- I'm sure there will be all the usual suspects on suicide watch. Tough way to go through life, man.
- I think the expected strengths going in were exactly that. DLine was really, really good, as anticipated. OLine was maybe a notch below them but still pretty damned good...hard to complain about a 200 yd rushing day and keeping your QB pretty clean.
- Running backs collectively showed a lot of potential. London still looks like the top option to me because of his speed but LJ really showed something, particularly in the second half. Tough to bring down. I don't know that I see the shiftiness of LeVeon in him just yet, but the physicality, patience and effort are all there. Holmes was solid too, certainly worthy of being in the rotation, as he seems to be a guy who can churn out some tough yards.
- If anyone is seriously worried about Connor Cook, they ought to have their head examined. I've seen this movie before and I know how it ends...bowl wins, Big Ten championships, etc. When it matters, he delivers, and I think his performance tonight was a little better than the stats will show because there were several catchable balls which weren't secured. He's fine and will be fine.
- Receivers were OK. The same guys made great catches one play and dropped catchable balls the next. I expect they'll be better. I would suggest that if that continues, Price might need to become a bigger part of the passing game. Tonight was the same pattern we've seen over the last couple of years...they'll go through a flurry where he sees the ball several times and then no more targets the rest of the way.
- Biggest negative was the back 7, obviously. Riley was boom or bust all night, IMO. Made some great plays and then had trouble with overpursuit on other occasions. I would anticipate we'll see far better from him...hell, I think we already HAVE seen far better from him when he played last year, albeit at a different position. Thought Reschke had some moments, as did Harris, but I'm not football elite enough to know how much responsibility they share for Western's dink/dunk success in the second half. I thought Copeland seemed to play a strong game, and Cox wasn't bad either. Happy about that. From what I could tell, there was a big drop to the second string guys, though, and I have to believe the safties were part of the problem in pass coverage as well, but I'll leave that to the X&O guys.
- Punter looked very solid...some boomers and then dropped one inside the 20 when it sort of mattered.
- I guess I'm not ready to blow up the planet over this one in part because, isn't Fleck regarded as a serious comer in the coaching profession for a reason? They're expected to contend in their division, correct? I'm not saying that means MSU fans should be thrilled with what we saw but I do imagine some perspective is in order. I thought Western's QB looked very good once he settled in, and it's even more impressive when you consider how many shots he took from MSU's front 4. Their big receiver sure seemed legit as well. That's not a bad offensive team...they looked comfortable running their system and they found holes in MSU's defense. It's hard to do what they did on those two second half scoring drives. Those weren't big play scores. Western just kept it moving, made big plays (assisted by some dumb stuff by us, like Montae's roughing penalty) when they had to and eventually scored. Maybe they get a little credit as opposed to it 100% being on our poor play defensively?
- I think the expected strengths going in were exactly that. DLine was really, really good, as anticipated. OLine was maybe a notch below them but still pretty damned good...hard to complain about a 200 yd rushing day and keeping your QB pretty clean.
- Running backs collectively showed a lot of potential. London still looks like the top option to me because of his speed but LJ really showed something, particularly in the second half. Tough to bring down. I don't know that I see the shiftiness of LeVeon in him just yet, but the physicality, patience and effort are all there. Holmes was solid too, certainly worthy of being in the rotation, as he seems to be a guy who can churn out some tough yards.
- If anyone is seriously worried about Connor Cook, they ought to have their head examined. I've seen this movie before and I know how it ends...bowl wins, Big Ten championships, etc. When it matters, he delivers, and I think his performance tonight was a little better than the stats will show because there were several catchable balls which weren't secured. He's fine and will be fine.
- Receivers were OK. The same guys made great catches one play and dropped catchable balls the next. I expect they'll be better. I would suggest that if that continues, Price might need to become a bigger part of the passing game. Tonight was the same pattern we've seen over the last couple of years...they'll go through a flurry where he sees the ball several times and then no more targets the rest of the way.
- Biggest negative was the back 7, obviously. Riley was boom or bust all night, IMO. Made some great plays and then had trouble with overpursuit on other occasions. I would anticipate we'll see far better from him...hell, I think we already HAVE seen far better from him when he played last year, albeit at a different position. Thought Reschke had some moments, as did Harris, but I'm not football elite enough to know how much responsibility they share for Western's dink/dunk success in the second half. I thought Copeland seemed to play a strong game, and Cox wasn't bad either. Happy about that. From what I could tell, there was a big drop to the second string guys, though, and I have to believe the safties were part of the problem in pass coverage as well, but I'll leave that to the X&O guys.
- Punter looked very solid...some boomers and then dropped one inside the 20 when it sort of mattered.
- I guess I'm not ready to blow up the planet over this one in part because, isn't Fleck regarded as a serious comer in the coaching profession for a reason? They're expected to contend in their division, correct? I'm not saying that means MSU fans should be thrilled with what we saw but I do imagine some perspective is in order. I thought Western's QB looked very good once he settled in, and it's even more impressive when you consider how many shots he took from MSU's front 4. Their big receiver sure seemed legit as well. That's not a bad offensive team...they looked comfortable running their system and they found holes in MSU's defense. It's hard to do what they did on those two second half scoring drives. Those weren't big play scores. Western just kept it moving, made big plays (assisted by some dumb stuff by us, like Montae's roughing penalty) when they had to and eventually scored. Maybe they get a little credit as opposed to it 100% being on our poor play defensively?
