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Scouting Report and Prediction: #14 Michigan State 8-1 (4-1) vs. Maryland 2-7 (0-5): Go Freaking Get It!

Scouting Report and Prediction: #14 Michigan State 8-1 (4-1) vs. Maryland 2-7 (0-5)

A look at this week’s opponent…

The Spartans are playing a team from Maryland that is playing with house money. Simply said, they have nothing to lose this week. If MSU loses, the team that is coming off back to back top five finishes will cement their mantra of “Reach Higher” as impossible this season and emotionally struggle.

The Maryland coach was fired, so they are being led by an interim. If you look only at their record, they look terrible. Unfortunately, teams’ records don’t always tell the internal story.

This team has weapons and with nothing to lose, they come into the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation with no pressure. The Spartans are not only feeling the pressure, it sits right on their shoulders.

Behind the best play calling of the season, the Spartans offense started slow in Lincoln last week with player failures in execution, and with 1:46 remaining in the game the Spartans changed the play calling and lost.

For the first real time in their tenure at MSU Dantonio and his staff have been under the gun not with the threat of losing jobs, but for poor coaching and a beat up secondary that is making rocket football teams salivate. With all of their goals still ahead of the team, if they should win out through the Big Ten championship, the Spartans lost three highly heralded recruits from their 2016 class and the vibe around the program needs fixing. This week will tell us A LOT.

Ahead lies an OSU team that is beatable and we will see the true backbone of this team, players and coaches, tomorrow. This is a good team and good coaches. They have to pull out of this funk that last week mired them in and no matter who is telling you they will or won’t, no one knows. I will get into more detail on that after the season. For the first time since the Alamo Bowl we are entering a game at MSU that I don’t think anyone knows what to expect.

There isn’t trepidation, but there is uncertainty and I don’t know that after going nearly one year to the day since their last loss, that it may be a good thing. If the Spartans respond the way I hope, they will win out and take the Big Ten title from an unimpressive OSU team that frankly looks bored at times. The Spartans could and do have the ability, but how much did last week set them back emotionally? We shall see.

When MSU has the ball…

Against the 59th ranking rushing D the Spartans know what they are getting. Indiana was 120th and the Spartans admitted to letting them stay around for three and a half quarters with conservative play calling geared more for avoiding loss than winning.

Last week against the 20th ranked defense against the rush and 120th passing defense MSU went to the air and found passing to set up the run was exquisite. What will MSU do this week?

If they learned from last week, the Spartans will put their foot on the throttle and take Maryland out early. Blow them out. They should. Will they? Maryland is talented, but they have played inspired against teams that put the hammer down and nearly upset PSU and Wisconsin when they failed to produce a killer instinct.

I want to see a continuation of last week’s game plan. Let your first round NFL QB, the best in MSU history in Connor Cook, ride his Lamborghini arm and take the Spartans to the Promised Land. Dantonio has nothing to gain not riding this once in a generation at best or lifetime at worst QB. I never want to see a team abandon the run.

To me the run is the most beautiful play in football other than defense, but for this team and program they must use the pass first. Once Maryland’s will is broken, they will fold and you can run the rest of the game for all I care.

I want to see the Spartan grasp that this game isn’t about Maryland. They need to look in the mirror, all of them, and understand they are playing against themselves. Maryland is either the hapless victim of a Spartan team that has gone through a week of deep soul searching and finding themselves or the beneficiary of a stubborn Spartan team that can’t take a long internal look at themselves and reevaluate.

When MSU is on defense…

Maryland has the 113 ranked passing offenses, BUT that is deceptive. They are loaded with talent at the skill position and with nothing to lose they are going to throw all day. The Spartan defensive backfield is not “terrible” and does not “suck” and isn’t an “embarrassment” as some Spartans have suggested via the email this week.

