The 3, 2, 1 on MSU Football
Jim Comparoni | Editor
EAST LANSING | Three things we learned during this week’s press briefing, two questions, and one prediction:
THREE THINGS WE LEARNED:
1. Saturday’s game against Furman, according to Mark Dantonio, marked the first time a Dantonio-coached team had prevented an opponent from having a running play of more than 15 yards and a pass play of more than 20 yards.
This has been an item on Dantonio’s team’s goal chart, at Michigan State and the University of Cincinnati, for 13 years. But Saturday’s 28-13 victory over Furman in the season opener represented the first time his team achieved it.
“Defensively, I thought we played solid against the run,” Dantonio said. “But we have 60 yards worth of penalties, that gives them first downs on a number of occasions, keeps drives alive.”
* Furman’s longest run from scrimmage was a 14-yard burst on an H-wham trap, on the second play of the Paladins’ third possession. The trap action drew an unsuspecting Malik McDowell upfield and into the backfield, and then clubbed him upside the head with a de-cleating block by the H-back, who was cruising parallel to the line of scrimmage, waiting for the aggressive McDowell to bite upfield.
“It was an influence trap,” Dantonio said.
It influenced him, all right. McDowell was so angry about getting de-cleated that he made like Jefferson, from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” He ransacked the center on the next play, and chased down the tailback for a 6-yard loss.
Furman tried the H-back wham trap on McDowell again on a third-and-four in the third quarter, with McDowell playing d-end in the nickel defense. But it didn't have quite the same effect. Montae Nicholson and Vayante Copeland were playing closer to the box on that play as part of a sudden switch to a cover-one. They wrapped up the running back with a stiff, immediate sure tackle after a gain of 2.
That was the only play all night in which SpartanMag detected MSU playing cover-one (single safety deep, man-to-man underneath).
Furman tried to wham-trap Raequan Williams a couple of times as well, but never managed to bait him upfield like they did that one time with McDowell.
* Furman had a pair of pass plays go for 16-yard gainers, including a double-pass trick play.
Furman’s quarterback was 15 of 30 for 123 yards on the night. That’s an average of just 4.1 yards per pass attempt. That figure would lead the nation in yards allowed per pass attempt every year, if a defense could maintain it over 12 games.
Michigan State’s “No Fly Zone” pass defense of 2013 led the Big Ten in yards allowed per pass attempt at 5.2.
Michigan State tackled well in the secondary against Furman. Demetrious Cox led the Spartan defensive backs in tackles with seven.
A Williams late hit personal foul turned a fourth-and-seven situation for Furman into a first-and-10 at the Spartan 42-yard line on Furman’s opening drive of the second half.
That was Michigan State’s most costly defensive penalty of the night and played a role in the Spartans possessing the ball for only six snaps in the third quarter.
Michigan State was penalized for 120 yards on the night.
“That's a lot of yards, especially at inopportune times for us, and really told the story of the game,” Dantonio said. “The penalties and the turnovers really makes the game a little closer than maybe we wanted it.”
* Furman looked to go deep on at least three occasions. Cornerback Darian Hicks broke up one, on a deep post. He was flagged for pass interference on another.
And Cox was flagged for holding on a deep pass ploy behind max protection. Cox’s hold in the secondary led to a Chris Frey coverage sack, which was overturned by the flag.
2. Darian Hicks “graded out a winner” in Michigan State’s internal grading system.
This might come as a surprise to cynical Spartan fans, who saw Furman target the Michigan State senior cornerback six times when he was in press zone quarters coverage.
But the stat sheet shows that those passes resulted in four incompletions and two pass interference penalties.
Furman completed one pass in Hicks’ area. That came vs. cover-three zone, which required a deep drop by Hicks and a soft cushion, behind a Spartan blitz. That completion wasn’t a negative against Hicks. He was playing the assigned structure for that play.
Hicks showed a quick hip turn and pretty good burst in sticking with Furman’s All-Southland Conference WR Andrej Suttles, when in press/quarters, which becomes man-to-man on deep vertical routes and some post routes.
