Hawkeyes Hammer Home Spartans’ First Loss of the Year, 37-6

The Spartans had to get off to a solid start today at Kinnick Stadium. And after deferring possession to the 2nd half, the Spartan D had Iowa facing a 3rd and

The Spartans had to get off to a solid start today at Kinnick Stadium. And after deferring possession to the 2nd half, the Spartan D had Iowa facing a 3rd and 5 at their own 43, only 5 snaps into the game. Had MSU been able to force a punt, a solid start would’ve been largely established. But when Ricky Stanzi (Sr. QB) found Allen Reisner (Sr. TE) for 8 yards and the 1st down, the unrelenting Hawkeye momentum slowly began build. It wouldn’t get much better from there on a very long Spartan Saturday in Iowa City.

Iowa didn’t face another 3rd down on that first drive, which ate up a healthy 6:12 of clock and put the Hawks out to a comfortable 7-0 lead. And after MSU couldn’t find one yard on a 3rd down in their subsequent possession, Iowa got the ball back with a chance to stretch it to an early 14-0 lead.

Moving inside the Red Zone off the strength of a killer Ricky Stanzi (Sr. QB) 3rd and 9 run for 26 yards, MSU badly needed a stop to hold Iowa to a Field Goal try. On a 3rd and 1 from the Spartan 19, Greg Jones (Sr. LB) stopped the Hawks for a loss of 1, and momentarily cut off the building Hawkeye momentum. Though the Hawks were up 10-0, the Spartans were hardly out of it…yet.

The turning point of 1st half, and ultimately the game, came on the next Spartan series as MSU began to move the ball into Hawkeye territory. Down 10 points, the Spartans had to put something on the board to slow down the simmering Hawkeye mojo, and began to threaten as the Offense found some rhythm.

After a nice 3rd and 6 conversion from Kirk Cousins (Rs.-Jr. QB) to Bennie Fowler (Rs.-Fr. WR), MSU was on the Iowa 41 and starting to think about cutting the lead to 3. But whatever remaining momentum the Iowa Hawkeyes didn’t have at that point was completely snatched away for good on the game’s next play.

On a 1st down from the Iowa 42, Cousins looked left, but didn’t see Iowa’s Tyler Sash (Jr. DB) who stepped underneath and in front to pick Cousins off for only the 5th time in 2010. It was a costly mistake by Cousins, but Sash had designs on turning it into an early haymaker blow.

Rather than prudently securing the turnover (the “smart” play) near mid-field, Sash made a risky spilt-second decision and flipped the ball just past the hand of B.J. Cunningham (Rs.-Jr. WR) to a neighboring Hawkeye, Michah Hyde (So. CB). In a game of inches, the space between the pitched ball and Cunningham’s outstretched glove was about to be turned into a cornfield-mile.

Sash’s gamble paid off big, and practically turned out to seal the game’s fate for good. Hyde took off with a burst and the space to traverse the entire field for 66 yards and a back breaking TD to put Iowa up 17-0. For a team coming off a bitter 1 point loss to Wisconsin at home the week before, the Hawkeyes had just engineered the exact kind of start needed to put MSU away early.

Suddenly it was 17-0 Hawkeyes, just when it looked like the game might be headed towards either 10-3 or 10-7. Suddenly the Spartans went from driving, to shell shocked. Last week the Spartans got away with falling behind 17-0 to a lesser, but rested and readied Northwestern team. Yet, you can only do that so many times before it finally catches up to you. Today it buried the Spartans.

MSU moved the ball right back into Iowa territory again, and stood within reasonable Field Goal range on a 3rd down at the Hawkeye 27. But as Cousins stepped back, he fell out of rhythm and threw off his back foot. The ball had too much air under it, and instantly looked like trouble. That trouble was realized when Iowa’s Shaun Prater (Jr. DB) stepped into the passing lane and picked Cousins off for the second time of the half.

Three plays later, Stanzi found Adam Robinson (So. RB) for the final 32 yard TD punch needed to complete the 1st half KO. A missed extra point left the total at 23-0, but that was clearly more than enough to send MSU back to East Lansing with their first loss of the year. By the end of the half, MSU would be down 30-0. Everything after that, really didn’t matter that much.

You simply can’t fall behind a top flight-Iowa team by 3 scores, at home, in a game they had to have to stay in the Big Ten race. MSU knew that, and knew they were done early today. The Spartans simply couldn’t make plays they had to have early, in order to stick around. MSU never quit, but they just didn’t have their game today, and they ran into a peaking Iowa Hawkeye football team.

Credit the Hawkeyes first. They beat MSU 30-0 in the 1st half. MSU didn’t beat themselves to that extent. They didn’t give Iowa all of those points. The Hawkeyes took ‘em…and then they took some more. Iowa played with far more urgency, intensity, and snatched the early momentum for a ride to an easy, yet fully earned “W”.

The Hawks took complete advantage of small momentum bits early (such as the very first 3rd down conversion), and kept building them on top of each other as the half went on. They methodically lined up the Spartans for the early knock out blows, and didn’t miss with their big shots. That’s not an easy thing to do, and it doesn’t happen on just a play or two. Complete domination takes time. Today, it was all Iowa, all too often.

The Outlook Moving Forward

Offense

There really were no highlights today, only frustration and missed opportunities early. No area of the Offense excelled today, as anyone that could read the “6” on the scoreboard could rightly conclude.

