Despite having the worst MSU offense since Internet Recordkeeping began back in 2003, MSU lost to Michigan on Saturday by two. The Michigan/Michigan State internets have lit up like a brushfire about “what this all means” going forward.
Naturally, the Order of the Universe has been restored over at MGoBlog. One great throw to Drew Dileo in the last minute of the game is equal to total vindication of all Denard Robinson’s 14 of 29 day for 163 yards and no touchdowns. It’s cool to be excited about beating your rival that you don’t care about that much, but apparently cooler than I thought.
Denard Robinson is 13 of 29 for 143 yards; he's run 20 times for 96 yards. His team is down a point and has managed to turn 120 seconds into eighteen without moving the ball anywhere near plausible field goal range. A few drives ago Jeremy Gallon was as wide open as you can be on third and goal and Denard blasted it hard and behind the guy—if it was to keep it away from a defender it was because the throw was late—or Michigan would lead by three. Behind me, some Michigan State meathead has spent the better part of four quarters screaming "throw it, Denard, huh huh huh." Juggalo Nation, reprazent.
Denard Robinson is 13 of 29 for 143 yards; he's run 20 times for 96 yards. His team is down a point and has managed to turn 120 seconds into eighteen without moving the ball anywhere near plausible field goal range. A few drives ago Jeremy Gallon was as wide open as you can be on third and goal and Denard blasted it hard and behind the guy—if it was to keep it away from a defender it was because the throw was late—or Michigan would lead by three.
Behind me, some Michigan State meathead has spent the better part of four quarters screaming "throw it, Denard, huh huh huh." Juggalo Nation, reprazent.
Could it be the same Juggalo who saw this last year?
In this particular case, the stats were on the Juggalo’s side. Interesting fact. Andrew Maxwell after Saturday has a higher QB passer rating than any of Denard’s four showings against MSU. I get the delicious gooeyness of Robinson making a throw when it counts against the team that has not respected him, but it does not unmake a career of mediocre play against MSU.
Even better. After a two point home win in which Michigan did not score a touchdown.
MSU fans are still clinging to the recruiting-rankings-are-meaningless thing. They're in for a harsh reality check once Michigan's recruiting rankings are paired with something other than crippling attrition, lackadaisical talent evaluation, and crappy coaching. Maybe not next year, when Michigan's breaking in a new quarterback and the upperclass talent levels are still relatively even, but after that… back to the salt mines, Sparty. Or maybe Alabama, OSU, and USC are only good because of their helmets.
It’s certainly true that MSU is not recruiting at the clip that U of M is, but they never have. The last four years were the result of “crippling attrition, lackadaisical talent evaluation, and crappy coaching”. Which one was last year? Next year doesn’t count either since U of M will have a new quarterback and all. It might be easier if we can set up a schedule in advance of which years count based on quality of inbound recruits, home schedule and which years MSU will be having their worst offensive season since Internet Recordkeeping began. Who knows, maybe someday MSU fans can get enough UM cred to pick when it’s losses don’t count, but doubtful on account of the salt mining thing.
I’ve always hated the little brother quote. It’s always encapsulates the idea that if an MSU fan really wants to see U of M lose it’s because of a “complete obsession with the rivalry”. But if a distinguished U of M fan deigns to acknowledge the rivalry it’s because the pecking order of the Big Ten has been disturbed and requires correction.
This is a rivalry game and Michigan fans were exactly right to be excited as hell to win it. The same way MSU fans will be excited as hell to win it next time they do. This isn’t about relevance, if it were that I’d be writing about how much MSU cares about how Wisconsin not Michigan has kept them out of the Rose Bowl the last two years. It isn’t about recruiting either, after all on paper, Michigan had the better recruits the last four years. This is about being the champion of the state of Michigan. You won this year. Good for you, enjoy it while it lasts. We’ll see you in East Lansing next fall.
Would you believe that there was a drive in the first half where MSU was 6/6 for 34 yards passing and averaged 13 plays for 43 yards to chew up 7:07 off the clock? MSU was doing all of the things to deal with heavy pass rush pressure. RB screens, throws to the FB out of the backfield, quick little curl routes(PAST THE STICKS!), slant routes, throws to the flat.
