Spartan Football Essentials: Hoosier Boss
OFFENSE
Three 1st Downs, 82 yards, 0 points, and three turnovers are not winning halftime stats. No Big Ten team will win many conference games with that bad of a start. MSU was practically knocked out in the first half, again, thanks mostly to a self-destructive offense. It went so bad early on that that you couldn't tell exactly what went wrong. Everything was disjointed and shook. It was a total mess. And after last week's performance, it was a bit surprising. It will hopefully go down one day as the worst 1st half performance of the entire Mel Tucker era.
This offense is not going to run the ball well against decent competition anytime soon. Surely, Jay Johnson and staff must know that. It looks like they need to find some easy throws early in the series to get their quarterback going, whoever it is. There's no doubt the deep ball has been MSU's best threat so far, and for the near future, but there's only so many drives a game; you can start by taking a deep shot. Think of the slants that made the 49ers offense legendary under Bill Walsh, or some of the screens we see "spread" teams feature on the early downs. Something reliable needs to be identified and installed by the Spartan offense as soon as Maryland prep begins. They've got to get a quarterback in rhythm again.
Rocky Lombardi threw himself out of the game in the first 20-minutes. Mel Tucker had no choice but to make a change after the second interception, even if just for a few series. With an offense suddenly in chaos, the Spartans' lack of 2020 prep understandably showed up in bold. What looked to be taking off at Michigan has come crashing down since. MSU has to find some quick answers to stabilize this unit that's very quickly taking on water.
Once again, it seems like a very logical time to consider calling some "traditional option" style runs. You know, the kind that beat Ohio State in 2015 and later saved the shot to reach for the Big Ten Title over Iowa. With three quarterbacks available and no sign of any tangible traditional running game, it would be nice to see the new staff innovate at this point since they didn't against Indiana.
Jay Johnson and staff have a lot of work to do. More than they can complete this year, but not enough to keep going like they've gone the last two weeks. This is a highly paid staff that knew their first season would be difficult, but they now have to chance to earn a good portion of that investment and find a way to get this offense going forward from here.
DEFENSE
Indiana was always going to be a tough opponent for the Spartans in 2020, but not necessarily the tougher team on the field when the two matched up. Credit Indiana and Tom Allen for breaking through any potential rust, let down, or look ahead that might have tripped up another team in the same situation. Allen's offense out-toughed a quickly strained MSU defense before the end of the 1st quarter, which took a toll out of the already overtaxed unit. They held on fairly well, giving up no points in the 2nd half, but did not have a fantastic day.
Indiana was in total control after 15-minutes, which dictated what the Hoosiers would design to take on the Spartan defense from there. IU survived a few turnovers of their own, tried a trick play or two, and let Penix take a few shots when the down and distance made sense. None of that excuses the 24 points total the defense gave up, but when you consider the situations the defense faced again, it does help explain how difficult they've had it the last two weeks.
Michael Penix had a pretty full stat sheet already inked at halftime. There's just very little wiggle room for this defense while the MSU Offense is stuck in a shutdown. Until they reboot, the defense will be stressed and strained just to keep MSU in their games. This unit is better than the 66-points they've allowed in the last two weeks.
SPECIAL TEAMS
There's not much any special teams unit can do when back to back games get lopsided in a hurry. We have seen signs that the MSU return game can be a positive. Jayden Reed should take advantage of every touch he gets and works just as hard at being a solid returner as he is at becoming a starting wideout. There's work to be done in all areas for this unit, as we saw today with a badly shanked punt out of MSU's red zone, but already some evidence that Spartan special teams is making its way to be a reliable asset on a team sorely in need of those right now.
INTANGIBLES
This team needs to press the reset button. Today they looked far too loose out of the gate. Too many turnovers, too many penalties, and too many sloppy plays to hang with a better team. This is not the most talented or developed Spartan Football team. In fact, it should be the least of those for the entire 2020s. That's not the players' fault; that's a result of what went on around Spartan football in the last few years. But that means there's a smaller margin of error for self-inflicted harms like the excessive turnovers and penalties that got Michigan State blown out the last two weeks. The sooner this team figures that out, the more games they will have a chance to win this year.
The chaos of 2020 is enough to throw everything out of whack for any team, so why make that any harder? Michigan State needs to simplify things for this team even more. They need to find a way to create some momentum. With any momentum, they can find a couple of things in each phase that they can begin to build on. There's not a lot of that going for Spartan Football right now, and the glut of turnovers and penalties is taking them out of games too fast. It's time to tighten up the focus, from the coaches through the roster. They need to collectively rededicate themselves to execute the fundamentals with an attention to detail. Better outcomes start there.
EXTRA POINT
Remember the loud and lightly informed minority around Big Ten country that fussed and fumed when the conference postponed the start of 2020? What must they think now, with fifteen College Football games postponed or canceled this week? Only one was a Big Ten game (Ohio St. @ Maryland). As the virus spirals out of control at an all-time rate, it is the Big Ten that positioned best for the coming difficult month. They've got the most resources, the best organization, and probably the best shot to complete their 2020 season without completely fizzling out.
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