Monday Morning Football: Dantonio talks defense
Jim Comparoni | Publisher
EAST LANSING - Some attention will turn this week to Michigan State’s surprising problems on offense against Indiana during Saturday’s 17-9 Spartan victory.
But head coach Mark Dantonio began Sunday night’s weekly teleconference with a salute to the Michigan State defense.
Aside from the leaky fourth quarter against desperation-mode Minnesota, the Spartans have allowed only two touchdowns over the last 16 quarters.
No. 18-ranked Michigan State heads into Saturday’s game at Northwestern ranked No. 4 in the nation in total defense (Alabama is No. 1) and No. 14 in the country in scoring defense (Penn State is No. 1).
Michigan State is 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten. Northwestern is 4-3 and 2-2.
Northwestern is on a two-game win streak, having beaten Maryland (37-21) and Iowa (17-10 in OT) in the past two games.
In complimenting the Spartans’ ability to hold Indiana to 253 yards of total offense, Dantonio began with the defensive interior - an area that has been strong all season.
“We got great play from Mike Panasiuk inside and Raequan Williams,” Dantonio said. “I thought they played outstanding, really built a wall basically that we always talk about when you play against the run - stop the run.”
Williams defeated Indiana’s left guard and pressured Indiana quarterback Peyton Ramsey on the the Hoosiers’ final play, batted the ball and forced an incompletion on fourth-and-nine.
“But really, collectively as a defense, I thought our defense played outstanding,” Dantonio said. “Joe Bachie had another big game. I thought our corners played extremely well as did our entire secondary.
“You really can’t point to a person and say, ‘He did not play well.’ Which is the reason we didn’t give up a touchdown and allowed field goals.
“(We got) a little soft there on two consecutive drives, a little bit where one play sort of led to another play on the third down. Got a little bit tired on that, I guess it was the end of the third quarter drive that continued on into the fourth quarter. But I thought we got the game back with the three-and-out series in the fourth quarter and got the ball back to the offense and went down and scored.”
Williams had burst for the final snap of the, in part, due to Michigan State’s commitment to utilizing second-stringers on defense, especially on the defensive line. Second-string defensive tackles Gerald Owens and Naquan Jones played their usual allotment of snaps and didn’t cause Michigan State to suffer much of a dropoff while Panasiuk and Williams rested.
At defensive end, second-string true freshman Jacub Panasiuk saw the most playing time of his young career, and had one of the more productive games of the season by a Spartan defensive lineman.
The younger Panasiuk was in on five tackles, and had his first career sack.
Jacub Panasiuk also provides a measure of versatility to the d-line. When he checks in at boundary defensive end, that allows starting boundary DE Demetrius Cooper to rep a few snaps at field defensive end, where Cooper gets a chance to operate in space a bit more.
“He (Jacub Panasiuk) had about 22 or so (snaps),” Dantonio said. “He got his first sack so that was exciting for him to have.”
Panasiuk is another one of these classic underrated three-star Midwestern recruit that Dantonio has a penchant for turning into college stars. The younger Panasiuk appears well on his way to an impact career.
Panasiuk went down with a lower body injury in the Indiana game, but Mike Panasiuk told media after the game that Jacub was fine. Dantonio didn’t mention the injury on Suday.
“He’s another guy that is going to be an outstanding player,” Dantonio said. “He’s a true freshman; he goes about 272 pounds. Good player, and he’s active. We roll our guys in there, and we have to because of the nature of offenses today. So we roll our guys in, and they’ve done an outstanding job.”
Kenny Willekes and Cooper join Mike Panasiuk and Williams in logging the majority of reps on the d-line. But Dillon Alexander joins Jacub Panasiuk, Owens and Jones on the second unit.
Designated pass rusher Brandon Randle plays in the nickel defense, which morphed into a dime package against the Hoosiers with the Spartans using a sixth DB (Josh Butler) in place of linebacker Andrew Dowell in passing situations.
Randle was completely fresh in pressuring the edge in the late going as Indiana failed to mount a threat in the final minutes. Randle had one QB pressure.
Elsewhere in the front seven, Tyriq Thompson spelled Chris Frey for a few snaps on the day, and true freshman Antjuan Simmons relieved Dowell for a bit.
Dantonio was satisfied with the support provided by second-stringers, and also the conditioning level of his starters.
“We work extremely hard to do the things we do, whether it’s the weight room under Ken Mannie or on the field,” Dantonio said. “We really have to, first of all, be in great shape. But on average, we probably work about 130 plays a practice as ‘team’ (11-man unit) plays, getting ready for these types of games. You got to work your 1s and 2s. Our front is working those plays. So they’re going to get ready for that kind of tempo, and that helps immensely.
