Thoughts on Iowa Game

What can be said? This one is on the coaches. They had the chance to kill a lot of time in the drives before Iowa scored their touchdown, and they chose to pass over and over again. Bell looked like he had momentum late in the fourth quarter, and they flat out went away from him. I know they were trying to be unpredictable, but you just don't do that when it's clear that giving the ball to Bell is working.  I won't go into much detail here, because the problems are the same.

Offense

The line continues to struggle.

The receivers are getting better, but they struggled to separate enough from the defenders.

Maxwell regressed. Maybe it was the rain, but this was his worst game of the year.

Defense

Played pretty well, but the d-line is having problems against good o-lines. The d-line is not what we thought it was.

At least Johnny Adams did not give up a huge play.

Coaches

They just got out-coached, again. They are the biggest reason this team is struggling. How does a pathetic offense like Iowa's (with a devastated running back corps and poor receivers) move the ball better than MSU's offense? It comes down to creative play calling. The Iowa coaches simply made more intelligent calls and adjustments than MSU's coaches.

The coaches blew it late in the fourth quarter. They should have tried to run the clock out with Bell, but they kept acting like there was nothing wrong with the passing game. The thing that most clearly shows me that the offensive play calling is flawed is that the coaches kept calling passing plays that take too long to develop. This o-line does not have the talent for those kinds of plays.

I hate to say it, but the sloppiness we've seen 2 weeks in a row is starting to make me think this team is still being coached by JLS.

Upshot

The season is lost. This team will lose it's next 3 games, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Chicken Little. This offense will not score more than 13 points on any of the next 3 defenses. I think we should now expect a losing season and no bowl game.

This was a critical year for MSU. They had a chance to consolidate their rise to the top of the B1G. But that's just about been smashed to bits. What a devastating season.