Michigan State cut shit close Friday night against Utah State needing a closing minute score to seal the win despite being 23-point favorites heading into the matchup with the Aggies.
Nonetheless it seemed like a typical Spartan game plan where they either kept the cards a little too close to chest or they played down to their competition. Take your pick because obviously this Michigan State team is better than what we saw Friday night.
In any sense though, we’ll take the pessimistic view to start Tuesday by pointing out why exactly the Spartans dropped turds all over East Lansing in week one’s opener.
The Offensive Line
The offensive line’s struggles very perplexing, especially against a team like Utah State at home. The Spartans have had the benefit or returning basically everyone from last season with only having to go without Cole Chewins Friday night which shouldn’t have been as big of a loss as it was.
It was pretty ugly too.
Michigan State all night failed to adequately protect Brian Lewerke in the pocket and if it wasn’t for his ability to scape things could’ve been a whole lot worse. At the end of the night, the offensive line was only able to net themselves two sacks to Utah State’s three.
The Secondary
Not to rag on the defense too much but when you give up 31 points to a Mountain West team at home there’s going to be some cause for concern.
In all the new edition of the ‘No Fly Zone’ simply didn’t live up to the name allowing over 300 yards through the air while looking seemingly lost at times without Josiah Scott. Sure Aggies signal caller Jordan Love has some talent but not to the extent of what he was able to do Friday night against that Spartan secondary.
On a positive note, Michigan State was able to muster up two interceptions.