Hicks’ feet put him in position to defend the deep passes and red zone fades, however Hicks seemed to panic a bit and resort to hand battles a little too early, rather than feeling comfortable and confident about locating the ball.
Furman saw Hicks struggle on film at times last year, including the Big Ten Championship Game against Iowa.
“Yeah, I think they did go after him a little bit,” Dantonio said. “I thought he played very well. I thought he covered. Numerous pass breakups.
“Two very questionable interference calls; I'm not saying they're right, I'm not saying they're wrong. They're close. They're bang-bang calls. And he's playing the ball as best as you can play it.
“This is a game of inches, in so many respects. I've said that over the years and you see it every single weekend. I think that was one of the times, incidents, that we're talking about.”
Hicks recognized that Furman was targeting him midway through the game, and waved his hands in excitement to embrace the challenge.
Michigan State is looking for Hicks to have a strong season, after battling through three ailments a year ago, and losing his starting job as a true sophomore in 2014.
“I thought he played well, and he's going to have that every week, with our corners, the way we play,” Dantonio said.
3. Michigan State will use the bye week to continue to evaluate its true freshmen.
Michigan State played two true freshmen on Friday - WR Donnie Corley and DT Mike Panasiuk.
Other d-linemen, including defensive ends Josh King and Auston Robertson, have been considered for rookie playing time. But Dantonio wants to wait and watch those players a bit more, and other freshmen, before burning their redshirts.
“This week is an advantage, when you look at our young players and trying to get them extra reps and seeing if we can bring them forward, bring them along,” Dantonio said. “I think we want to see where the young players are.
“We have an outstanding group of freshmen. But I don't want to just play them and put them on the field and take away the redshirt. I want to legitimatize if we do redshirt.”
Phantom injuries are a means of preserving redshirt status for freshmen who see game action in two or three games prior to the midway point of the season.
“I don't want to say he got hurt and he didn't really get hurt,” Dantonio said.
“Their time is coming,” Dantonio sadder. “We’ll play the freshmen when they're ready to play. This will be a big week for them. We'll have an opportunity to look at them more fully.
“Players need to be functional. And functionality is relative to who else is in your program, too.”
Dantonio cited Michigan State’s depth at cornerback, where the Spartans have Copeland, Hicks and Tyson Smith - each of whom played against Furman. The Spartans also have David Dowell, Kaleel Gaines and Josh Butler in the three-deep at cornerback. This means true freshman Austin Andrews isn’t likely to burn a redshirt, although he might have had a chance to play early at a program with a weaker foundation.
“Austin, who is going to be a very, very good player for us, he's redshirted,” Dantonio said. “Same with probably maybe D.J. Vance. Kenney Lyke, maybe not so much. But those are just examples. If you're deep in a certain position and you have people that are functional that play, such as maybe a corner, (a redshirt is more likely).
“Other opportunities would be for players if there is not as much depth at that position. But we have a good football team. We have a foundation of players that are as deep as maybe we've ever been. So putting together the 70-player travel team is going to get very, very tight in terms of who goes and who doesn't go. We've not had a lot of a transition. As of late we've had a couple of guys leaving. They're leaving as a result of the situation itself. Let's just be straight up.”
He was most likely talking about defensive tackles Enoch Smith and Cassius Peat, who announced plans to transfer during August camp. Neither was likely to crack the three-deep, get into the playing group or travel this fall.
“We want to play (freshmen) and get them reps if they're going to continue to play throughout the season,” Dantonio said. “We have a couple of guys that that may be the case.
“We didn't want to play those guys (King, Robertson and DT Naquan Jones) without fully playing them a lot of plays.
“On our defensive line, I thought (graduate senior) Kevin Williams did I a nice job. ObviouslyMalik McDowell played extraordinarily well, great effort. Big guy, rushing the passer, doing all the things that you wanted him to do. But the biggest thing was I thought he played with a lot of effort, and he was our defensive MVP, and had a lot of production, as well. So that was a positive.”
They’ll make use of the bye week, but Dantonio isn’t thrilled about having a bye this early in the season.
“I would rather have it some time in October,” Dantonio said on Sirius Satellite radio last week.
On Tuesday, he grumbled a bit more.
