Knee-jerk early morning Spartan football insomnia blues

It's past 1:30 AM and I can't sleep.

The focus is on the blown call by the officiating crew that gave Nebraska the game-winning touchdown, but really the game was lost earlier.

The offense is the reason the Spartans were even in a position to win this game in the first place, and the offense should have been given the opportunity to WIN the game in MSU's penultimate possession, but instead the coaching staff got sucked into the standard conservative playcalling that didn't even come close to yielding a first down. To make matters worse, since Nebraska had two timeouts to burn, hardly any time came off the clock anyway.

Perhaps the Spartan coaching staff was under the impression that surely the defense could stop the Huskers with only 55 seconds left in the game and no timeouts left, but the defense had struggled all night. What made them think this would suddenly change?

So while much of the focus is on a blown call--and it was an egregiously terrible call--the Spartans' doom was already at least largely foreshadowed by the Spartans' missed opportunity to ice the game by picking up just one first down.

Anyone who has been following Michigan State football this season with any level of detail knows that this is a flawed team. The chinks in the armor appeared on the first day of training camp when Ed Davis, arguably the team's best linebacker, was lost for the season. Then the secondary took big hits early on when its best cornerback, Vayante Copeland, was lost in the late stages of the Oregon game.

So we have a team with a patched-together secondary and a kickoff coverage unit that has been, at best, mediocre all season. MSU's Swiss cheese defense and spotty special teams combined to keep a highly motivated and spirited Nebraska team in the game. So while we can all rightfully be pissed off about that blown call, it's far from the only reason the Spartans lost.

MSU's faults finally caught up with them, and the coaching staff's unwillingness to place the game in the capable hands of its senior quarterback further hindered the team's chances at a victory.

I hope that the MSU coaching staff learns from this. You have a great quarterback in Connor Cook and receivers like Macgarrett Kings, R.J. Shelton, and Aaron Burbridge who have proven time and time again that they can make big plays. Use them wisely next time.

Knee-jerk post game reactions (Michigan State 52, Indiana 26)

I'm relaxing on the couch, drinking a glass of wine, sort of watching USC/Utah (having changed channels after it became clear--or at least highly likely--Rutgers will not put up much fight against Ohio State).

My wife and I went to the MSU/Indiana game today. It was my 50th all-time MSU football game (I'm dorky enough to keep track of such statistics). It's probably more games than many, but completely dwarfed by anyone who has had season tickets for several years.

We sat in Section 4, Row 43, Seats 24 and 25; directly behind the small but boisterous Indiana section. The Hoosier faithful made noise throughout the game, but made a mad dash to the exits when the Spartans went up 45-26 late in the 4th quarter.

We saw and experienced about every kind of weather the Great Lakes State has in its arsenal, with the exception of snow. It was warm and partly sunny when the game started, then dark rain clouds moved into East Lansing and it poured for about 20 minutes or so. The storm brought a cold front and we shivered for the remainder of the game (though MSU's 4th quarter scoring barrage got me up, moving around, and slightly warmer).

Overall, it was a fun, albeit long, late afternoon and early evening at Spartan Stadium. Nate Sudfeld and IU's offense were as tricky as I expected, but the Spartan defense played much better in the second half and held the Hoosiers to only six second-half points. MSU was finally able to apply some pressure to Sudfeld and make him less effective.

I don't know what else can be said about Connor Cook. He just might be the very best Spartan quarterback I've ever seen. It's amazing to think how far he's come since replacing an ineffective Andrew Maxwell in the 2012 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, and then taking over the starting job for good after the 2013 Notre Dame game.

Cook carried the team on his shoulders today, though he was ably assisted by Aaron Burbridge, R.J. Shelton, Macgarrett Kings, L.J. Scott, and Gerald Holmes. Cook came only two yards short of tying Bill Burke's single-game passing record of 400 yards (against Michigan in 1999).

What's most important is that the Spartans survive this game, get the win, and enter a much-needed bye week at 8-0.

Meanwhile, I remain convinced that my "Gruff Sparty" hoodie and my old school "block 'S'" MSU are somehow lucky, and thankful that I made a last-minute decision to buy rain ponchos at Meijer.

Ohio State 49, Michigan State 37

We're in the waning moments of what looks to be a 49-37 loss to Ohio State, provided Urbs doesn't decide to try and punch it in one more time...and that's it: the final score is OSU 49, MSU 37.

 

I couldn't have been further off on my pick. First of all, it was much higher scoring than I expected. Secondly, I never expected MSU's defense to get torn to shreds in the manner that occurred tonight. J.T. Barrett made none of the freshman mistakes I anticipated, and frankly I've not seen the Spartan defense look this overwhelmed in a long time.

 

I have to hand it to Urban Meyer, he had the Buckeyes ready and they were the ones who look like they should be a contender for the playoff. Clearly, Ohio State was motivated after last year's disappointment and they showed it.

 

Postscript: I'm coming to you on Monday, November 10. I've had a day to digest what happened on Saturday night.

 

The best place to start is with J.T. Barrett. What more could possibly be said about how well he played on Saturday night? He was incredible, and there is no doubt in my mind that he is better than Braxton Miller. He made some unbelievable throws, and is a powerful runner. But most impressive was his unflappability. He played like a four-year veteran, and seemed completely unfazed by the big crowd and the big stage.

 

Then there is the MSU defense. I was stunned at how porous it looked. This is not the first time this season it has yielded bushels of yards and points. Oregon did it, Purdue improbably did it, and even Indiana had success in the first half on MSU's 56-17 win. Ohio State is now the next to victimize the Spartan defense, with Barrett, Ezekiel Elliott, and Devin Smith running roughshod over the MSU defense.

