First off, a win is a win. MSU will remain high in the polls and in good position to fight for the Big Ten Championship and a potential playoff spot.
To the game...
1. Injuries. MSU did well with injuries the last two years. This year is obviously a big concern. Conklin, Price, and Williamson all need to be healthy, along with Heath. Hopefully MSU can get Kieler back sooner rather than later as well.
With Heath out and Sweat suspended, MSU was running with Thomas, McDowell, Knox, and Evans inside, and Calhoun, Cooper, and Evan Jones on the edge. Calhoun and Cooper played a lot of snaps yesterday. Thomas is obviously fine playing inside, but having him back out at DE will be very helpful in getting the best 11 on the field defensively. MSU was without Bullough for the first half as well. Lots of work for guys who weren't in the starting 11 coming into fall camp.
2. The offense did very well, terribly, and then very well again. MSU had 3 offensive possessions in the first half and scored 17 points. MSU had 3 offensive possessions in the 3rd quarter and punted 3 times. MSU had 2 offensive possessions in the 4th quarter and scored TDs on both drives. (MSU also took 2 knees at the end of the game which I'm not counting) Also, Cook was 4 of 4 in the 4th quarter. He made the right calls and the run game really took over.
The second possession of the 3rd quarter never got going. A holding penalty followed by an offensive pass interference call had MSU backed up inside its own 10. You can't shoot yourself in the foot like that.
3. Dennis Finley. With Conklin out, we got to really see Finley for the first time. His first two series were rough (he had the holding penalty on the 2nd series in the 3rd quarter), which is somewhat to be expected, but I thought he really settled in and played well after that. He read the defense well and made his blocks, and did a good job on combo blocks getting out to the second level a couple of times. He played winning football late in the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. MSU needs Conklin back, but the signs were good for Finley.
4. I really like Jon Reschke in this game. He had some nice solo tackles, including on a screen play where he blew up both offensive linemen who were out to block, which also took out the legs of the RB. One guy took on 3 and won. Impressive.
5. Darien Harris also had a really good game. He played the run well and was good in coverage as well. He locked down the dreaded wheel route and tackled well in the box and in space.
6. The secondary is a puzzling group. When Williamson went down the first time, Cox moved to safety, so you had both Edmondson and Colquhoun at CB. They both did some good things and some bad things. I thought Hicks came in and played well late. He lacked physicality last season, but that was not a problem at all yesterday. He was very physical on the field and was very good in run support. I liked his play a lot.
Colquhoun had a better game yesterday, and did a nice job forcing the fumble. He needs to be better in closing down with the ball in the air, but yesterday was a step forward for him. There are more steps to go though. Edmondson was also in some good spots at times but didn't end up making the plays.
As long as Williamson is healthy, I think the best 4 out there right now would be Cox and Hicks at CB and Nicholson and Williamson at safety.
7. Nicholson continues to take bad angles when supporting out wide. He consistently ends up on the back of RBs and WRs in the flat and then needing to play catch up instead of taking a better angle and having his head in front of the ball carrier. This was most evident on the 42 yard run to open the 2nd half for CMU. MSU lost outside contain and then Nicholson didn't angle properly. He needs to be able to read the angles better.
8. I thought CMU was very aggressive at getting their safeties into the box after the snap, but MSU still did a good job running the football throughout the football game. Holmes looked really good late, and the OL was really dominating at that point.
9. Good for Geiger to get some confidence back hitting that 47-yarder. It wasn't a perfect hit on the ball, but it was good enough and it went through the uprights. Hopefully that confidence boost will help him going forward into Big Ten play.
The extra point block was all on the left side of the line getting blown up. That never had a chance of getting through.
10. Special teams play is an enigma. Conroy booms the first kickoff of the 2nd quarter all the way through the endzone with the wind at his back. The next kicks in that direction are either squib kicks or a short pooch to the wide side of the field. I don't get that at all. I understand everyone is jumpy after the kickoff returns given up early, but the last two games the coverage teams have been locked down well. If you've got the wind and the kicker has already put one through the endzone, why are we squibbing and pooching kicks? It's confusing.
Hartbarger was very good yesterday. Nice job pinning CMU deep a couple times.