“I thought our coaches did an outstanding job. I think Ron Burton and Mark Snyderhave those guys playing at a very high level in terms of execution right now. You play against a lot of different types of offenses as we go through this season. So we’ve seen it all. But thus far they’re playing extremely well.
“They’re big, firm guys that have power and they’re young. Mike played last year as a true freshman, Raequan as a redshirt freshman. So they have game experience, but they’re still young. I think the best is yet to come with these guys. I still think that as a football team we’ve not peaked on all cylinders. I’m waiting for that to happen.”
Raequan Williams had enough in his gas tank to play big, late in the game, Saturday.
Other than Notre Dame, Michigan State hasn’t yet faced a dangerous, balanced offense. The Spartans have gotten a good handle on a reliable rotation, with firm d-linemen, steady linebackers and same-page communication in the defensive backfield. That organization and accountability will be in place when the athletic tests become more difficult in the weeks ahead, against Penn State and Ohio State. But Dantonio said on Sunday the Spartans will save November challenges for November.
OCTOBER PHASE NEARS END
“I’ve talked to you guys about being in phases here,” Dantonio said, when asked about becoming a factor in the Big Ten race. “We’ve got one more game here against Northwestern to sort of complete October. We knew that this stretch of five games that we had, two at home and three away, was going to be tough. So we’re just going to focus on the task at hand right now, and then we’ll worry about what happens in November when November comes.
“We have a young football team. I was told today we have 64 players on our football team who’ve never been to a bowl game.”
Michigan State has missed out on a bowl bid in only one of Dantonio’s 10 seasons with the Spartans - last year.
“So that tells you how young our football team is,” Dantonio said. “That’s exciting for us to be bowl eligible at 6-1. We’re 4-0 in the conference. All those things are very exciting. But I think the other message of last night’s football game is that we’re inches away. We’re inches away from not being 6-1, and we have to take care of the small things. Big things will follow.”
A BIG LIBRARY
Michigan State sought to pound the run against Indiana on Saturday, and had limited success. From there, the plans of complementing things with a balanced passing attack fell flat for much of the day - until Michigan State exploded for two touchdowns in its final two drives.
Dantonio steered away from any thoughts that offensive creativity is lacking.
“The system works,” Dantonio said. “We got RPOs in there, we got a lot of different things that we do, we got no-huddle, we got these different things, getting the ball to the perimeter, inside zone things, power game, different types of concepts – about every running concept that you can use is used here. And then we lean on certain ones relative to what’s being successful. From that standpoint, we are difficult to prepare for, I think. Because when you take all the different formations and the run concepts out of that, the same can be said for passes, you start to build up a big library there.
“But there is no question we need to score more points. When you look around the Big Ten conference, really, there’s teams playing good defense. We’re certainly of that vintage at this point in time. But it’s a game-to-game process, it always will be. So we’ll get ready to play against Northwestern and go from there.”
Dantonio’s macro thoughts on MSU’s offensive performance against Indiana:
“On the offensive side of the ball, (we) really sort of came alive there at the end of the game and had huge plays,” Dantonio said. “Obviously, Cody White has a big, big catch at the end of the game on third-and-19 to get us 16 of that and then has another big catch on third-and-9 the second series and then Hunter Rison. Those are very big plays. So, big plays from Felton (Davis) as well.”
PLAYING TO WIN: THE PROCESS
Dantonio changed his usual approach to late-game play calling when he opted to go to the air on third-and-eight, and third-and-nine on MSU’s final offensive drive. Michigan State was up 10-9 at the time, enjoying a strong day from its defense, with less than four minutes to play. But the Spartans elected to get aggressive and throw for first downs rather than playing to their defense.
Dantonio outlined the conversational structure that he has with co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner and his co-defensive coordinators through the course of a game.
“I always know what plays are going in,” Dantonio said. “I do not micromanage our offense or our defense. I think that our coordinators do an outstanding job, and they have to make decisions probably within 10 seconds. And for me to sit there and interrupt them in their communication with our coaches and then our players would just be disruptive. So what I will do is ask things between series and during timeouts, and obviously during certain situations.
“If he (Warner) wants input, he’s going to ask me. For example, throwing the ball on the third downs at the end of the game, if he wants input, and asks ‘What do you want to do here?’ Then I’m going to tell him.