“I think we're the only team in America that plays as a bye the second week of the season, and then plays a Power 5 team that next week,” Dantonio said. “So there's not a lot to compare to that. But we use it as a positive. We'll get some guys healthy. Secondly, our players are really in school for the first time this week. Last week was a chopped up week. So they can get themselves grounded in that respect.
“Third, we can get out and recruit a little bit on the weekend. So that's a positive.
“Fourth thing we have to do is maintain our game conditioning. I thought we were in condition in the game. We have to maintain our game conditioning aspect. So we've got to work this week hard. And there's always risk a little bit with that. We don't go live or anything like that, but you have to work your players as if you had a game from the conditioning standpoint. We're going to work hard doing that throughout the week.
“And it also gives us an opportunity obviously to get ahead a little bit from a film and schematic standpoint on Notre Dame, things tend to change week-to-week with programs and who you play. But it does give us a chance to watch their personnel, what they've done thus far and what they've done last year.”
TWO QUESTIONS:
1. Is Michigan State going to be lacking in the pass rush department this year?
Without Shilique Calhoun, the Spartans have questions in that area for 2016.
Against Furman, the Spartans didn’t put much pressure on Paladins quarterback P.J. Blazejowski.
Michigan State sacked Blazejowski only once, although Dantonio says the stat sheet should officially show two.
Evan Jones was credited with the sack.
Demetrius Cooper was credited with a TFL in the second half, but it wasn’t recorded as a sack because the QB initially fumbled the snap. Dantonio isn’t buying that. He says the QB recovered and looked to pass downfield.
Either way, MSU had trouble getting sustained pressure on Blazejowski.
Furman employed maximum protection on a high percentage of his pocket pass attempts (meaning they kept two or three extra players in to help the five-man offensive line in pass protection).
Furman also caused MSU to play a beat slower than the Spartans might otherwise play, as the Spartans paused to try to make reads on Furman’s revamped, previously unseen offense.
Still, Dantonio would have liked to have seen more horsepower on the pass rush.
“What we have to do is transition better from run to pass, when there is run action and then it's a pass,” Dantonio said. “We've got to be able to transition more.
“We needed to come up with more sacks. We had two. But we need to sack the quarterback more often than that. Good plan by them, keeping us off base. Plus the run-pass options.”
As for Cooper, he looked pretty quick at times. He had five sacks last year as a reserve sophomore. He has the goods to exceed a half dozen this year and maybe pursue Calhoun’s mark of 10.5 from a year ago.
McDowell was credited with one QB hit. He often moved to d-end in the nickel defense. He also played one series of pure defensive end early in the second quarter. But Furman kept it on the ground for gains of 7, 8, 6 and 3 yards, up the middle, when McDowell moved to the outside.
McDowell also flushed the QB out of the pocket on a third-and-eight with 2:40 left in the game as part of the nickel defense. Linebacker Chris Frey chased down the scrambling QB after a gain of 3.
Grad transfer Gabe Sherrod showed some promise in the pass rush department. He showed speed, quickness and good hands, which should serve him well through the course of the season.
On a third-and-16 late in the first quarter, Sherrod was a little late with his take-off, but then used his hands well to defeat the left tackle, and disengage. He was converging on the QB and would have gotten there for a QB hurry if the QB hadn’t grounded it before he arrived.
Later, on a first-and-10 play with MSU leading 14-0, Sherrod replaced Cooper at field DE and looked like a field DE. He took on the double-team of an H-back and a running back, and met them with quick feet, violent hands and some shock when he engaged. He proved worthy of a double-team on that play, as he was still coming, through the max protection, when the QB got rid of it.
Sherrod showed some horsepower.
We’re not here to say MSU’s pass rush is going to be great, or poor, in 2016. But keep the argument open. Table the answer for weeks to come.
2. Will Tyler O’Connor continue to have jitters?
Senior QB Tyler O’Connor acknowledged that there were some jitters throughout the offense at the outset of Friday’s game.
He felt he settled down after some hasty decisions early in the game.
“I thought offensively Tyler O'Conner probably a little nervous initially, but after that start, I thought he played pretty well,” Dantonio said. “Three touchdown passes. I think he threw the ball effectively, threw the ball with velocity, didn't hold back, and played aggressively.”