Bonus point. The refs. These guys were bad. It wasn't just the missed calls or long huddles to figure out what actually happened, but they also completely changed the way they called the game in the 2nd half. Yeah, the 1st half was bad. On the re-watch I counted 9 holds on CMU (and not the ticky-tack, every play kind; I'm talking guys getting spun around, mauled, or literally tackled), 2 chop blocks, and a hands to the face that were all very obvious and completely missed. That was just in the first half.
CMU's first holding penalty came with 4:30 or so left in the 3rd quarter. The immediate play following, Calhoun does a spin move and Ahmeti literally jumps on his back for the tackle to prevent another sack. One-on-one on the outside with an isolated view. No call. Brutal. A few plays later the refs give CMU 2 full yards extra on a pass play. Even after the tackle while falling forward the WR never hit that yard line, but somehow that's the spot. London also got a favorable spot for a first down in the game. Weird stuff all around.
Also, they were inconsistent in how the same types of calls were made. Kings gets called for offensive pass interference on a pick play in the 3rd quarter. Good call. Kings nailed the guy. But the first pass interference call against Edmondson on CMU's TD drive should have been offensive PI as well and offsetting penalties (Edmondson did grab him trying to recover). #89 ran right into and through Edmondson to get the other WR free for the throw. He never looked for the ball and tailed off his route. No call. Then Edmondson gets hooked by the WRs right arm around his back, and tackled with the left arm across his chest in the endzone and gets flagged for a defensive call. That was absurdly bad, and clearly the worst of the day.
Overall, 4-0 is a very good thing. A lot of supposed really good teams struggled yesterday, and the more games you watch, the more you realize there isn't a dominant team in college football this year. Not yet anyway. A few teams have the potential to get there, but nobody is all that close right now. MSU is one of those teams with a shot at being dominant. Obviously there's still work to do.
LSU struggled with Syracuse. Ole Miss struggled with Vanderbilt. TCU got lucky to beat Texas Tech and also had a lot of problems with SMU. Ohio State hasn't looked great at any point. Utah crushed Oregon, but really struggled with Utah State and had a tussle with Fresno State earlier. ND almost lost to Virginia.
It's not all that difficult to lose in college football. We're only 4 weeks into the season and already only 29 teams have 0 losses, and of that group 12 are 3-0. Sometimes you just need to win.
To the game...
1. Injuries. MSU did well with injuries the last two years. This year is obviously a big concern. Conklin, Price, and Williamson all need to be healthy, along with Heath. Hopefully MSU can get Kieler back sooner rather than later as well.
With Heath out and Sweat suspended, MSU was running with Thomas, McDowell, Knox, and Evans inside, and Calhoun, Cooper, and Evan Jones on the edge. Calhoun and Cooper played a lot of snaps yesterday. Thomas is obviously fine playing inside, but having him back out at DE will be very helpful in getting the best 11 on the field defensively. MSU was without Bullough for the first half as well. Lots of work for guys who weren't in the starting 11 coming into fall camp.
2. The offense did very well, terribly, and then very well again. MSU had 3 offensive possessions in the first half and scored 17 points. MSU had 3 offensive possessions in the 3rd quarter and punted 3 times. MSU had 2 offensive possessions in the 4th quarter and scored TDs on both drives. (MSU also took 2 knees at the end of the game which I'm not counting) Also, Cook was 4 of 4 in the 4th quarter. He made the right calls and the run game really took over.
The second possession of the 3rd quarter never got going. A holding penalty followed by an offensive pass interference call had MSU backed up inside its own 10. You can't shoot yourself in the foot like that.
3. Dennis Finley. With Conklin out, we got to really see Finley for the first time. His first two series were rough (he had the holding penalty on the 2nd series in the 3rd quarter), which is somewhat to be expected, but I thought he really settled in and played well after that. He read the defense well and made his blocks, and did a good job on combo blocks getting out to the second level a couple of times. He played winning football late in the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. MSU needs Conklin back, but the signs were good for Finley.
4. I really like Jon Reschke in this game. He had some nice solo tackles, including on a screen play where he blew up both offensive linemen who were out to block, which also took out the legs of the RB. One guy took on 3 and won. Impressive.
5. Darien Harris also had a really good game. He played the run well and was good in coverage as well. He locked down the dreaded wheel route and tackled well in the box and in space.
