Film Room: Rutgers

Well, at least they didn’t lose to Rutgers. Other than that, not much else can really be said, so onto the film.

HOLY CRAP A TOUCHDOWN!

Guys, this is the first touchdown in three weeks, so you better believe we are going to review it. Here we go.

The Spartans are going to run just a little two man route with the tight end and the wideout on the near side. Stewart is going to come in motion before the snap tighter to the formation and run a little sluggo route. Sokol is going to run your standard flag or corner route.

What it is going to do is isolate Sokol against the safety on the outside as the linebacker passes him off and drifts out to cover no one in the flat.

Lombardi recognizes the single coverage and puts the ball where it needs to be and Sokol actually catches the ball! It’s a touchdown! Our long national nightmare is over.

Nothing too tricky here but it’s nice to see them target a tight end in the red zone and for said tight end to haul in the pass. In all seriousness, good for Sokol to snag a touchdown on senior day.

Welp

Here it is folks, the 14 seconds that best encapsulate MSU’s offensive season.

It really is hard to pick my favorite part of this hot mess. Coghlin’s triple hesitation kick dance, Lewerke rolling out and throwing back against his body into the middle of the field into an obvious interception, Coghlin flying helplessly as he attempts to make a tackle...it’s all gold.

Honestly, I thought this was going to be returned for a touchdown and was shocked when it wasn’t. Coghlin probably deserves a lot of credit for that despite the whiff, as he slowed the runner enough to allow him to be caught from behind.

Mercy.

White TD

Things remained dicey up until this point late in the fourth quarter when Cody White was able to break through for the winning touchdown on a reverse run.

MSU does a great job of disguising this off the snap. The fullback and the guard on the near side are going to pull across as if to block for the running back getting the handoff. The rest of the near side of the line is going to block down and seal off the edge.

Meanwhile, the other side of the line (red) is going to crash inside to sell the handoff, and then get out and around to the near side to block for White as he comes around.

You can see the left side of the line coming across to block here. They don’t all quite get into position right away but White is able to beat the initial defender who over commits.

White does a great job getting upfield in a hurry and reads his blocking perfectly. We have seen some of the biggest runs of the season come from wideouts this year. White, Davis, and Nailor all had big touchdown runs. Several of them were to win games.

At least they were eventually able to get the ball into the hands of their best playmaker.

Well now its a lengthy break before the bowl game. Hopefully the team can get healthy and maybe over the next month they can come up with a plan to actually score some points.