That begs the question as to whether jitters will follow him on occasions such as his trip to South Bend to take on the Irish later this month. None of us will know until the time comes.
O’Connor said he was surprised by how calm he was when he became the starter for last year’s upset at Ohio State, in a game of much greater magnitude and potential intimidation than last week’s season opener against Furman. But the idea of being THE man at QB this time might have altered his psychological approach a bit.
Dantonio wasn’t pleased with O’Connor’s fumble at the left sideline during MSU’s second possession. O’Connor allowed the ball to pop out of his hands after he was flushed from the pocket and was waiting for RB L.J. Scott to get to the left flat. Scott never went there, and O’Connor almost compounded Scott’s error with a bigger error of his own.
“Got to hold on to the football,” Dantonio said, Tuesday. “Can't have mistakes with the football in our hands at any point in the game and that's No. 1. The ball was on the ground too often.”
ONE PREDICTION:
1. Notre Dame is going to attack Darian Hicks.
That’s not a bold prediction, of course. The real question is whether the Irish will be able to cash in better than Furman.
The last time Michigan State played Notre Dame, the Irish went deep against Michigan State in 2013 more often than any Spartan opponent of the Dantonio era, with the possible exception of Western Michigan in 2013.
The Irish seemed to concede in 2013 that they weren’t going to be able to run the ball against MSU, and were unlikely to drive it, so they hoisted the ball deep and called upon officials to throw flags - which they did. Notre Dame rode several pass interference calls to victory that day.
Michigan State’s ground defense might not be as daunting right now as the Spartans’ 2013 unit, but MSU’s pass defense isn’t nearly as strong, either - with Hicks perceived by some (including Furman) as the apparent weak link.
So Hicks will get tested through the season - especially a week from Saturday in South Bend.
**
Other stuff from Tuesday’s press conference that you probably already know:
* Mark Dantonio said defensive line coach Ron Burton is back with the coaching staff, coaching in practice after missing the Furman game due to “an emergency procedure.”
Dantonio gave no further details on the procedure, which took place Friday morning.
“He's doing well and he's back with us and everything,” Dantionio said. “Sort of an emergency surgery.”
Mark Snyder took over as defensive line coach on Friday night, in addition to his regular duty as linebackers coach. This called for Snyder to come out of the box and coach from the field level.
“He's a long time defensive line coach, as well,” Dantonio said. “I don't think there's any question that affects your staff and affects how you do things.”
* Ed Davis is still awaiting word from the NCAA on his petition for a sixth year of eligibility.
“I would expect to hear something this week,” Dantonio said. “So I would expect that there would be a positive outcome. But, hey, you never know. That's all I can basically say about that. And in the meantime he is able to practice and is going to school and those type of things.”
DANTONIO UNPLUGGED:
* “Andrew Dowell I think had the play of the game on his pick. He flipped it (momentum) the other way immediately. Great pick, big play in the game. Great effort.”
But Dowell was influenced out of position a few times by Furman’s surprise formations and plays.
“Got to know where to go sometimes,” Dantonio said. “And that's coaching and that's also experience because the game changes and you have to adapt. You have to adapt to things you haven't been coached on throughout the week, because they show something different. That's a big part of it.
“But I thought he played very, very well. He played with a lot of effort and I think he was involved in a lot of tackles, a lot of production.
“And Chris Frey, same thing, more experienced, played very well.
“Byron (Bullough) came in there. Byron two big plays, one down at the goal line and one on the third-and-one. It's good to see him as I younger player to get involved in that capacity. He played well.”
* “I thought Prescott Line played very, very well in the game. He's a football player. And (Delton) Williams was playing. We're deep in the fullback position. That will be a positive. That will be useful in the future here. And I could see using him (Williams) as the tailback.”
* “LJ Scott I thought he had a great football game.”
“I think that most pleased with how we ran the ball and continued to recollect ourselves on both sides of the ball when things didn't go quite well. We just sort of maintain a workmanlike approach to it.”
* “I thought our sideline needed to be a little bit more emotional than maybe it was.”
