Spartan Football: The Outlook Moving Forward…Eastern Michigan

Coming off the 46-27 loss at Oregon and subsequent bye week, the Spartans return home Saturday for a date with Easter Michigan at high noon on the Big Ten Network.

Offense

After getting hot in the 2nd Quarter (once again) and carrying it into the early 3rd, MSU’s offense was swallowed up by the Autzen Stadium momentum burst, and blanked for the final 25 minutes. That’s not to say they didn’t have a look at scoring again, but when Connor Cook’s final interception of the day was tipped in the air towards two Ducks’ defenders, you quickly got the feeling that might be too much for them to overcome.

Despite the difficult ending, the Offense looked pretty good against Oregon for a chunk of the spotlight showdown. They know, however, they were not nearly as consistent as they needed to be to beat one of the country’s top teams in the country. They should look far more consistent over the coming two weeks, tuning up to defend the Big Ten crown.

Atop Mark Dantonio’s wish list for the final two non-conference games is a much stronger running game. “We need to run the ball more effectively,” Dantonio told Spartan Nation earlier this week. “We want to gain experience for our younger players as we move forward,” he added, which indicates that we may see a number of different people carrying the ball soon.

Jeremy Langford looked less than 100% against Oregon, and probably benefitted from the early bye week. Healthy or not, MSU needs to get more work in for Nick Hill, Delton Williams, and probably a Freshmen or two that is no doubt making his case for playing time on the practice field. The Spartans cannot afford to have their running game hampered if Langford comes up limp further down the road this year. They probably need two guys on call and ready to jump in at any point, capable of running with an edge.

No player on the current roster has grown his game-performance as much as Tony Lippett. A once heralded Red-Shirt, big things were expected early in Lippett’s playing career. He struggled to find his way, bouncing a bit from Offense to Defense and when he finally got meaningful reps as a Wide Out things started slow. He dropped too many balls, and didn’t look strong enough to compete at a championship level. Then during a bye week of his Junior year (2013), a switch was flipped.

“Always knew he was a great football player,” Coach D told Spartan Nation during the bye week. But not many saw such a sharp turn north coming for Lippett last year. “He sort of had to become a go to guy,” Dantonio told to Lippett during that meeting. The message was received.

Since that point, Lippett began catching the balls he was dropping before, running routes with more of a purpose, and snatching more of the balls that could have gone either way. He went from slipping down the depth chart to firmly established near the top. “I thought he had a great Junior year, and he’s responded thus far with an outstanding Senior year,” Dantonio added. “(He’s) proving to be a go to guy.”

Like it or not, the Offense will make the most news from this week’s final score. That will probably have the biggest impact in the Spartans’ national picture. Look for big numbers from this group this week, and perhaps another Spartan Quarterback getting a hunk of time or two along the way. This unit should look to score north of 50 this week. As we’ll discuss later, they likely need to.

Defense

Two of the toughest things about the Oregon matchup were the Autzen Stadium environment and the graduation of Max Bullough. First the environment, which MSU handled pretty well for a while. In fact, MSU had the Ducks on the ropes, with probably the game on the line in the 3rd Quarter. Then in a scene that felt so similar to Russell Wilson’s “Hail Mary” string of throws in the Big Ten Title Game of 2012, Marcus Mariota slipped out of the Spartans’ hands and turned the game on a dime.

In that Wisconsin game it was Johnny Adams who could have cut Wilson off before the long bomb show began. As Adams missed, the first of Wilson’s “Hail Mary” Touchdowns was let go. From Oregon, Darien Harris will probably be the Spartan that shows up in the Mariota highlight package most often. He couldn’t get enough of Mariota on a 3rd and 10 from the Oregon 41 when the Ducks looked to be on the ropes and ready to be closed out.

Autzen Stadium had gone not only flat, but extremely tight to that point in the 3rd Quarter. Oregon had lost confidence in its Offense because the Spartans Dawgs were owning them, limiting the Ducks to just 13 yards on 13 1st Half carries, and in position to send Oregon off the field on a third straight “3 and Out.” But Mariota proved to be a superstar. After he escaped a handful of Spartan defenders including Harris, he not only flipped the ball to Royce Freeman for a 1st Down, he flipped the Ducks’ remaining game script.

