comments, Weis pointed out that the identity of an offense can change from week to week depending on the opponent. “Each week is its own set of entities,” he said. “It would be irresponsible of me to identify that before I’ve seen film of our next opponent.”

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