Jim Comparoni | Editor
EAST LANSING | Three things we learned during this week’s press briefing, two questions, and one prediction:
THREE THINGS WE LEARNED:
1. Saturday’s game against Furman, according to Mark Dantonio, marked the first time a Dantonio-coached team had prevented an opponent from having a running play of more than 15 yards and a pass play of more than 20 yards.
This has been an item on Dantonio’s team’s goal chart, at Michigan State and the University of Cincinnati, for 13 years. But Saturday’s 28-13 victory over Furman in the season opener represented the first time his team achieved it.
“Defensively, I thought we played solid against the run,” Dantonio said. “But we have 60 yards worth of penalties, that gives them first downs on a number of occasions, keeps drives alive.”
* Furman’s longest run from scrimmage was a 14-yard burst on an H-wham trap, on the second play of the Paladins’ third possession. The trap action drew an unsuspecting Malik McDowell upfield and into the backfield, and then clubbed him upside the head with a de-cleating block by the H-back, who was cruising parallel to the line of scrimmage, waiting for the aggressive McDowell to bite upfield.
“It was an influence trap,” Dantonio said.
It influenced him, all right. McDowell was so angry about getting de-cleated that he made like Jefferson, from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” He ransacked the center on the next play, and chased down the tailback for a 6-yard loss.
Furman tried the H-back wham trap on McDowell again on a third-and-four in the third quarter, with McDowell playing d-end in the nickel defense. But it didn't have quite the same effect. Montae Nicholson and Vayante Copeland were playing closer to the box on that play as part of a sudden switch to a cover-one. They wrapped up the running back with a stiff, immediate sure tackle after a gain of 2.
That was the only play all night in which SpartanMag detected MSU playing cover-one (single safety deep, man-to-man underneath).
Furman tried to wham-trap Raequan Williams a couple of times as well, but never managed to bait him upfield like they did that one time with McDowell.
* Furman had a pair of pass plays go for 16-yard gainers, including a double-pass trick play.
Furman’s quarterback was 15 of 30 for 123 yards on the night. That’s an average of just 4.1 yards per pass attempt. That figure would lead the nation in yards allowed per pass attempt every year, if a defense could maintain it over 12 games.
Michigan State’s “No Fly Zone” pass defense of 2013 led the Big Ten in yards allowed per pass attempt at 5.2.
Michigan State tackled well in the secondary against Furman. Demetrious Cox led the Spartan defensive backs in tackles with seven.
A Williams late hit personal foul turned a fourth-and-seven situation for Furman into a first-and-10 at the Spartan 42-yard line on Furman’s opening drive of the second half.
That was Michigan State’s most costly defensive penalty of the night and played a role in the Spartans possessing the ball for only six snaps in the third quarter.
Michigan State was penalized for 120 yards on the night.
“That's a lot of yards, especially at inopportune times for us, and really told the story of the game,” Dantonio said. “The penalties and the turnovers really makes the game a little closer than maybe we wanted it.”
* Furman looked to go deep on at least three occasions. Cornerback Darian Hicks broke up one, on a deep post. He was flagged for pass interference on another.
And Cox was flagged for holding on a deep pass ploy behind max protection. Cox’s hold in the secondary led to a Chris Frey coverage sack, which was overturned by the flag.
2. Darian Hicks “graded out a winner” in Michigan State’s internal grading system.
This might come as a surprise to cynical Spartan fans, who saw Furman target the Michigan State senior cornerback six times when he was in press zone quarters coverage.
But the stat sheet shows that those passes resulted in four incompletions and two pass interference penalties.
Furman completed one pass in Hicks’ area. That came vs. cover-three zone, which required a deep drop by Hicks and a soft cushion, behind a Spartan blitz. That completion wasn’t a negative against Hicks. He was playing the assigned structure for that play.
Hicks showed a quick hip turn and pretty good burst in sticking with Furman’s All-Southland Conference WR Andrej Suttles, when in press/quarters, which becomes man-to-man on deep vertical routes and some post routes.
Hicks’ feet put him in position to defend the deep passes and red zone fades, however Hicks seemed to panic a bit and resort to hand battles a little too early, rather than feeling comfortable and confident about locating the ball.