Five plays later, Devon Allen caught a Mariota pass and scored. Autzen Stadium was suddenly at full volume again, Oregon was only down 2-points, and the Ducks new confidence that would spur them to 21-more points in the final 20-minutes of play. No single player makes up the Spartan Defense, and there’s no way Harris or any other individual was to blame for the breakdowns at Oregon, but it looked like Max Bullough was seriously missed for the first time.

Bullough led this unit for the past three years. He and the other graduates from 2013 will not be easy to replace, Dantonio reminded us earlier this week. Though there is a wealth of talent in development, it’s perhaps before the snap that the biggest strides will be made. Bullough’s biggest contribution as the MSU Middle Linebacker may have been before the snap. Mark Dantonio and Coaches often raved about the pre-snap reads and adjustments Bullough made to line MSU up for success. The player that ultimately takes a hold of the Middle will probably be the one that develops in that area the most.

So many of Oregon’s big plays were the result of blown coverages, miscommunications, and mis-alignments. “I think (Twain Jones) has been solid,” Dantonio said in assessing the transition in the middle so far. “Because of that (game at Oregon) there will come a lot of growth.” Those types of errors were rare in Bullough’s time, though he never went up against Oregon at Autzen Stadium. It’s not that MSU got a bad performance from Middle Linebackers at Oregon, just that the drop off from Bullough to anyone filling those shoes was bound to be so evident against such a fantastic opponent.

We may not learn much about this unit over the next two weeks, but hopefully will see a firm decision about who will start in the middle for the rest of 2014. The position needs to solidify in time for the Big Ten opener versus Nebraska in a couple weeks. That Offense will not look like the next two.

Eastern Michigan has scored 31-points in three games this year. They were blanked 65-0 to Florida two weeks ago, and followed that up with 3-points in a loss to Old Dominion last Saturday. ODU only began playing football again at a competitive level in 2009 after a 68-year absence. They reentered the sport as a 1-AA team. That’s who ODU is, and who Eastern was just owned by. Against the Spartan Dawg Defense, Eastern Michigan should not score double digits, and is a great candidate for another MSU shutout.

Special Teams

RJ Shelton has probably been the standout of this unit so far. At a point in the Oregon game where MSU really needed a boost, Shelton took off and crossed the 50 on a kick return to jumpstart the MSU Offense. Shelton ran away from the Ducks all over the field in Eugene, introducing himself to NFL scouts as a player with that kind of speed and big play potential. He is no doubt on the NFL radar now as a rising talent, and will only help his prospects by continuing to improve as a kick returner.

Shelton may only return a few kick offs in the next two weeks, but MSU should see a whole bunch of punts booted their way. That means it’s the right time for the MSU punt return game to take final form for Big Ten play. There should not be any question who is the lead man, and look for Macgarrett Kings to pick things up a notch when the opportunity presents itself.

It could also be a slower stretch for the kickers because the next two opponents will be so seriously overmatched. Mike Sadler was not at his best at Oregon, especially early on, but will be counted on at some critical point along the way this season to shift a game’s momentum. He knows that, the Spartans know that, and everyone knows his track record of delivering in the clutch with either one or two feet, if called upon.

The Spartans look comfortable now with Kick Off specialist Kevin Cronin working off the tee and Michael Geiger of course kicking Field Goals. Coach D will probably elect to get Geiger some game reps over the next two weeks. Who would want a Field Goal kicker to step into league play having not attempted a Field Goal try for the previous month? That would not be setting Geiger up for success, and kickers don’t have a history of success at MSU by accident.

Overall

During the 3rd Quarter the Spartans looked poised for the biggest non-conference road win in quite a while. They had the Ducks on the ropes, had taken the Autzen Stadium crowd completely out of it, and were in position to begin closing them out. Then Marcus Mariota slipped through Spartan hands and flipped a magic switch. To Oregon’s credit, they were instantly reenergized and took advantage of being at home, exploited MSU’s mistakes, and completed a rather improbable 28-point swing in hardly more than one quarter of football.