“But there’s very, very few times that I’m going to interrupt and say, ‘No, don’t do this,’ and disrupt someone, because I think that has long-term problems. That’s not a short-term problem, that is a long-term problem, beginning to question someone’s decisions on the field. We can critique that after the fact and I can have discussions after the fact, which we do, and they are healthy discussions. I think to do that during a play is very difficult.”
Warner did ask for input from Dantonio for the third-and-long situations late in the game with the Spartans protecting a 1-point lead.
“Well, Coach Warner asked me what I wanted to do, did I want to run it or pass it?” Dantonio said. “And I said, ‘Let’s go. I got faith in our football team.’
“We need to play the game to win and attack the football game. I didn’t feel we could just go in the bag and punt it down there with four minutes to go or whatever it was. And so we went ahead with it. And then the second one, the same thing. I felt like, ‘Let’s try and win the football game.’
“And even though we were playing very well defensively, they had driven down the field. And if you get in a rhythm when they’re going fast like that, they’re only one play away. I thought as long as we didn’t make a crucial mistake, we could survive the clock stopping for a play (if Michigan State had an incompleted pass). Let’s try and make one.”
QB Brian Lewerke had been inconsistent, with bouts of inaccuracy earlier in the game. But Dantonio gave Lewerke the ball and trusted him.
“We always do with our quarterbacks,” Dantonio said of the trust element. “We have a belief system in our players, and our guys can make plays. And I’ve said it all along, in crunch time he might be at his best due to just his sort of demeanor.”
Lewerke completed his last five pass attempts - four of which went for first downs - including a 10-yard TD pass to Davis.
“He’s gaining experience and knowledge as we go,” Dantonio said. “There’s no question he made some decisions on the field that probably he would like to have back, but that probably could be said for almost everybody out there, including coaches.”
BEEDLE BACK
Former starter David Beedle returned to the field at right guard against Indiana, after sitting out three games with an undisclosed injury.
Beedle split time with current starter, Kevin Jarvis. Beedle and Jarvis rotated from series to series, throughout the second half.
Dantonio didn’t talk at length about Beedle’s performance and situation, but said: “Dave, I thought, played pretty well in there for his first day back. He looked healthy, and that’s a good thing.”
Hunter Rison lunges for the line of gain during a key fourth-down conversion on Saturday night, helping fuel Michigan State's go-ahead TD drive.
Jim Comparoni | Publisher
EAST LANSING - Some attention will turn this week to Michigan State’s surprising problems on offense against Indiana during Saturday’s 17-9 Spartan victory.
But head coach Mark Dantonio began Sunday night’s weekly teleconference with a salute to the Michigan State defense.
Aside from the leaky fourth quarter against desperation-mode Minnesota, the Spartans have allowed only two touchdowns over the last 16 quarters.
No. 18-ranked Michigan State heads into Saturday’s game at Northwestern ranked No. 4 in the nation in total defense (Alabama is No. 1) and No. 14 in the country in scoring defense (Penn State is No. 1).
Michigan State is 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the Big Ten. Northwestern is 4-3 and 2-2.
Northwestern is on a two-game win streak, having beaten Maryland (37-21) and Iowa (17-10 in OT) in the past two games.
In complimenting the Spartans’ ability to hold Indiana to 253 yards of total offense, Dantonio began with the defensive interior - an area that has been strong all season.
“We got great play from Mike Panasiuk inside and Raequan Williams,” Dantonio said. “I thought they played outstanding, really built a wall basically that we always talk about when you play against the run - stop the run.”
Williams defeated Indiana’s left guard and pressured Indiana quarterback Peyton Ramsey on the the Hoosiers’ final play, batted the ball and forced an incompletion on fourth-and-nine.
“But really, collectively as a defense, I thought our defense played outstanding,” Dantonio said. “Joe Bachie had another big game. I thought our corners played extremely well as did our entire secondary.
“You really can’t point to a person and say, ‘He did not play well.’ Which is the reason we didn’t give up a touchdown and allowed field goals.
“(We got) a little soft there on two consecutive drives, a little bit where one play sort of led to another play on the third down. Got a little bit tired on that, I guess it was the end of the third quarter drive that continued on into the fourth quarter. But I thought we got the game back with the three-and-out series in the fourth quarter and got the ball back to the offense and went down and scored.”
Williams had burst for the final snap of the, in part, due to Michigan State’s commitment to utilizing second-stringers on defense, especially on the defensive line. Second-string defensive tackles Gerald Owens and Naquan Jones played their usual allotment of snaps and didn’t cause Michigan State to suffer much of a dropoff while Panasiuk and Williams rested.
