Mustering up some bullet points: CMU-MSU initial reactions
by KJ@theonlycolors on Sep 12, 2009 10:53 PM CDT
in Michigan State Spartans Football
9 comments
Box score is here.
- Central had 10 more first downs than we did (27-17). We were lucky to even be in a position to try to avoid defeat in the final seconds.
- Number of turnovers created by the MSU defense in two games: One. And that turnover (the interception LeFevour threw today) was a function of a defensive back being 5 yards behind his man and having the ball underthrown.
- For as good as Dan LeFevour was today (33-46, 328 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT), he could have put up even bigger numbers with more accurate throws on short passes. The Spartan defense didn't let him beat us with his legs (10 rushes for 25 yards, 3 sacks for a loss of 15 yards) but they had no answers for the CMU passing game.
- What happened to the secondary being able to, you know, tackle? Are Brian Anderson (6 catches for 120 yards) and Antonio Brown (10 catches for 71 yards and a TD) that good? Shades of the JLS era.
- Speaking of which: 8 penalties for 81 yards.
- Number of fumbles forced by the MSU defense in two games: Zero.
- Greg Jones is on pace to make 174 tackles this season. That may not be entirely a good thing.
- Total running back stats today: 25 carries for 89 yards. 3.6 yards per carry.
- Kirk Cousins' career passing numbers through today's game: 55-78 for 657 yards, 70.5% comp%, 8.4 yards/att, 6-1 TD-INT ratio. Name him the starter this week. (How's that for reversing blogging course in less than two weeks?)
- Keith Nichol wasn't great today. But he also didn't cost us the game. He showed good poise on the scoring drive that put us ahead in the second quarter. And things might have gone differently had B.J. Cunningham been able to get underneath the long pass Nichol threw to him on the final drive of the first half. Nichol will be a major factor in this team's fortunes at some point over the next 3 years.
- The passing game works. The running game does not. I'll have to look at the first down numbers tomorrow, but I think Mark Dantonio and Don Treadwell _have_ to open up the offense going forward.
- Where would we be without Blair White? (Although he was very, very fortunate to recover his fumble on the punt return.)
- LVS and I were sitting directly in line with the onside kick (viewing it from behind).* I can't imagine there's ever been a better onside kick attempted in the history of football. The thing was hugging the ground so closely you couldn't see it among the players and then . . bam, it popped straight up.
- What's the story on the offsides call on the first FG attempt? I don't have the gumption to pull up the DVR recording and watch it.
- This kind of puts a damper on, you know, the entire remainder of the season. Hard to find a lot of high-confidence-level wins in the remaining 10 games at this point.
*LVS and I have vowed never to attend another football game together again.
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# What’s the story on the offsides call on the first FG attempt? I don’t have the gumption to pull up the DVR recording and watch it.
Completely legit. One of our guys jumped at least a half second early, probably more. One of the CMU guys definitely moves but I think it’s after we jump across. (Only saw the replay once, and I don’t intend to see it again.)
Central
That was awful on MSU’s part. That cannot be said enough. I’d like to take a brief moment though to point out that as much as MSU kept giving opportunity to lose, Central took every opportunity to win. The 2-pt attempt, the incredible offside, the kicker overcoming his own ghost. MSU did some in giving game away, but Central did lots in never packing it in after a difficult weekend last week.
I don't think any of us would ever argue otherwise.
They were the better team, they deserved the win. There were plenty of little things we could have done to avoid the result, but it wasn’t an undeserved loss. Had we recovered the onsides kick, we would have escaped very, very lucky.
"Do not cheat your team or your teammates. Know your plays. Block. Protect. Add to what we are trying to do."
The Only Colors
Not Down on MSU
I am not that down on MSU after this game. I think they will regroup and still win a lot of ball games.
Next week at Notre Dame should be a great game. ND is not that good of a team and really depend on Blondie chucking the ball up and their WRs making plays. It is definitely a game State can win.
MSU will still have a good season.
