Michigan State 38, Western Michigan 14: Afterglow Thread
by LVS on Sep 4, 2010 3:27 PM CDT
in Michigan State Spartans Football
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PrintOn a beautiful (if windy) day in East Lansing, Your Spartans started the 2010 season on the right foot by defeating the Western Michigan Broncos, 38-14. After MSU took an early 7-0 lead, WMU clearly was the better team during the rest of the first quarter and the opening 3 minutes of the second quarter. But, when ESPN started showing highlights (lowlights?) of last year's CMU debacle, MSU, as if on cue, started on a 3-play 99-yard drive, including a 75-yard run by Le'Veon Bell and Edwin Baker's 7-yard touchdown scamper. State added another touchdown before halftime and never looked back.
Quick bullets:
- Based on the limited evidence of one game, it seems as if any consternation regarding the running game is unwarranted. The offensive line consistently gave Baker and Bell plenty of room to run, and both backs seized the chance. MSU ended up rushing for 297 yards -- their highest total since the 2007 Indiana game.
- Le'Veon Bell will get all the headlines tomorrow, and deservedly so: he showed tremendous vision on his first touchdown run, and remarkable quickness and ability to turn the corner on the aforementioned 75-yard run. He's the first MSU running back to gain 100 yards in his first game, a feat he accomplished by halftime. The hype that's slowly been building up around Bell throughout the spring and summer camps appears to have been warranted.
- Kirk Cousins started very slowly but got much better as the game progressed. (His early struggles weren't helped by several B.J. Cunningham and Keshawn Martin drops.) His more successful play was really spurred on by a tremendous touchdown catch by Keith Nichol -- after that point, Cousins looked quite good, if a bit rusty.
- The secondary looked OK. The two touchdown passes were semi-breakdowns, but the first play in particular was very difficult to defend. Marcus Hyde's interception was the result of a very nice read, and it came in a big spot. Johnny Adams also looked very good in his first competitive game in 20 months. Chris L. Rucker looked, well, Ruckerish, although he did make a nice 4th quarter pass breakup.
- Dan Conroy looked great on all of the extra points and on his one field goal (a 33-yarder). Kickoffs may still be a problem, but the truly terrible first-quarter efforts seem to have been caused by the wind.
In sum, it was a fine effort and a good start to the season, and it came against a WMU team which I think will be quite good by the end of the year. Thanks to everyone who participated in the game thread; we'll have a more thorough recap tomorrow. For now, State's 1-0, and we have quite a bit to be encouraged about.
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Overall it was a solid 1st game
The running game was great. The O-line was opening holes and Baker and especially Bell took full advantage. It was disconcerting to see all the drops by receivers and the passing game was just a little out of sync. The good news is we know that the passing game is probably the strength of the team so I expect it to improve. We did have too many penalties offensively though.
Defensively we were good, but not great. The run defense was very good and the passing defense was solid. Western returned almost their whole offensive unit, besides QB, and I think Carder is going to be a pretty good player in time. It was nice to see us force 2 TO’s (plus the other fumble recovery on their mistake) after not forcing any last year. The one real dissapointment on defense was we got very little pressure when we only rushed 4 men.
The lack of Pass Rush
Is just going to kill us. I really wish we had a passing rushing DE that could get some damn pressure.
"You think our war drill is something now. Next year is going to be fist fighting."- Tom Izzo
Go Spartans
Tough to judge from today
- Bad omen that we got no pass rush today. Offensive lines only get tougher from here.
- Running game looked OK, but nothing too outstanding.. would have liked to see us be more consistent against a team like WMU.
- Am I the only one who thought Cousins looked pretty bad today? That TD pass to Nichol was in INT waiting to happen, and that swing pass (that should have been thrown forward but probably was not) was a gift of a non-turnover
- Discouraging to see WRs with the dropsies again today. Can we work on this in the offseason ever?
- Thought the DBs played a bit better than expected, for a change
"It's a trap!"
Running game only looked OK?
We had 297 yards rushing and averaged 8 yards per carry. That’s great stuff against anybody.
After our first series, here are the next runs (from ESPN play by play):
Edwin Baker rush for 4 yards to the MchSt 13, tackled by Deauntay Legrier and Damond Smith.
Edwin Baker rush for a loss of 2 yards to the MchSt 34, tackled by Paul Hazel.
