Michigan State 44 - Montana State 3: Quick Thoughts

by LVS on Sep 5, 2009 5:55 PM CDT in Michigan State Spartans Football Comment 13 comments

The beautiful view from Section 27

Michigan State comprehensively takes care of Montana State, 44-3. As Rittenberg said, overall, this is probably the result that Dantonio was looking for, though some concerns remain.

Highlights:

If anyone had concerns about the quarterbacks, they should have been more or less answered today. Both guys played very, very well; I'm completely comfortable with either of them taking the helm the rest of the way. Cousins was jittery at first, but thereafter exhibited the quick release which many have touted, and was composed in the pocket and, for the most part, very accurate on his throws. Nichol also was pretty much as advertised: he scrambled for a first down, got out of trouble a few other times (though he might need to contain himself a bit; his fumble seemed to be the result of trying to do too much), and his rollout and touchdown pass to Dion Sims was a sheer thing of beauty. My guess is that Cousins gets the slight advantage, but an excellent showing by both.
The tight ends. Aside from Dion Sims's one drop at the beginning of the second quarter (which, had he hung on, may have been a touchdown), these guys were phenomenal. Gantt was solid, Linthicum was, for me, one of the stars of the game, and Dion Sims was impressive both in blocking and receiving. These guys are going to be a major strength of the team.
The secondary. Fantastic effort which would have looked even better had Chris Rucker not been on the receiving end of two questionable pass interference calls. There's obviously only so much we can read into a game against a 1-AA opponent, but this was a pretty comprehensive shutdown.
Greg Jones. What can I say? He's our best defensive player since Julian Peterson, and he's even better than he was last year. One question: does he really need to be on kickoff coverage? It may be my residual agita from seeing Drew Stanton injured covering punts against Nebraska, but it just doesn't seem worth the risk.
The crowd. The stadium was full, and much more active and vocal than I had expected for an opening game against a highly unsexy opponent. The student section has been expanded substantially since last season, and it makes a difference.

And, the lowlights:

The offensive line. Not exactly the performance I had hoped; they were generally good in pass coverage, but certainly didn't do the best job opening holes for our running backs. Simply: there wasn't enough push, and whenever we tried to run outside, it seemed like the blocks weren't there. And oh man, let's hope that Nitchman is all right.
Running backs. Caulton Ray was the best of the bunch, but nobody was overwhelming. Baker and Caper seemed far too inclined toward running east/west for my taste; it seemed like Caper especially was running 15 yards to get a 5 yard gain, and Baker wasn't effective running straight ahead. Nothing conclusive yet, but my initial impression is not enormously positive.
Kickoff coverage. Twice we allowed them past the forty. (One can be chalked up somewhat to a poor kick, but still . . . ) This needs to improve.

Overall, a tremendous day in East Lansing -- beautiful weather, great crowd, and we handily beat a team we should beat handily. What'd you think?

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Sacks?

Couldn’t watch the game, is it correct that ther were 0 sacks either way? Would have liked to see Sparty get at least a couple of sacks.

by CPT Hoolie on Sep 5, 2009 6:07 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

3 sacks for us

1.5 for Greg Jones, 1 for David Rolf, and 0.5 for Trevor Anderson. No sacks for the other MSU.

"Do not cheat your team or your teammates. Know your plays. Block. Protect. Add to what we are trying to do."
The Only Colors

by LVS on Sep 5, 2009 6:32 PM CDT up reply actions

Stupid ESPN gamecast

Thanks. I didn’t think 0 sacks was right.

Also on the good side, we didn’t allow any sacks either…

by CPT Hoolie on Sep 5, 2009 8:19 PM CDT reply actions

Can I say I disagree on the RB completely. The four RBs MD thinks can play combined to go 31-156 thats 5 yards a career from Ray, Caper, Baker, Winston. If one guy had did that we would be saying it was huge. Ringer had plenty of lines worse then this last year I think when you look at ypc. Today was about the QBs. I think the RBs did fine

"There are no next times when you're competing for big things." - Tom Izzo
Go Spartans

by msufan23 on Sep 5, 2009 9:16 PM CDT reply actions

Read my mind...