Furman saw Hicks struggle on film at times last year, including the Big Ten Championship Game against Iowa.
“Yeah, I think they did go after him a little bit,” Dantonio said. “I thought he played very well. I thought he covered. Numerous pass breakups.
“Two very questionable interference calls; I'm not saying they're right, I'm not saying they're wrong. They're close. They're bang-bang calls. And he's playing the ball as best as you can play it.
“This is a game of inches, in so many respects. I've said that over the years and you see it every single weekend. I think that was one of the times, incidents, that we're talking about.”
Hicks recognized that Furman was targeting him midway through the game, and waved his hands in excitement to embrace the challenge.
Michigan State is looking for Hicks to have a strong season, after battling through three ailments a year ago, and losing his starting job as a true sophomore in 2014.
“I thought he played well, and he's going to have that every week, with our corners, the way we play,” Dantonio said.
3. Michigan State will use the bye week to continue to evaluate its true freshmen.
Michigan State played two true freshmen on Friday - WR Donnie Corley and DT Mike Panasiuk.
Other d-linemen, including defensive ends Josh King and Auston Robertson, have been considered for rookie playing time. But Dantonio wants to wait and watch those players a bit more, and other freshmen, before burning their redshirts.
“This week is an advantage, when you look at our young players and trying to get them extra reps and seeing if we can bring them forward, bring them along,” Dantonio said. “I think we want to see where the young players are.
“We have an outstanding group of freshmen. But I don't want to just play them and put them on the field and take away the redshirt. I want to legitimatize if we do redshirt.”
Phantom injuries are a means of preserving redshirt status for freshmen who see game action in two or three games prior to the midway point of the season.
“I don't want to say he got hurt and he didn't really get hurt,” Dantonio said.
“Their time is coming,” Dantonio sadder. “We’ll play the freshmen when they're ready to play. This will be a big week for them. We'll have an opportunity to look at them more fully.
“Players need to be functional. And functionality is relative to who else is in your program, too.”
Dantonio cited Michigan State’s depth at cornerback, where the Spartans have Copeland, Hicks and Tyson Smith - each of whom played against Furman. The Spartans also have David Dowell, Kaleel Gaines and Josh Butler in the three-deep at cornerback. This means true freshman Austin Andrews isn’t likely to burn a redshirt, although he might have had a chance to play early at a program with a weaker foundation.
“Austin, who is going to be a very, very good player for us, he's redshirted,” Dantonio said. “Same with probably maybe D.J. Vance. Kenney Lyke, maybe not so much. But those are just examples. If you're deep in a certain position and you have people that are functional that play, such as maybe a corner, (a redshirt is more likely).
“Other opportunities would be for players if there is not as much depth at that position. But we have a good football team. We have a foundation of players that are as deep as maybe we've ever been. So putting together the 70-player travel team is going to get very, very tight in terms of who goes and who doesn't go. We've not had a lot of a transition. As of late we've had a couple of guys leaving. They're leaving as a result of the situation itself. Let's just be straight up.”
He was most likely talking about defensive tackles Enoch Smith and Cassius Peat, who announced plans to transfer during August camp. Neither was likely to crack the three-deep, get into the playing group or travel this fall.
“We want to play (freshmen) and get them reps if they're going to continue to play throughout the season,” Dantonio said. “We have a couple of guys that that may be the case.
“We didn't want to play those guys (King, Robertson and DT Naquan Jones) without fully playing them a lot of plays.
“On our defensive line, I thought (graduate senior) Kevin Williams did I a nice job. ObviouslyMalik McDowell played extraordinarily well, great effort. Big guy, rushing the passer, doing all the things that you wanted him to do. But the biggest thing was I thought he played with a lot of effort, and he was our defensive MVP, and had a lot of production, as well. So that was a positive.”
They’ll make use of the bye week, but Dantonio isn’t thrilled about having a bye this early in the season.
“I would rather have it some time in October,” Dantonio said on Sirius Satellite radio last week.
On Tuesday, he grumbled a bit more.
