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| I have all 32 teeth. Let's see how many remain after this Spartan fall. |
I am not going to Spartan Stadium on Saturday's this fall for tooth extractions. I won't do it.
It was disappointing. Too many mistakes everywhere by Michigan State, especially playing against a sub-par opponent in Florida Atlantic. We’re 1-0, but here are some of my thoughts.
About last night’s game. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out MSU is in trouble on the offensive line. Three yards and a cloud of dust?" We fed the ball to Carter 19 times for 2.5 yards a carry. That sucks. And, many of the plays were telegraphed. I'm sitting up in Section 121 with Sloth, the God Deieter, and the rest of the section, yelling "My God, stop running it up the middle!!!! It doesn't work!" Unfortunately, the coaches didn't listen and kept at it, with little result to show. Funny how I got cheers from the crowd: the thought being if we struggle to beat FAU, what the hell is gonna happen when Ohio State comes to town? Michigan State has lots of problems on the offensive interior. The offensive line could use my dead grandma to open up some holes. Everything between the tackles was inconsistent and for the most part unproductive. Let’s look.
MSU had 179 yards on the ground: that’s pretty good, but what is the problem is looking at efficiency:
https://msuspartans.com/sports/football/stats\
Though MSU averaged 4.8 yards per carry, the issue is that 63 was on one TD run by Lynch-Adams (who should clearly be the starter). Those are real yards and they count; if this is a consistent trend, I would pleasure it and sell the barn. But the problem is the rest of the game, and when you take out the run, MSU was 36 rushes for just 116 yards or a 3.2 average. That’s not good.
If you were at the game, as was I, the game was not fun to watch. Fairly boring, mistakes, poor tackling, and bad blocking. But what became apparent as the game wore on, was the ineffectiveness of the interior offensive line of MSU. It seemed like much of the time, QB Aidan Chiles was running for his life. That’s not a good sign.
Speaking of Chiles, he missed many wide-open throws, a wide-open TD opportunity that went three rows into the seats, and threw a very bad INT in what should have been a pix-6 as State was driving deep in FAU territory: we were gonna score, and my g-friend and I expected as much, to go up 23-3 and head for the exits. But, then the stupid throw by Chiles. It wasn’t good. Watch it on replay. He only completed 10 passes on 25 attempts, with 2 interceptions. According to MSU, that's a terrible 62.9 QB rating for Chiles (FAU's QB had an 84.2 rating, and that's accurate as he was the better QB in this game).
Look at this photo:
This is what you teach QBs NOT TO DO. Throw off your back foot falling back and making your shoulder do all the work. Hey, Chiles, your 18 years old, dude. Step into your throws and stop thinking your talent is going to bail you out. This is a big problem. He needs much more coaching on his decision-making. He did not throw well.
However, it wasn't all his fault. WR Montorie Foster dropped two passes, ran poor routes, and fumbled. He did not play well. He should not be the top option for Chiles, because he is unreliable. It's unfortunate, but the proof is in the play and not the potential. We need him to play better.
We also learned that RB Nate Carter was busy eating too many Cheetos and Pizza Hut this summer. 19 carries for 52 yards, mostly up the middle into madness, that's a whopping 2.5 yards per carry. Carter was completely useless in this game; and, while some of it was poor interior blocking and poor play calling, he had several opportunities to bounce outside. Instead, Carter just plowed into the middle like Jehuu Caulcrik or Earl Campbell, but with less mass and brains, making Carter just fall down. You can't just plow into the middle when everyone expects it and have Carter get the yards; it's like running into a brick wall; many times, poor ingenuity and poor execution. It reminded me of the John L Smith years, constantly underperforming and making mistakes. Luckily, we have an effective back in Lynch-Adams, and both his dashiness and his speed were clearly on display. He was the player of the game.
On defense, they were asked to do more than they should have. They held up pretty well, giving up just 248 total yards despite all the gifts from the MSU offense. And, they managed SEVEN sacks on a very mobile FAU quarterback. The talent difference really showed on the defensive front. MSU should be very tough here this season. I was pretty surprised about the play of #7 Jordan Turner and #8 Anthony Jones. They were all over the place and tackled well - it's a big positive for this team. They played well, and bailed out the offense on several occasions.
Bottom line, I really really REALLY do not want a season AGAIN where the defense is bailing out the offense. It makes for ugly wins, gutwrenching games, making things harder than they should be, and just making you want to crap your pants every week. It’s a lot more fun to watch the Detroit Lions than the MSU Spartans. Maybe Jonathan should call Dan Campbell? Hmmmm…..
MSU must beat Maryland next week. It will not be easy. There are a lot problems that must get fixed. And, it all starts with that interior offensive line. Tell Foster to catch the damn ball. And tell Aidan to chill and make better decisions. All of them have gotta play better.
GO GREEN.