At defensive end, second-string true freshman Jacub Panasiuk saw the most playing time of his young career, and had one of the more productive games of the season by a Spartan defensive lineman.
The younger Panasiuk was in on five tackles, and had his first career sack.
Jacub Panasiuk also provides a measure of versatility to the d-line. When he checks in at boundary defensive end, that allows starting boundary DE Demetrius Cooper to rep a few snaps at field defensive end, where Cooper gets a chance to operate in space a bit more.
“He (Jacub Panasiuk) had about 22 or so (snaps),” Dantonio said. “He got his first sack so that was exciting for him to have.”
Panasiuk is another one of these classic underrated three-star Midwestern recruit that Dantonio has a penchant for turning into college stars. The younger Panasiuk appears well on his way to an impact career.
Panasiuk went down with a lower body injury in the Indiana game, but Mike Panasiuk told media after the game that Jacub was fine. Dantonio didn’t mention the injury on Suday.
“He’s another guy that is going to be an outstanding player,” Dantonio said. “He’s a true freshman; he goes about 272 pounds. Good player, and he’s active. We roll our guys in there, and we have to because of the nature of offenses today. So we roll our guys in, and they’ve done an outstanding job.”
Kenny Willekes and Cooper join Mike Panasiuk and Williams in logging the majority of reps on the d-line. But Dillon Alexander joins Jacub Panasiuk, Owens and Jones on the second unit.
Designated pass rusher Brandon Randle plays in the nickel defense, which morphed into a dime package against the Hoosiers with the Spartans using a sixth DB (Josh Butler) in place of linebacker Andrew Dowell in passing situations.
Randle was completely fresh in pressuring the edge in the late going as Indiana failed to mount a threat in the final minutes. Randle had one QB pressure.
Elsewhere in the front seven, Tyriq Thompson spelled Chris Frey for a few snaps on the day, and true freshman Antjuan Simmons relieved Dowell for a bit.
Dantonio was satisfied with the support provided by second-stringers, and also the conditioning level of his starters.
“We work extremely hard to do the things we do, whether it’s the weight room under Ken Mannie or on the field,” Dantonio said. “We really have to, first of all, be in great shape. But on average, we probably work about 130 plays a practice as ‘team’ (11-man unit) plays, getting ready for these types of games. You got to work your 1s and 2s. Our front is working those plays. So they’re going to get ready for that kind of tempo, and that helps immensely.
“I thought our coaches did an outstanding job. I think Ron Burton and Mark Snyderhave those guys playing at a very high level in terms of execution right now. You play against a lot of different types of offenses as we go through this season. So we’ve seen it all. But thus far they’re playing extremely well.
“They’re big, firm guys that have power and they’re young. Mike played last year as a true freshman, Raequan as a redshirt freshman. So they have game experience, but they’re still young. I think the best is yet to come with these guys. I still think that as a football team we’ve not peaked on all cylinders. I’m waiting for that to happen.”
Raequan Williams had enough in his gas tank to play big, late in the game, Saturday.
Other than Notre Dame, Michigan State hasn’t yet faced a dangerous, balanced offense. The Spartans have gotten a good handle on a reliable rotation, with firm d-linemen, steady linebackers and same-page communication in the defensive backfield. That organization and accountability will be in place when the athletic tests become more difficult in the weeks ahead, against Penn State and Ohio State. But Dantonio said on Sunday the Spartans will save November challenges for November.
OCTOBER PHASE NEARS END
“I’ve talked to you guys about being in phases here,” Dantonio said, when asked about becoming a factor in the Big Ten race. “We’ve got one more game here against Northwestern to sort of complete October. We knew that this stretch of five games that we had, two at home and three away, was going to be tough. So we’re just going to focus on the task at hand right now, and then we’ll worry about what happens in November when November comes.
“We have a young football team. I was told today we have 64 players on our football team who’ve never been to a bowl game.”
Michigan State has missed out on a bowl bid in only one of Dantonio’s 10 seasons with the Spartans - last year.
“So that tells you how young our football team is,” Dantonio said. “That’s exciting for us to be bowl eligible at 6-1. We’re 4-0 in the conference. All those things are very exciting. But I think the other message of last night’s football game is that we’re inches away. We’re inches away from not being 6-1, and we have to take care of the small things. Big things will follow.”
A BIG LIBRARY
Michigan State sought to pound the run against Indiana on Saturday, and had limited success. From there, the plans of complementing things with a balanced passing attack fell flat for much of the day - until Michigan State exploded for two touchdowns in its final two drives.