For Cousins, the return to his Iowa roots was nothing short of a nightmare. Ultimately, it will probably build the kind of character and resolve the Spartan Nation saw Brian Hoyer grow through from the 2007 Champs Bowl disappointment. Cousins had thrown 3 INTs all year coming into Saturday afternoon, he left Kinnnick Stadium after doubling his total for the year.

It’s an experience Cousins will never forget, but also one he’ll have to grow from because it’ll be with him for the rest of his career. It can prove to be point of invaluable inspiration throughout the remainder of Cousins’ Spartan career. MSU will need Cousins at his best to finish off a special 2010 campaign.

The BBC was “off air” today, as the entire team obviously had a very bad day. They will need to find their old form in the coming weeks, and will have a very good opportunity to “Pound Green Pound” against the hapless Gophers and Boilermakers in their next two games (bye week in between). The BBC needs to restore transmission from this low point (15 carries, 37 yards), back to full signal strength. The tiring Offensive Line will need to find a rejuvenating spark to turn around their current trend. They will have to “get right” if MSU is going to run the table and earn a Big Ten title.

Defense

The Spartan Defense had a taller task than it probably appeared on its surface today. Iowa is no Offensive slouch, with legitimate Big Ten talent like Ricky Stanzi (Jr. QB), Adam Robinson (So. RB), and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos (Sr. WR). It’s just that people don’t initially think of Iowa as having much of an Offense. Their system is traditionally a bit boring in nature, and they’re known as a Defensive team first.

The Defense didn’t give up all 37 points today, but they did appear overmatched throughout most of the day. They look like the most tired unit on the team right now. Tackles that were regularly made earlier in the year are now being broken and turned into big plays. Guys who were flying around and explosive during the first third of the season are now hobbling a bit and having trouble finishing plays. They need a bye week badly, but need to complete shut down Minnesota first, even more.

Special Teams

The Spartans need Keshawn Martin (Jr.) back to be special. Martin is easily the team’s single most explosive player. His absence was glaring today, and he’ll be counted on heavily if MSU is going to play for the Big Ten title on the final weekend of the year. Special Teams’ play tends to make a big difference in big games down the stretch, and it will without question make a major impact on the Big Ten race during the final four weeks.

Overall

The Spartans are an 8-1 football team, not a 1-8 football team. As badly as they were drilled this afternoon, Iowa was only able to hang 1 “L” on MSU. Like George Perles always says, they all “count one.” Today, that adage should help ease the pain of the Spartan Nation.

In a way, the blowout can be a good thing for MSU. It’s more extreme than losing by only a score or two. Sometimes a little shock to the football system can turn into a positive (see: Wisconsin over MSU: 40-10 in 1999, setting up 4 straight wins to finish off the year), and can provide the inspiration needed to raise a team’s focus to an even higher level. Not to suggest that this team was in the process of losing any of its humility, but if it was, that process was over long before the end of the 2nd Quarter today.

This team also looked distracted from the Chris L. Rucker saga. Their play clearly said as much today. There’s no way that Rucker’s reinstatement late in the week cost MSU the game today, but it clearly cost them a good bit focus. It was an instant distraction once the decision and announcement were made on Thursday night. The timing of the decision and announcement seemed all-wrong, all-along. As I stated on Spartan Nation Radio, Thursday night, I don’t know if Coach Dantonio will regret the decision he made about Chris L. Rucker, but I believe he will regret the timing of that decision for the rest of his career.

Why bring about a national sized distraction when you’re about to go on the road to play a game with National Title implications? Nothing good can come out of that scenario, but a lot of bad easily can. In my eyes, the Rucker decision should have been handled on the Monday or Tuesday after the Iowa game. This was the program’s biggest game in a couple of years, if not a couple of decades. MSU did not need to pick at an off-field scab less than 48 hours before the kick.

All it did was embed an extra distraction into a team that already had more than it could handle in preparing for an angry and hungry Iowa team. The timing of the decision simply had very little upside, but clearly carried the threat of a very steep downside. It seemed to hurt the Spartans badly today. Hopefully they’ll be over it by kick off next week.

Now it’s up to the Spartans to turn this Iowa City nightmare into a New Year’s Day celebration. Earlier this week, Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz described the state of the Spartan Football program. "They have built it with a good foundation underneath them,” Ferentz said. “That's going to make them tough, not only this year, but in the years to come."

That sturdy foundation has emphatically stood up to the test thus far in 2010, but will face another unique challenge next week when the Spartans host Minnesota. MSU has to get to the Bye Week. They’re tired. The missed tackles and “flat” push from the Offensive Line in the last couple of weeks have made that point clear. But MSU absolutely cannot afford a letdown next week versus a depressed bunch of Gophers. They have to handle their business convincingly at home, and move quickly to the bye week and the season’s final stretch.

For the second time in the last three years, MSU has a shot to play for the Big Ten title into the final weeks of the season! As bad as the Spartans’ performed in Iowa City today, they’re still in the driver’s seat for a Big Ten Championship run. They still have a very real shot at a trip to Pasadena. Excitement in the Spartan Nation should rise again rather quickly from the fumes already left in Iowa City.

The quicker the Spartans turn their focus forward towards the great opportunities ahead, the more likely they'll be to turn that dream of playing for Roses...into a New Year’s resolution.

*Interact with Jonathan on Twitter @JPSpartan or inside the Phalanx Forum