Notre Dame's defense continues to lack any direction and because of that look for the losses to continue.

Head coach Brian Kelly again lost a game of importance for his program in the perfect setting for a rousing victory. A Saturday night home game in front of a nationally televised audience - and the Irish defense was nowhere to be found . In addition, the ND offense looked like it took a giant step backwards with just 57 yards rushing despite a backfield loaded with talent.As I have written in the past, Kelly will never win a national title in South Bend. Time and time again in "big games" for his program he fails to get the job done. Meeting a team ranked ahead of him on his home field and coming off a victory, Kelly failed yet again. The defense of Kelly and defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder couldn't stop the Michigan State run game which rolled up 260 yards on the ground. Many, like me, thought the pass defense was going to be the problem, but MSU really didn't need to throw the ball that much. The Spartans still ended up with 241 passing yards and completed two long pass plays. Admittedly, the Irish secondary is young but Kelly and company knew coming into the MSU game that the Spartans run first, then pass. The Irish were not ready for MSU's rushing game.As the boos died down in the late moments of the third quarter ND manage to show some fight and came back within a score of tying the game. But Kelly made the foolish decision, with a fourth-and-7 from his own 32 yard line, with 3:37 left he punted the ball and left it up to his defense to get the ball back. It never happened and MSU ran out the clock to preserve the 36-28 win.MSU dominated the clock, controlling the ball for 37:57 to 22:03. MSU was led by a backup running back, Gerald Holmes, who got 100 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns. Starter LJ Scott had 98 yards on 22 carries and a score. That showed how the Spartans' dominated the line of scrimmage against a ND defensive line that was not short on experience.Kelly told the media after the game about the decision to punt, stating the Irish still had two timeouts and that he thought the defense would hold MSU. But he failed to take into the equation the fact that the Irish were unable to stop the MSU ground game most of the evening. Final word, he should have taken a shot for the first down.When the Irish made their comeback bid DeShone Kizer found Equanimeous St. Brown with a 15-yard scoring pass, ran the ball in from three yards out for his 14th career rushing TD, and then found Durham Smythe on a 12-yard scoring pass with 6:02 to play in the game, making it a one possession contest.In the early going, the Irish special teams made key mistakes. C.J. Sanders' return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff was brought back to the Irish 10-yard line because of holding. MSU's first score was set up when a Spartan punt went off the back of sophomore wide receiver Miles Boykins' leg making it a fumble which MSU recovered on the Irish 38.Today the Irish host Duke in a matchup of ACC teams. The Blue Devils come into the contest at 1-2 with a win over North Carolina Central, 49-6, and losses to Wake Forest, 24-14; and Northwestern last week, 24-13.Duke, like MSU, likes to run the ball and has a great back in Jela Duncan who has 200 yards on 35 carries and three TDs this season. Quarterback Daniel Jones also likes to run the ball with 136 yards on 31 carries and three scores. Jones has completed 68 passes for 111 yards and two TDs with two interceptions. The top receivers are T.J. Rahming with 151 yards on 18 catches and Anthony Nash, 177 on 13. Defensively the Devils are led by Joe Giles-Harris with 18 solo tackes and DeVon Edwards with 17.ND leads the series, 3-1 with the last meeting being in 2007. The game will be televised nationally by NBC-TV with a 3:40 p.m. kickoff.IRISH NOTES ... Kizer completed 20 of 37 passes in the game for 344 yards and two TDs, one rushing. The rushing game was not there as Josh Adams had only 33 yards on 12 carries, Kizer 27 on nine and Tarean Folston 14 on four. Receiving figures were a little better. Torri Hunter returned to the lineup and caught five for 95 yards; St. Brown four for 83; Adams four for 17; and Sanders two for 53. Defensively Nyler Morgan had eight solo tackles and Greer Martini six .... ND dropped out of the top 25 with the loss and I doubt they will do better than number 20 the rest of the way .... ND rush defense ratings have consistently come down since the championship run in 2012. Since then the Irish have ranked 70th in 2013 and 72nd in 2014 and 2015. After last Saturday's performance the Irish are now 89th out of 128 teams in rush defense. Some more defensive figures. ND is 103rd in pass-efficiency defense, 102nd in total defense, 94th in scoring defense, 100th in tackles for loss, 89th in third-down defense, 104th in four-down defense, 93rd in red zone defense, and 89th in turnovers gained .... Irish fans went to Twitter after the MSU game calling for Kelly to "shake up" his coaching staff, and more directly, "fire VanGorder.".... Five of ND's upcoming opponents are averaging more than 200 yards rushing per game. Army and Navy are well over that figure, with 300 yards-per-game average .... The start time of the Syracuse game has been announced. Kickoff will be about 12:10 p.m. on Oct. 1 in the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The game will be on either ABC or one of the ESPN channels .... A day after the loss to MSU, the Irish got some good news. Four-star defensive lineman recruit, Donovan Jeter, committed to the Irish. Jeter is 6-foot-5, 260-pounder from Pennsylvania's Beaver Falls High School. He is the 18th verbal commitment for the 2017 class. Other four-star commitments include offensive linemen Josh Lugg and Robert Hainsey, and linebackers Davd Adams and Kurt Hinish ... In my preseason picks I have the Irish winning today. I still think the Irish will win but with the defensive problems ND has been having, and apparently are not close to solving, this could be a lot closer than first predicted. The Irish are favored by 21, but I doubt they will cover.