“I think we're the only team in America that plays as a bye the second week of the season, and then plays a Power 5 team that next week,” Dantonio said. “So there's not a lot to compare to that. But we use it as a positive. We'll get some guys healthy. Secondly, our players are really in school for the first time this week. Last week was a chopped up week. So they can get themselves grounded in that respect.
“Third, we can get out and recruit a little bit on the weekend. So that's a positive.
“Fourth thing we have to do is maintain our game conditioning. I thought we were in condition in the game. We have to maintain our game conditioning aspect. So we've got to work this week hard. And there's always risk a little bit with that. We don't go live or anything like that, but you have to work your players as if you had a game from the conditioning standpoint. We're going to work hard doing that throughout the week.
“And it also gives us an opportunity obviously to get ahead a little bit from a film and schematic standpoint on Notre Dame, things tend to change week-to-week with programs and who you play. But it does give us a chance to watch their personnel, what they've done thus far and what they've done last year.”
TWO QUESTIONS:
1. Is Michigan State going to be lacking in the pass rush department this year?
Without Shilique Calhoun, the Spartans have questions in that area for 2016.
Against Furman, the Spartans didn’t put much pressure on Paladins quarterback P.J. Blazejowski.
Michigan State sacked Blazejowski only once, although Dantonio says the stat sheet should officially show two.
Evan Jones was credited with the sack.
Demetrius Cooper was credited with a TFL in the second half, but it wasn’t recorded as a sack because the QB initially fumbled the snap. Dantonio isn’t buying that. He says the QB recovered and looked to pass downfield.
Either way, MSU had trouble getting sustained pressure on Blazejowski.
Furman employed maximum protection on a high percentage of his pocket pass attempts (meaning they kept two or three extra players in to help the five-man offensive line in pass protection).
Furman also caused MSU to play a beat slower than the Spartans might otherwise play, as the Spartans paused to try to make reads on Furman’s revamped, previously unseen offense.
Still, Dantonio would have liked to have seen more horsepower on the pass rush.
“What we have to do is transition better from run to pass, when there is run action and then it's a pass,” Dantonio said. “We've got to be able to transition more.
“We needed to come up with more sacks. We had two. But we need to sack the quarterback more often than that. Good plan by them, keeping us off base. Plus the run-pass options.”
As for Cooper, he looked pretty quick at times. He had five sacks last year as a reserve sophomore. He has the goods to exceed a half dozen this year and maybe pursue Calhoun’s mark of 10.5 from a year ago.
McDowell was credited with one QB hit. He often moved to d-end in the nickel defense. He also played one series of pure defensive end early in the second quarter. But Furman kept it on the ground for gains of 7, 8, 6 and 3 yards, up the middle, when McDowell moved to the outside.
McDowell also flushed the QB out of the pocket on a third-and-eight with 2:40 left in the game as part of the nickel defense. Linebacker Chris Frey chased down the scrambling QB after a gain of 3.
Grad transfer Gabe Sherrod showed some promise in the pass rush department. He showed speed, quickness and good hands, which should serve him well through the course of the season.
On a third-and-16 late in the first quarter, Sherrod was a little late with his take-off, but then used his hands well to defeat the left tackle, and disengage. He was converging on the QB and would have gotten there for a QB hurry if the QB hadn’t grounded it before he arrived.
Later, on a first-and-10 play with MSU leading 14-0, Sherrod replaced Cooper at field DE and looked like a field DE. He took on the double-team of an H-back and a running back, and met them with quick feet, violent hands and some shock when he engaged. He proved worthy of a double-team on that play, as he was still coming, through the max protection, when the QB got rid of it.
Sherrod showed some horsepower.
We’re not here to say MSU’s pass rush is going to be great, or poor, in 2016. But keep the argument open. Table the answer for weeks to come.
2. Will Tyler O’Connor continue to have jitters?
Senior QB Tyler O’Connor acknowledged that there were some jitters throughout the offense at the outset of Friday’s game.
He felt he settled down after some hasty decisions early in the game.
“I thought offensively Tyler O'Conner probably a little nervous initially, but after that start, I thought he played pretty well,” Dantonio said. “Three touchdown passes. I think he threw the ball effectively, threw the ball with velocity, didn't hold back, and played aggressively.”