The Burkland sack was brutal, he gets beat by his guy and really doesn’t make any effort to recover. I have to think Burkland was thinking there was a Running Back back there for more protection. Other than that, that drive was perfect. It was an excellent mix of run and pass to the inside and outside so ND couldn’t just put eight in the box and stop Bell. ND couldn’t just defend the outsides of the field because then MSU could run power between the tackles. All of the throws were high percentage, “Safe” throws(although the two almost picks by Maxwell hurt my eyes).
Roushar did an excellent job on this drive preventing ND from getting settled.For all the heat the offense took and is taking after this game, this drive was what they were trying to do the whole game. The problem of course was that in using three downs to go 10 yards a single sack for 9 yards undoes all of that good work and turns this promising drive into MSU’s only three points of the game.
It’s always difficult to write a blog post after such a complete shellacking as occurred at MSU on Saturday night. A loss like that rocks what confidence you have in your team. As far as heroes and goats, you watched the game. In broadest terms, the defense made about as many mistakes as the offense had positive plays. There’s some yin and yang in there. I won’t painfully rehash the game in narrative format, these are cosigned for your reading pleasure. A glimmer of hope: MSU’s defense routinely does to other teams what Notre Dame did to MSU.
So what in the good hell happened?
This might not be the best place to start. The best place to start is to talk about what the 3-4 is and why it gave our Offensive Line such horrible fits. The Ozone actually wrote a really excellent post on the 3-4 defense a few months ago.
If you want to run a 3-4 you’ll need a couple things for your shopping list (in order of importance).
Ok, quick primer of the 3-4 complete. Now, what happened?
During the game there was more rotation of the Offensive Line than usual with the injury to Right Tackle Fou Fonoti and the replacement of LG Jack Allen with Ethan Ruhland(who was later replaced by Allen anyway). Early in the game Roushar helped Skyler Burkland(Fonoti’s replacement) out with lots of Dion Sims lining up to Burkland’s right. It was a shell game Offensive Line and we’re not even talking scheme yet. FUDGE.
Scheme-wise. By replacing Fonoti with Burkland and the rotating cavalcade at Left Guard Nix was put into a very advantageous position. If Nix attacks the A-gap between Jackson and McDonald, Burkland is left in a one-on-one situation or he requires Tight End help(both of those assume no extra blitzers, which isn’t always true either). If Nix attacks the A-gap between the Center and Left Guard, the same situation applies to France at Left Tackle and as an added bonus the Left Guard position was being made weakened by the constant substitution. After that you can bring any number of linebackers on blitzes to take advantage of the weakened Offensive Line. If you only provide one tight end for help Nix just attacks the other gap. This of course makes me wonder where Andrew Gleichert was on Saturday night.
Are we going to be using the play where MSU got beat 3 on 7 in TOC’s picture pages? You bet your sweet ass we are.
Having four linebackers free to play the run or pass as needed took away a few things. Namely, passes to the RB, passes to the Tight End and short, safe slant passes to the middle of the field. Naturally, Running Backs and Tight Ends were targeted on 23 of 45 throws because that’s just the kind of night MSU was having.
Why not go deep?
After the game I wondered a-twitter why not go Max Protect and go deep. Max Protect would be two tight ends, five offensive lineman and Bell committed to blocking for Maxwell. Bell or either Tight End can release into a pass route if they’re not engaged with a blocker. With MSU’s love of the two tight end set only behind 7-0 or so, this would be a believable looking run play right up until the ball was snapped. I suspect strongly that in rewatching the game I’ll see an instance where this happened, but it didn’t work out. Either the D sniffed it out, the D-Line blew it up before it got started or Maxwell couldn’t connect. ND’s secondary was soft and could have been challenged indirectly in the first half using the illusion of the run.
What Else Could MSU Have Done?
Bubble Screens, End Arounds, Draw Plays, Bootlegs, MOAR Playaction. I honestly have no idea if it would have helped, the Devil was in the Offense on Saturday night and with the exception of the Big Ten Title Game last fall every loss since 2009 has been a pasting. It was just a bad night in which the Offensive Line kept getting killed by a very talented Defensive Line.
Tuesday or Wednesday, I’ll try to dig into the film when I do Picture Pages for TOC. If you have a play you want me to look at, leave me something in the comments and I’ll do my durnedest.
Ok, this has been a superbusy week so this is all the game preview I can write in 15 minutes. It'll be like a preview typed out on an iPhone, but probably worse than that.