They were down two NFL starters for the year and at some other point FIVE other players via injury. The Spartans started THREE true freshman last week at the most difficult AWAY venues in all of college football. MSU played eight different players in the defensive backfield last week including a WR turned CB in Monty Madaris. They are not the DB crew that Spartan Nation has been spoiled with, but they do not lack talent, only experience. It is fair to bemoan their lack of effectiveness in light of what the Spartans have been, but categorically ignorant and ill-informed to label them the names associated with emails previously.

MSU must find a way to get pressure. They could get none last week in Lincoln and Tommy Armstrong punished them. MSU must bring heat and find a way to force Maryland to make quick decisions. If the Terrapin QB has time or creates time with his feet, this will be a tough test for the Spartans.

Like the Huskers, Maryland will then parlay a passing attack with runs so that MSU can’t simply drop extra men in space. MSU has to apply heat all day. It is critical.

Intangibles…

Remember the rule of five. If MSU wins that, this game is over. For those who don’t remember it, it has to do with sacks and turnovers. If the Spartans have three sacks and give up two that means they are plus one. If they then get four turnovers and give up only one that means they are plus three. That would give them a plus four for the day. They want to get to a plus five ratio at least every game.

As I said earlier, Maryland has been dangerous when allowed to stick around. Today the Spartans face the man in the mirror. There is a champion in them. This is a very good team. VERY GOOD.

I will get hate email for saying this, but I firmly believe this is a team with the ability to compete in the college football playoff. Forget the fans, last week they let themselves down. If anyone has ever made a legitimate mistake in their life (and who hasn’t), they know the pain of understanding you hurt yourself. How does this team respond? If MSU takes the Husker loss as I think they will, they will come out swinging and with a vendetta.

I will say this right now. OSU is a good team, but they aren’t perfect and they do have flaws. If MSU comes out angry and plays that way for the entire game, they will go to Columbus and beat the Buckeyes and win out. If this is not a dominating win, then I think the emotional toll of Nebraska may have been a vision blurring haymaker to this team’s psyche.

Extra Point…

This is gut check time. MSU can scramble to beat Maryland, lose a nice game in Columbus, and take care of a lowly PSU team for a double digit season win total. No doubt a great accomplishment, BUT it will hurt. This team can do more. They can reach higher and for all of my critics call me a man who believes in them.

Now they have to believe. Not slogans, not talk, no tough verbiage. Just do it. They have to taste it. Last week the carrot was pulled away from them. It is still there, but the motto of reach higher must now morph into Go Freaking Get It. It lies there. The college football playoff and the Big Ten title are still viable and ahead of them. Not to be walked over and nonchalantly picked up, but to be brute force trauma taken.

Sorry to all of you PC police, but the game of football is a brutal game played by testosterone fueled young men physically imposing their will on other young men. This is not for the faint of heart. This is blood, cold, dirt, sweat, tears and muscle.

The Spartans have fine young men who wear the jersey and honorable men who lead them. This game is about them. This game could be played in a cornfield in the UP for all intents and purposes with no fans. This is about them. Sure they can still reach higher, but now is the time to Go Freaking Take It. This is the time when boys become men. Saturday is where legends are born and on that field Saturday, things can be done that my great grandchildren will talk about.

In 20 years the regret will be that they didn’t or that they did. Books will be written about what could have been or what was. Which will it be? I have my ideas, but no one knows. That is why at high noon at the High Cathedral of the Spartan Nation: Spartan Stadium a group of angry vigilantes sporting green and white must enter that sacred arena and Go Freaking Take It. I am not advocating cheating, but they must be the warriors, the bullies and the champions. Maryland does not belong on the field with this team, and the Spartans must play the role of angry host and make their visit a debacle.

The Spartans must make the entire Maryland team talk about the beat down like a bad nightmare generations from now. MSU has been given some of those beatings in the past. Spartan Nation can recall them all too well. Today they must serve it like a fine steak to the Terrapins. They must make this game about themselves and make Maryland sadly the victims.

Prediction…

I think MSU has learned their lesson. MSU wins 48-10!