I'm not sure I'd call ND "not that good of a team"
If your corners struggled against Central Michigan, I’d be having nightmares about Michael Floyd and Golden Tate all this week, as not only are those two guys miles better than what Central plays at the spot, they might well be the best WR duo in the nation, most certainly in the conversation. Rudolph is also a decent pass-receiving tight end (but pretty useless as a blocker). Clausen was much smarter than I remember him being in the past, throwing it away when it wasn’t there instead of forcing throws into massive coverage. They even ran the ball reasonably well on Saturday. They have a lot of good options in the passing game and that opens up the run for them. I was initially skeptical (after all, their two previous performances had been against Hawaii and Nevada) but having seen it now, I think it might actually be a very good offense.
Their defense is pretty darn iffy though. They weren’t really shutout-level good in the opener and obviously surrendering 31 points this week as well (the other 7 coming on a return) didn’t look so hot either. If Cousins can handle the Tenuta BLITZ BLITZ DAMMIT BLITZ defense that will be coming at him all day (and if the line can largely keep those guys from running free at the QB), I think MSU should be able to move the ball.
by Yinka Double Dare on Sep 14, 2009 12:52 PM CDT up reply actions
This looked like a JLS team
Looking past the Chips is what I was afraid of. Beating the Bobcats gave us a false
sense fo secutiry.
Why put Nichol in? Keep Cousins in the entire game, or, until he plays poorly.
Why is Denson playing? He doesn’t stay home. Decker should play the middle and move Jones outside.
Why can’t we recover an onside kick (Denson didn’t know what to do)? Most coaches
would put receivers and running backs in.
Flashbacks to the JSL era
Mark Dantonio says all the right things. In countless pressers, he talks about how his team will be hardworking, disciplined, strong… how they will prepare harder and work harder and impose their will on their foes. These are great things to hear out of a coach at a presser or during the preseason. JLS used to say impressive things like this quite often. The only problem was, it never translated to game time.
Flash forward to yesterday: CMU comes out and simply runs the CMU offense they have probably been running for a dozen years now, and we simply look lost. Did we prepare for this at all? Our DBs looked like the other team came out running some totally new and unknown offense, and the passing all day reflected it. How Narduzzi still has an office in East Lansing is really anyone’s guess at this point. I would venture to say that most High School teams are more prepared to go up against what they are facing on a typical Friday night. No adjustments, no half time change, nothing. It was like he started the game, went out for a hot pretzel and never came back.
Our offense was shooting itself in the foot all game long, to the point where I was wondering out loud if we honestly were just trying to make the game as close as possible. I have seen 7th grade football with more innovative and adaptive play calling. Our preseason style “rotation” on skill positions is laughable for everything from skill to rhythm, and it looks like our WRs have spent the summer playing Madden 2010 instead of running routes and catching passes.
This loss has to smack Mark Dantonio right in the face. JLS used to do this same thing; the position coaches and coordinators were terrible, but ultimately it is up to the head coach to do something about that. For how happy fans are with MD, he has really done nothing for our program except win the games he should win (except for yesterday), and get pounded in all the other games. With a small sample size, on consistent year out of three will not make the fan base happy.
"It's a trap!"
Scheduling
I don’t know much about how the schedules are made, but what possible benefit is there to scheduling a team like CMU in the out-of-conference portion? Upside to winning: zero, nada, zilch. We’re supposed to win and actually winning gains nothing. Downside to playing a tough, in-state team with something to prove and nothing to lose: enormous. If you play a top-ten or twenty team and lose, you’re not hurt that badly and have a chance to recover. Or, play a much lesser team from a mid-major (but still FBS) conference to get the game experience and not risk too much. Why put yourself in position to be where MSU is now: disrespected and facing a long road to salvage a decent bowl game (without the chance to beat Ohio State)? I know Tressel plays the Ohio teams but that’s a whole different situation than MSU faces playing CMU and WMU rather than Toledo, Akron, Bowling Green or Ohio.
On the onsides kick note
I thought the very same thing. It was one of the most well executed onsides kicks I had ever seen. It just went end-over-end until about the hash mark, when it nosed into the ground and popped up. At that point, it was almost like fate had taken over.
by Spartan-Football on Sep 13, 2009 9:25 PM CDT reply actions
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