That begs the question as to whether jitters will follow him on occasions such as his trip to South Bend to take on the Irish later this month. None of us will know until the time comes.
O’Connor said he was surprised by how calm he was when he became the starter for last year’s upset at Ohio State, in a game of much greater magnitude and potential intimidation than last week’s season opener against Furman. But the idea of being THE man at QB this time might have altered his psychological approach a bit.
Dantonio wasn’t pleased with O’Connor’s fumble at the left sideline during MSU’s second possession. O’Connor allowed the ball to pop out of his hands after he was flushed from the pocket and was waiting for RB L.J. Scott to get to the left flat. Scott never went there, and O’Connor almost compounded Scott’s error with a bigger error of his own.
“Got to hold on to the football,” Dantonio said, Tuesday. “Can't have mistakes with the football in our hands at any point in the game and that's No. 1. The ball was on the ground too often.”
ONE PREDICTION:
1. Notre Dame is going to attack Darian Hicks.
That’s not a bold prediction, of course. The real question is whether the Irish will be able to cash in better than Furman.
The last time Michigan State played Notre Dame, the Irish went deep against Michigan State in 2013 more often than any Spartan opponent of the Dantonio era, with the possible exception of Western Michigan in 2013.
The Irish seemed to concede in 2013 that they weren’t going to be able to run the ball against MSU, and were unlikely to drive it, so they hoisted the ball deep and called upon officials to throw flags - which they did. Notre Dame rode several pass interference calls to victory that day.
Michigan State’s ground defense might not be as daunting right now as the Spartans’ 2013 unit, but MSU’s pass defense isn’t nearly as strong, either - with Hicks perceived by some (including Furman) as the apparent weak link.
So Hicks will get tested through the season - especially a week from Saturday in South Bend.
**
Other stuff from Tuesday’s press conference that you probably already know:
* Mark Dantonio said defensive line coach Ron Burton is back with the coaching staff, coaching in practice after missing the Furman game due to “an emergency procedure.”
Dantonio gave no further details on the procedure, which took place Friday morning.
“He's doing well and he's back with us and everything,” Dantionio said. “Sort of an emergency surgery.”
Mark Snyder took over as defensive line coach on Friday night, in addition to his regular duty as linebackers coach. This called for Snyder to come out of the box and coach from the field level.
“He's a long time defensive line coach, as well,” Dantonio said. “I don't think there's any question that affects your staff and affects how you do things.”
* Ed Davis is still awaiting word from the NCAA on his petition for a sixth year of eligibility.
“I would expect to hear something this week,” Dantonio said. “So I would expect that there would be a positive outcome. But, hey, you never know. That's all I can basically say about that. And in the meantime he is able to practice and is going to school and those type of things.”
DANTONIO UNPLUGGED:
* “Andrew Dowell I think had the play of the game on his pick. He flipped it (momentum) the other way immediately. Great pick, big play in the game. Great effort.”
But Dowell was influenced out of position a few times by Furman’s surprise formations and plays.
“Got to know where to go sometimes,” Dantonio said. “And that's coaching and that's also experience because the game changes and you have to adapt. You have to adapt to things you haven't been coached on throughout the week, because they show something different. That's a big part of it.
“But I thought he played very, very well. He played with a lot of effort and I think he was involved in a lot of tackles, a lot of production.
“And Chris Frey, same thing, more experienced, played very well.
“Byron (Bullough) came in there. Byron two big plays, one down at the goal line and one on the third-and-one. It's good to see him as I younger player to get involved in that capacity. He played well.”
* “I thought Prescott Line played very, very well in the game. He's a football player. And (Delton) Williams was playing. We're deep in the fullback position. That will be a positive. That will be useful in the future here. And I could see using him (Williams) as the tailback.”
* “LJ Scott I thought he had a great football game.”
“I think that most pleased with how we ran the ball and continued to recollect ourselves on both sides of the ball when things didn't go quite well. We just sort of maintain a workmanlike approach to it.”
* “I thought our sideline needed to be a little bit more emotional than maybe it was.”