 

I don't think the defensive problem is in personnel, though it's obvious that MSU's defensive backs this season are not nearly as good as last season's. My football knowledge is not astute enough to know what the solution is, but I have confidence that Pat Narduzzi will figure it out.

 

Before I spend too much time criticizing the Spartans, I have to single out Jeremy Langford and Macgarrett Kings in particular for how hard they played. Langford ran hard and with controlled aggression the entire game, and Kings had a brilliant run in the fourth quarter in which it looked for all the world like he was about to get caught in the backfield for a loss. Somehow, he managed to fight his way free and ran all the way to the OSU's 1-yard like. Langford then punched it in on the next play to score MSU's final touchdown of the night.

 

The turning point of the game came late in the first half when an apparent touchdown was taken away on a dicey holding call. That score would have put MSU up 28-14 and given them momentum. Instead, the Spartans had to settle for a Michael Geiger field goal attempt that he missed. OSU took over and soon scored a touchdown (79 yard pass from Barrett to Michael Thomas) to tie the game. The Buckeyes added another touchdown on a perfectly thrown ball from Barrett to Smith. Ohio State took a 28-21 lead into intermission and all the momentum.

Overall though, Ohio State played like the team with the chip on its shoulder. They clearly wanted to make amends for what happened in Indianapolis last season, and played their best game of the season.

A step in the right direction

I missed almost the entire first half of the MSU/Youngstown State game because my cable provider, Xfinity, deemed it necessary to not only show the Michigan/Akron game on the primary Big Ten Network channel, but on both of the overflow BTN channels. I'm assuming this was Xfinity's decision, or maybe it was the Big Ten Network. Either way, I found this to be disappointing. Still, I probably can't fault BTN/Xfinity too much, because the Michigan/Akron game was exciting and without a little homecooking that saved the Wolverines' hides, may have been the biggest college football upset this side of 2007's Appalachian State/Michigan game...(and Appalachian State was arguably a much better team than Akron).

Not having the MSU game on television forced me to do what I used to do in the old days, listen to the game on the radio. (At least the first half of the game, that is). So I had George Blaha and Jason Strayhorn describing the laugher at Spartan Stadium while Michigan was fighting for its life on my TV.

I don't know what the takeaway is from MSU's 55-17 win over Youngstown State. I suppose it was the best case scenario. Connor Cook, in his first start, played extremely well and, at the very least, saved Damion Terry's red shirt from being removed.

It was good to see MSU's offense with a pulse, and to see the receivers make catches. Yes, it was only Youngstown State, but it was still an encouraging sign.

After last year's CMU game, I lauded the play of Macgarrett Kings. For some unknown reason, Kings was not heard from again after that game. Against Youngstown State, Kings was the leading receiver and is, in fact, leading all MSU receivers in yardage. He has good hands and is shifty and elusive. At this point, the Spartans can use all the help they can get at receiver, and Kings provides hope at that position.

And hey, it turns out MSU has tight ends after all. They even showed up to make some catches on Saturday.

Next on the docket is Notre Dame.

I have absolutely no idea what to expect in this game. Is Notre Dame as mediocre as they have appeared in their first three games? It's hard to believe they are. Will MSU's offense continue to make the strides it displayed against Youngstown State? or is that performance, indeed merely fool's gold? It's still extremely difficult to gauge MSU's team, or have any sense of how much Notre Dame has dropped off since last year's strong season.

I've heard it said before that, for Michigan State, the result of the Notre Dame game is often an indicator of how the rest of the season will go for the Spartans. I think using this game as a barometer for the rest of the season is overstated. In 1986, the Spartans beat the Irish 20-15 at Spartan Stadium, but went on to a mediocre 6-5 season. The following year, MSU got run over by Tim Brown and ND, a game that started off badly and never got better--but MSU went on to win the Big Ten and go to the Rose Bowl. In 1998, MSU massacred the Irish 45-23 in East Lansing, but went on to a lackluster 6-6 season. In 2011, the Spartans were routed in South Bend, but ended up playing for the Big Ten title. So my point is, you just never really know.

That said, it's always great to beat Notre Dame, and MSU hasn't done it since the Little Giants play of 2010. With the Irish off the schedule for the next two years, it'd be awfully sweet for the Spartans to knock them off this season. I don't think anyone wants that more than Mark Dantonio.

So regardless of what happens this Saturday at Notre Dame, there's no point in getting either too high or too low.

A fan in absentia: Michigan State 41, Central Michigan 7

Full disclosure: I missed almost the entire first half of yesterday's MSU/CMU tilt because I went with my wife and eldest son to see The Dark Knight Rises. (It was an adrenaline-charged blast of a movie, but the main thing I took from it is that being a Gotham City police officer is a thankless job).

I didn't make it home until early in the third quarter, at which time the score was 31-0. All of the fireworks had ended by that point, and it was time for the second string. Of what I saw in that third and fourth quarter, not much made an impression other than Macgarrett Kings, the freshman wide receiver. He had two catches and is fast, with shifty moves.

From what I could tell, the Spartans simply took care of business. There was nothing fancy or earth-shattering about the Spartans' performance, though it was good to see the passing game improve, albeit against an inferior opponent.

I admit that I wasn't sure what to think about MSU playing a Mid-American Conference team on the road, but I've come around to believing it was a great event for the State of Michigan, and good public relations for Michigan State. Let's keep money in the state, because with our financial and economic problems, we desperately need it. Michigan State looks good for giving up what would have been a home game to create the biggest sporting event in Mt. Pleasant/CMU history.

Now, time to look forward to a big home night game against Notre Dame. I think it's time for payback after what happened last year. Am I right?