Preview of Ohio State Game

So I was wrong about last week. It turns out that playing a weak opponent can help you learn some important things about your team, particularly bad things. We learned most importantly that MSU's receivers are in worse shape than we could have ever imagined. I expected struggles, but not six-dropped-passes-in-the-first-half kind of struggles. Things were so bad that it certainly did appear that the coaches made the conscious decision to stop throwing to the receivers in the second half. They basically decided to run Bell and throw to Dion Sims. Luckily, that was enough against Eastern.

Unfortunately, that won't be enough against OSU. Granted, OSU is not exactly elite at the moment. They are ranked 33rd in total defense and 26th in total offense. And they haven't exactly played any powerhouses. But MSU's offense is struggling so much that I can't see them scoring enough even against a mediocre OSU defense.

OSU's secondary is worlds better than Eastern's, so if the wide receivers struggled last week, then they will likely be nonexistent this week. I pray for a good surprise -- wouldn't it be great to see breakout performances by any 2 of the 6 or 7 receivers MSU is throwing out there? -- but I'm not gonna bet my Sparty shirt on it. I'm old enough now to know how life works. Charlie Brown and I know how life works . . . .



So I'm basically expecting MSU to try to run the ball with Bell and to try to target Sims. Unfortunately, OSU doesn't have to work very hard to take those two weapons away. They're going to stack the box and put a corner on Sims.  They're probably going to dare the receivers to beat them, and I just don't see the receivers rising to meet the challenge. Let me be clear, the receivers are talented and will end up being the best group of receivers MSU has ever had. But they are suffering from mental issues right now, and those can take quite a bit of time to solve. They won't have them solved by the OSU game.

The O-line will also struggle against OSU's excellent D-line, though perhaps not as much as they struggled against Notre Dame. This will hamper the running game and also cause Maxwell to struggle a bit.

All of this suggests that MSU will probably only score about 10 points.

The defense will play well again and should slow down Miller and the rest of the OSU offense to the tune of about 20 points. Unfortunately, that will be enough for OSU to win the game.

Prediction: MSU 10  OSU 20