This analysis is exactly what I was thinking while sitting in there losing my voice. Right down the kick coverage being underwhelming and wondering why Greg Jones was in there helping out (?!?!?!)

We should have been ripping through and running over a 1-AA team if our ground game was fully up to snuff. Imagine what the 2007 offense would have done to that team today. If you need a refresher course, watch Jehuu Caulcrick stampeding over Michigan’s front seven for most of the second half in that game. The passing game looked good enough to take up some of the slack (aside from a few too many drops), but I think it’s more than fair to put a yellow alert on the running game until we see what happens next week.

by Ken Braun on Sep 5, 2009 10:55 PM CDT reply actions

We can help the receivers...

by taking up a collection for some of those new Nike gloves that let you catch anything.

Who wants a hoagie?

by CPT Hoolie on Sep 6, 2009 7:10 AM CDT reply actions

Bottom Line

They beat a team that they shoutd by 41 points. I think the secondary played well, especially Jenarette. The freshmen running backs were OK and Sims is a beast. The offensive line didn’t open too many holes, however, the Bobcats gave them the pass. They need to play better against Central and don’t look ahead to the Penguin.

by MSU1978 on Sep 6, 2009 11:44 AM CDT reply actions

Running game jitters

That’s the main negative I saw. I didn’t really see RBs playing badly, I saw an o-line that wasn’t opening up big holes early against a 1-AA team. The Ken’s point above, Caulcrick had a good, experienced line to run behind, too. (REally, if you looked at just the offenses you’d expect the 2007 team to have won nine games and the 2008 team to have won seven) The line got better as the game progressed and M(t)SU wore down, but that’s a worry to me. I can’t imagine becoming Northwestern, but this might be a pass-first team this year.

“Right down the kick coverage being underwhelming and wondering why Greg Jones was in there helping out (?!?!?!)”

I think you answered your own question there. I dunno what’s wrong, but maybe we need Greg Jones out there at this point. Todd Boleski will be missed, too.

The good is definately how accurate these guys looked. My favorite QB play was Cousins, scrambling, but keeping his eyes downfield to hit B.J. Cunningham. The dropsies of the wideouts were apparent again, but mostly just from Keshawn Martin. Martin looked good as a PR, though, no more Terry Love running sideways or Otis Wiley taking years off my life by catching them on the bounce. Cunningham looked good. I haven’t seen anything about what the matter with Dell is, but Cunningham/White looks like a duo you could win with.

by witless chum on Sep 6, 2009 12:21 PM CDT reply actions

Right on...

about the O-line.

Also totally agree about the 2007/2008 teams’ records shoulda been flipped. So a regression to the mean means an 8 win season. I’ll take it.

by CPT Hoolie on Sep 6, 2009 4:16 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions

O-Line or RBs?

I did not mean to imply (and carefully avoiding saying) what I thought was the underlying cause of the running game hitting at only 80% speed. It could indeed be the offensive line, though pass protection seemed pretty good. (Yes, I’m aware that run blocking is a whole different discipline.)

So, yeah, maybe the O-Line is the issue. Or a combination of both. Who knows.

Another, more hopeful option, is that MD just decided to win the game in the air and give both QB’s a solid live-fire workout. Perhaps, in other words, they decided to run a very basic ground attack that was easier to predict and keep some secrets about what they can really do until a rougher opponent shows up. In that case, assuming that they deliberately didn’t hit the gas on the ground attack, they still managed to pile up decent yardage.

I’m probably overthinking this, but it could be GOOD news what we saw on the ground.

Either way, it’s good that Nichtman isn’t banged up as badly as it looked when he came out on crutches for the second half. Hopefully, the Central game can be dealt with without him being needed and thus get him more rest.

by Ken Braun on Sep 7, 2009 1:57 AM CDT up reply actions

Winston Needs More Touches

Leaving aside whether he should be playing, the decision has been made.

I would like to see Winston get his hands on the ball more. He seems to have the best burst of speed of all the running backs. O line was average and will need to improve, and receivers need to catch balls that hit them in the hands. Otherwise, pretty good performance.

by NoahBoa on Sep 6, 2009 11:50 PM CDT reply actions