Notre Dame's defense stymied the Michigan State running game en route to a 31-13 home win over the 15th-ranked Spartans on Saturday afternoon.

As was the case in both of its 2010 defeats, Michigan State (2-1) struggled mightily running the football, gaining just 29 yards on 22 carries. The Spartans also hurt themselves with penalties, getting flagged 12 times for 86 yards.

Kirk Cousins passed for 329 yards in defeat, but his team's comeback bid died with 3:32 left in the final period when Robert Blanton intercepted a Cousins pass on first-and-goal from the Irish 3-yard line and returned it 82 yards to set up a field goal.

Despite two early turnovers by quarterback Tommy Rees, the Fighting Irish (1-2) built a 21-10 halftime lead behind a pair of rushing touchdowns from Cierre Wood as well as an 89-yard kickoff return by George Atkinson III, the first kickoff returned for a score by a Notre Dame freshman since Raghib Ismail in 1988. Rees completed a 26-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Jones with 9:30 left in the third quarter to make it 28-10.

Michigan State, which beat Notre Dame last season on a fake field goal in overtime, failed on an attempted fake Saturday from the 2-yard line just before halftime