Dantonio steered away from any thoughts that offensive creativity is lacking.
“The system works,” Dantonio said. “We got RPOs in there, we got a lot of different things that we do, we got no-huddle, we got these different things, getting the ball to the perimeter, inside zone things, power game, different types of concepts – about every running concept that you can use is used here. And then we lean on certain ones relative to what’s being successful. From that standpoint, we are difficult to prepare for, I think. Because when you take all the different formations and the run concepts out of that, the same can be said for passes, you start to build up a big library there.
“But there is no question we need to score more points. When you look around the Big Ten conference, really, there’s teams playing good defense. We’re certainly of that vintage at this point in time. But it’s a game-to-game process, it always will be. So we’ll get ready to play against Northwestern and go from there.”
Dantonio’s macro thoughts on MSU’s offensive performance against Indiana:
“On the offensive side of the ball, (we) really sort of came alive there at the end of the game and had huge plays,” Dantonio said. “Obviously, Cody White has a big, big catch at the end of the game on third-and-19 to get us 16 of that and then has another big catch on third-and-9 the second series and then Hunter Rison. Those are very big plays. So, big plays from Felton (Davis) as well.”
PLAYING TO WIN: THE PROCESS
Dantonio changed his usual approach to late-game play calling when he opted to go to the air on third-and-eight, and third-and-nine on MSU’s final offensive drive. Michigan State was up 10-9 at the time, enjoying a strong day from its defense, with less than four minutes to play. But the Spartans elected to get aggressive and throw for first downs rather than playing to their defense.
Dantonio outlined the conversational structure that he has with co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner and his co-defensive coordinators through the course of a game.
“I always know what plays are going in,” Dantonio said. “I do not micromanage our offense or our defense. I think that our coordinators do an outstanding job, and they have to make decisions probably within 10 seconds. And for me to sit there and interrupt them in their communication with our coaches and then our players would just be disruptive. So what I will do is ask things between series and during timeouts, and obviously during certain situations.
“If he (Warner) wants input, he’s going to ask me. For example, throwing the ball on the third downs at the end of the game, if he wants input, and asks ‘What do you want to do here?’ Then I’m going to tell him.
“But there’s very, very few times that I’m going to interrupt and say, ‘No, don’t do this,’ and disrupt someone, because I think that has long-term problems. That’s not a short-term problem, that is a long-term problem, beginning to question someone’s decisions on the field. We can critique that after the fact and I can have discussions after the fact, which we do, and they are healthy discussions. I think to do that during a play is very difficult.”
Warner did ask for input from Dantonio for the third-and-long situations late in the game with the Spartans protecting a 1-point lead.
“Well, Coach Warner asked me what I wanted to do, did I want to run it or pass it?” Dantonio said. “And I said, ‘Let’s go. I got faith in our football team.’
“We need to play the game to win and attack the football game. I didn’t feel we could just go in the bag and punt it down there with four minutes to go or whatever it was. And so we went ahead with it. And then the second one, the same thing. I felt like, ‘Let’s try and win the football game.’
“And even though we were playing very well defensively, they had driven down the field. And if you get in a rhythm when they’re going fast like that, they’re only one play away. I thought as long as we didn’t make a crucial mistake, we could survive the clock stopping for a play (if Michigan State had an incompleted pass). Let’s try and make one.”
QB Brian Lewerke had been inconsistent, with bouts of inaccuracy earlier in the game. But Dantonio gave Lewerke the ball and trusted him.
“We always do with our quarterbacks,” Dantonio said of the trust element. “We have a belief system in our players, and our guys can make plays. And I’ve said it all along, in crunch time he might be at his best due to just his sort of demeanor.”
Lewerke completed his last five pass attempts - four of which went for first downs - including a 10-yard TD pass to Davis.
“He’s gaining experience and knowledge as we go,” Dantonio said. “There’s no question he made some decisions on the field that probably he would like to have back, but that probably could be said for almost everybody out there, including coaches.”
BEEDLE BACK
Former starter David Beedle returned to the field at right guard against Indiana, after sitting out three games with an undisclosed injury.
Beedle split time with current starter, Kevin Jarvis. Beedle and Jarvis rotated from series to series, throughout the second half.
Dantonio didn’t talk at length about Beedle’s performance and situation, but said: “Dave, I thought, played pretty well in there for his first day back. He looked healthy, and that’s a good thing.”
Hunter Rison lunges for the line of gain during a key fourth-down conversion on Saturday night, helping fuel Michigan State's go-ahead TD drive.