Offense
Bell. Bell. Bell. Pass. If that pass goes well, then it should turn more into Bell. Bell. Pass. If that goes well then the playcalling should move to a Bell. Pass. Bell. Pass. Pass. Bell type model. And who knows, this is MSU-ND, you could very well see an actual Bell Pass. The ND game in 2011 is where Roushar was going to grandly unveil the Unbalanced Line he had been plainly working on all offseason, but MSU got behind early and running is not useful when you're down two touchdowns on the scoreboard but behind seven TD's in your heart. MSU will look to set up the pass as early as they can get away with because ND's secondary is wet-behind-the-ears, but their front seven is probably the best MSU will see this year(with apologies to Urbz and OSU).
Defense
Holy Defense! Pat Narduzzi ripped his defense for "not allowing an offensive touchdown" this year. He's like that fan back during the Minnesota game in 2010 who bitched at the MSU defense for having allowed zero points to that point in the game. That guy was a clown shoe. Pat Narduzzi is not a clown shoe. MSU played some pretty vanilla defense against CMU but didn't get oodles of push on CMU's offensive line. So, who the hell knows. This is the frustrating part of the college football season, you don't know what playbook doesn't exist and what playbook is just being kept secret for uncovering at a key moment of making Brian Kelly angry.
Obligatory Little Giants Drop
This play is overdone, but holy crap I can't remember a longer eternity that lived inside my head for just the two seconds the ball was in the air.
Is Brian Kelly an angry oompa-loompa?
No man, he's a huggable care bear.
Prediction
The thing about MSU-ND games is that they are close and the home team usually wins. The strengths and weaknesses of these teams cancel each other out well. MSU's run game is strong, ND's run defense is strong. MSU's pass game is not as strong(although ranked first in the Big Ten!!!!) and ND's pass defense is not as strong. In the end though, I don't think the defense has really had to work at it yet to hold their opponents scoreless and that's why I think MSU wins this game.
Obligatory Score Pick
MSU 20 Notre Dame 17
My wife is a former bando. As such we tailgate on Adams Field and the beginning of every home game starts for us by following the band in after they’re doing Series. If you haven’t yet done this, it’s a part of the gameday experience not to be missed.
On the ensuing walk is one of my favorite moments of coming to Spartan Stadium. As you walk towards the Sparty statue the stadium comes into view from behind the trees and that’s the moment it all comes together. I’m no longer part of pedestrian crap like having a job or worrying about paying bills. The next 3-4 hours belong to me, my friends and my family.
Last night we round the bend and the very first thing I see is HOLY SCOREBOARDS. I had intentionally avoided going to see them in person so my first experience would be last night. People say the pictures don’t do their size and grandeur justice. People were right.
Through a ticketing snafu we ended up sitting detached a couple rows over and up from our main block of friends and I got to watch the game with my wife and a couple friends from out of town. The last time she and I watched the game alone was probably MSU-Hawaii in 2004 and she fell asleep at 2:30, like a reasonable person should. The scoreboards were beautiful and amazing and frankly distracting at times. We watched our new Quarterback lead his new receivers against a Boise State opponent that had no business at Spartan Stadium and the whole game just felt surreal.
It was like watching a game in an alternate universe where what I know about Michigan State football offensively felt broken. MSU ran on third and short to wild success. The sure handed receivers were trying to catch a buttery football all game. Maxwell managed to avoid getting sacked, but probably would have been safer to get sacked a couple times. The PUNTER got a late hit penalty. (I actually thought this was kind of badass.)
The most amazing thing about it though is outside of the fact that Bell CANNOT tote the ball 44 times a game all season, nothing about the offense was statistically broken. Except turnovers obviously, but that can be fixed. 10/19 on 3rd down? In 14 games last year MSU did that once. Time of Possession of 39 minutes I suspect that’s a Dantonio record as well. The defense stayed fresh and only allowed three earned points.
The challenge as fans was adjusting to something new. This was not the Michigan State team we had come to know and love the last two years. It also wasn’t the Michigan State team of 2009 with the offensive sputters or the 2008 Ringer throws to Ringer who passes back to Ringer or even the 2007 Ringer/Caulcrick Offensive Victory march. This was just something altogether different and different is bad and scary and new. The newness is certainly not over yet either, what we saw on offense last night is unlikely to reflect the polished product of 2012, but it won’t be what we’ve seen before.
Bullets?
Bullets
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
1-0. On to Central.