Edwin Baker rush for 4 yards to the MchSt 34, tackled by Damond Smith and Mario Armstrong.
Le’Veon Bell rush for 9 yards to the WMich 22, tackled by John Rice and Lewis Toler.
Le’Veon Bell rush for 2 yards to the MchSt 23, tackled by Deauntay Legrier and Travonte Boles.
Le’Veon Bell rush for 15 yards to the MchSt 27, tackled by Jamelle Murray.
I dunno…. maybe I just had higher hopes for playing a WMU team that we so clearly outclassed? It seems that we had a couple long runs and most of the rest were of the 3-4 yard variety. I’m fine with that, but if you are having trouble running “3 yards and a cloud of dust” against WMU, I have some concerns about ND, UofM, etc
"It's a trap!"
That's a 5.3 yard average on those six carries.
Even against WMU, that’s certainly getting the job done.
PP-TPW.
The Only Colors
by LVS on Sep 4, 2010 8:47 PM CDT up reply actions
I guess that was my point, its getting it done against WMU. I am just saying that some of what I saw, especially with some of the failures our interior rushing showed today was the fact that I think WMU is setup to have a terrible year. Maybe we were still working out some of the early season kinks, and we did have some good runs also… but this was not the usual “hey lets run the same running play over and over because we are getting 5 yards every time we run it!” situation, which frankly I was hoping we would be in today.
"It's a trap!"
DBs
Tackling was good, which is a start.
Fight for The Only Colors: Green and White!
by KJ@theonlycolors on Sep 4, 2010 7:37 PM CDT via mobile up reply actions
Agreed.
I noticed that too. Didn’t seem like we were going for hits to just knock the snot out of someone, we actually tried wrapping them up. And it pretty much worked. Crazy.
by Spartan-Football on Sep 4, 2010 11:29 PM CDT up reply actions
I don't know what else you wanted to see from the running game.
Our numbers are inflated by the 75-yard run, but we were getting 3-4 yards almost every time we ran it, and were getting more than that with regularity. And even better, the offensive line looked very good, I thought—including the right side, about which we had so many questions.
I’ll agree with you on Cousins, though I’m not really worried about him. Nichol totally bailed him out with a great catch.
D-line didn’t get a huge amount of pressure, but 1) we knew that this was probably not going to be a strength, and 2) I thought they were being held like crazy, honestly.
PP-TPW.
The Only Colors
by LVS on Sep 4, 2010 7:51 PM CDT up reply actions
I guess I wasn’t trying to be as pessimistic as I came off above about the running game…. but I had some high hopes for this year after how dismal our ground game was last year, and this didn’t really give me the warm fuzzies so to speak… but it is hard to tell against a team like WMU, who knows how good they will end up being.
"It's a trap!"
Even if you remove the 75-yard run...
…we’re still averaging 6.1 yards per carry.
by Spartan-Football on Sep 4, 2010 11:32 PM CDT up reply actions
I know it was WMU but...
…no dance of joy on the main page?
Ha, no.
Happy to win today, but tDoJ is reserved for big victories.
PP-TPW.
The Only Colors
by LVS on Sep 4, 2010 9:26 PM CDT up reply actions
thanks
although his trainer/frisbee QB didn’t do him any favors in the wind today haha.
by zeke4heisman on Sep 5, 2010 10:59 AM CDT up reply actions
Nichol
Keith Nichol is my new favorite Spartan. He could have taken the Forcier route and pouted all game, but instead he has embraced his role and made that best of it. He had a great reception early, and his block on that touchdown run was outstanding. If nothing else you have to love his enthusiasm.
My biggest complaint
was that there were far too many mental mistakes. Receivers not bringing the ball into their bodies, tons of penalties that are all mental and there were a few times where we could have been called for late hits, which will hurt us in at least a couple games if it’s not addressed asap.
Es gibt keine Freude wie Schadenfreude
thats why...
This is the first game of the season, and we get one more tune up game before laying the hammer on Notre Dame
Congrats on the season opening win Sparty
I know it was “only” WMU, but Baker and Bell = Wow !
Could we trade you our senior wideout Keith Smith for Le’Veon Bell? I think that would be a win-win for both teams.
Well, at least it would be for us, since we have no running game!
Good luck the rest of the year.
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