How good is Ohio State? And what Ohio State team will play today?
Those are the questions I entertain as we near kickoff, which at this point is only about 90 minutes away.
I suspect that the defending national champions and winners of a ridiculous 30 consecutive regular season Big Ten games are a damned good team and will finally reveal themselves today...but this will be their first big test of the season.
The bottom line is that MSU needs to play its best game of the season to win. That means no special teams gaffes, no getting completely burned in the secondary (see: Nebraska game), the front seven needs to put pressure on J.T. Barrett, the running game needs to be better than it's been all year, and the offensive line needs to get a push and finally open up some wholes, and last but not least, Connor Cook needs to play through whatever pain he is feeling and have a big game.
MSU CAN win this game, but I have to lean towards OSU and hope like hell I'm wrong. My gut says Ohio State 34, Michigan State 24. My heart is, of course, with MSU all the way and hoping I'm wrong.
The bottom line is that MSU needs to play its best game of the season to win.
ReplyDelete- Check.
That means no special teams gaffes,
- One rather glaring one, but the punting was good and the kicker was good when it mattered.
no getting completely burned in the secondary (see: Nebraska game),
- Check. Not sure OSU ever even reached our secondary. :)
the front seven needs to put pressure on J.T. Barrett,
- Check.
the running game needs to be better than it's been all year,
- Maybe, depending how you assess the opposing defenses.
and the offensive line needs to get a push and finally open up some wholes,
- See immediately above.
and last but not least, Connor Cook needs to play through whatever pain he is feeling and have a big game.
- Definitely nope.
Overall, that's a pretty good prediction.
Thanks for your observations, Eric! I'll tell you what, just like everyone else (with the exception of the MSU football team) my heart sank when it was revealed Cook couldn't play. But all the props in the world to O'Connor and Terry for playing so well under incredibly trying circumstances. The running game was outstanding, the Spartans dominated the line of scrimmage on offense AND defense, and the secondary has improved immensely (being more healthy certainly helps). The team overcame the two bad turnovers (the only reason OSU even scored--working with those short fields) and made the biggest special teams play of the game with Geiger's winning kick. Overall, a great game!
DeleteAnother thing I've noticed, that I don't think anyone is really talking about, is how good Jake Hartbarger has been the past few weeks. (Most of the year, really, outside of 2-3 game slump in the middle of the season.) Unfortunately, I can't find the detailed stats, but it seems like he's had a lot of inside-20 punts in the last few games, and he's had a 50+ yard punt in 8 of 11 games this year. His punts have also LOOKED better recently. Lots of hangtime and distance.
DeleteSo I feel pretty good about that part of our special teams going forward. Hopefully Geiger is getting locked in, and the coverage/return teams can be at least average.
As you may know, the OSU game was at 3:30 a.m. in my time zone. I had stayed up watching the UM-Penn State game (slept for about 30 minutes in the second half) and a friend of mine from Ohio came over just before the game started, I had to go downstairs and unlock the door for him, so I missed most of the pregame talk. I thought I heard something about Connor Cook not being able to play but they were showing him on TV (in uniform/pads) so I thought I misunderstood.
DeleteThen when Tyler O'Connor came out for the first series, I seriously thought, "Oh s#!t." I already thought the likelihood of winning was low (less than 50%, at any rate), but without Cook I figured we'd be lucky to avoid a blowout. So happy with the results and the team effort.
Great point about Hartbarger, Eric. He has looked outstanding for the last two or three weeks. And I have to imagine that Geiger's confidence will go sky high after kicking the game winner.
ReplyDelete