Fortunately the Spartans had a bye week to process and get over the Oregon disappointment, including the inflated final score that’s already been used against them. “We need to bring focus with us as we move forward,” Dantonio said earlier this week about the weeks ahead. Now they have a couple weeks to get into high gear before Big Ten play begins. Based on the way the rest of the league has looked thus far, many programs look years away from being nationally competitive again. The 90s are far, far gone in the Big Ten right now.

The sport has changed drastically too. College Football now looks like it is asking teams to show each other up if the opponent is clearly inferior. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Alice. Think running it up doesn’t matter? Score is still by far the most common thing pollsters see when they vote for rankings, despite and chatter to the contrary. Just look at the Spartans result from Oregon. The “garbage time” score the Ducks tacked on has already been recognized as legitimate, and will be referred to down the road as well. During the softer points on their schedule, including the awful looking Big Ten teams they have left to play, this program has no choice but to put the pedal to the metal.

Mark Dantonio and his fellow Coaches didn’t ask for this system, but they’re stuck with it. The days of pulling off the gas when up 24 or more are basically over for the nation’s top teams. Though Dantonio said earlier this week that MSU won’t run it up on lesser teams, the only way the Spartans can make a statement to the pollsters and this newly formed Playoff Committee is to beat people by around 42 or more. A 42 point win looks now should be about what a 24 point used to be worth, if you will.

Shutting out weak teams won’t do it anymore. Running the ball to the middle of the field all 2nd Half when you’re already up 28 won’t do it. But if MSU starts beating a bunch of teams by more than 5-touchdowns, that will be heard and recognized by the committee. Like it or not, that’s the new name of the game.

Last Saturday went well for MSU as some teams were outed as media hyped frauds (USC), some of them humbled in games they could’ve won (UGA), and one actually won but it was perceived as practically a loss (UCLA). The NFL weekend went pretty well for MSU too if you think that having three (or four) winning Quarterbacks in the NFL is good for your program. “We’re going to try and pattern it (the Offense), as much as we can, after the NFL in a lot of ways,” Dantonio said about MSU’s recent history of developing Quarterbacks that can stick on NFL rosters. More on that next week.

Now it’s up to MSU to start a two game stretch of relatively boring looking games the right way. It’s up to the Coaches and leaders of this team to make the coming opponents seem interesting. You can’t play Oregon or Nebraska every week in this sport. Yet, this program is mature enough to handle it, take care of business, and hopefully play their best for each 60-minute contest. Not for an impressive 35 or 40 minutes, but all 60. That’s the difference between the schools that have a good run of seasons and the true powers that are always competitive, year in and year out. If that means hammering Eastern and Wyoming by more than 40-points each, that’s what has to happen in this College Football Playoff era.

P.A.T. (Perhaps Another Thought…)

1. Kicking around the Big Ten is among the most popular things on ESPN these days. The league doesn’t get fair credit for “big wins,” like beating Georgia in two of the last three Bowl Games. They don’t get much credit for being in tight ones with the SEC and other powers when they lose, and when other leagues face plant like the ACC and PAC-12 kinda did last Saturday, they don’t catch the same kind of heat. If you don’t think that’s by design, let’s talk after Bowl selections are made this year.
2. Not long after Ohio State finished laying their egg at home against Virginia Tech, ESPN lead analyst Kirk Herbstreit said it would be nearly impossible to think a Big Ten team could be selected for the College Football Playoff. Moments later Scott Van Pelt led SportsCenter off by blasting the Big Ten and concluding the same about the Playoff. The Playoff is an ESPN product, with more than a few of their dollars behind it. It sounds like they saw the opportunity to start a season long drum against the Big Ten, and came out banging it around hard. That doesn’t excuse the losses or suggest the Big Ten deserves a playoff shot no matter at this point, but fans should realize just how far uphill a climb it will be from here on the field and through the ESPN airwaves.
3. If the Big Ten Champion is rewarded with a trip to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, which is a nice stadium and the best of the “non” Playoff Games out there, good luck selling tickets. I would never buy one because I would only be more furious at the league’s decision to give up the Rose Bowl. That call may go down as one of the worst in major American sports history. When you have something as good as the Rose Bowl, the only game that actually transcends the sport, you don’t give that away to a group of people openly routing for you to fail from the very start of the season.