6. The secondary is a puzzling group. When Williamson went down the first time, Cox moved to safety, so you had both Edmondson and Colquhoun at CB. They both did some good things and some bad things. I thought Hicks came in and played well late. He lacked physicality last season, but that was not a problem at all yesterday. He was very physical on the field and was very good in run support. I liked his play a lot.
Colquhoun had a better game yesterday, and did a nice job forcing the fumble. He needs to be better in closing down with the ball in the air, but yesterday was a step forward for him. There are more steps to go though. Edmondson was also in some good spots at times but didn't end up making the plays.
As long as Williamson is healthy, I think the best 4 out there right now would be Cox and Hicks at CB and Nicholson and Williamson at safety.
7. Nicholson continues to take bad angles when supporting out wide. He consistently ends up on the back of RBs and WRs in the flat and then needing to play catch up instead of taking a better angle and having his head in front of the ball carrier. This was most evident on the 42 yard run to open the 2nd half for CMU. MSU lost outside contain and then Nicholson didn't angle properly. He needs to be able to read the angles better.
8. I thought CMU was very aggressive at getting their safeties into the box after the snap, but MSU still did a good job running the football throughout the football game. Holmes looked really good late, and the OL was really dominating at that point.
9. Good for Geiger to get some confidence back hitting that 47-yarder. It wasn't a perfect hit on the ball, but it was good enough and it went through the uprights. Hopefully that confidence boost will help him going forward into Big Ten play.
The extra point block was all on the left side of the line getting blown up. That never had a chance of getting through.
10. Special teams play is an enigma. Conroy booms the first kickoff of the 2nd quarter all the way through the endzone with the wind at his back. The next kicks in that direction are either squib kicks or a short pooch to the wide side of the field. I don't get that at all. I understand everyone is jumpy after the kickoff returns given up early, but the last two games the coverage teams have been locked down well. If you've got the wind and the kicker has already put one through the endzone, why are we squibbing and pooching kicks? It's confusing.
Hartbarger was very good yesterday. Nice job pinning CMU deep a couple times.
Bonus point. The refs. These guys were bad. It wasn't just the missed calls or long huddles to figure out what actually happened, but they also completely changed the way they called the game in the 2nd half. Yeah, the 1st half was bad. On the re-watch I counted 9 holds on CMU (and not the ticky-tack, every play kind; I'm talking guys getting spun around, mauled, or literally tackled), 2 chop blocks, and a hands to the face that were all very obvious and completely missed. That was just in the first half.
CMU's first holding penalty came with 4:30 or so left in the 3rd quarter. The immediate play following, Calhoun does a spin move and Ahmeti literally jumps on his back for the tackle to prevent another sack. One-on-one on the outside with an isolated view. No call. Brutal. A few plays later the refs give CMU 2 full yards extra on a pass play. Even after the tackle while falling forward the WR never hit that yard line, but somehow that's the spot. London also got a favorable spot for a first down in the game. Weird stuff all around.
Also, they were inconsistent in how the same types of calls were made. Kings gets called for offensive pass interference on a pick play in the 3rd quarter. Good call. Kings nailed the guy. But the first pass interference call against Edmondson on CMU's TD drive should have been offensive PI as well and offsetting penalties (Edmondson did grab him trying to recover). #89 ran right into and through Edmondson to get the other WR free for the throw. He never looked for the ball and tailed off his route. No call. Then Edmondson gets hooked by the WRs right arm around his back, and tackled with the left arm across his chest in the endzone and gets flagged for a defensive call. That was absurdly bad, and clearly the worst of the day.
Overall, 4-0 is a very good thing. A lot of supposed really good teams struggled yesterday, and the more games you watch, the more you realize there isn't a dominant team in college football this year. Not yet anyway. A few teams have the potential to get there, but nobody is all that close right now. MSU is one of those teams with a shot at being dominant. Obviously there's still work to do.
LSU struggled with Syracuse. Ole Miss struggled with Vanderbilt. TCU got lucky to beat Texas Tech and also had a lot of problems with SMU. Ohio State hasn't looked great at any point. Utah crushed Oregon, but really struggled with Utah State and had a tussle with Fresno State earlier. ND almost lost to Virginia.
It's not all that difficult to lose in college football. We're only 4 weeks into the season and already only 29 teams have 0 losses, and of that group 12 are 3-0. Sometimes you just need to win.
