Thoughts on Nebraska Game

This feels like the most painful loss I can remember. The refs were terrible, but they were terrible both ways. It was basically a good game, a classic. But it was a painful classic.

Offense

Man, I got this one right. The offense finally did something.

The O-line looked pretty good. They are gelling, though France had his weak moments at left tackle.

Bell cashed in on the decent line play and some good calls by Roushar.

Maxwell, played OK, and put some passes on the money that could have changed the outcome of the game, if the receivers had caught them.

The inconsistency of the receivers reared its ugly head. They had some key drops. Where is Burbridge?

The tight ends are not doing much. Dion Sims is not back to normal.

But overall, the offense played well enough to win.

Defense

What a time for the offense and defense to mismatch their performances. The defense was solid most of the time, but they got burned on too many big plays. I hate to single guys out, but Gholston made several key mistakes. He lost contain too often and allowed several big plays to his side.

The younger secondary players made critical mistakes (e.g., Hicks' late hit out of bounds, and who left that Nebraska receiver wide open on 4rth and 9?). Critical mistakes at terrible times.

Darqueze Dennard looked like a first round pick in this game. I hate to say it, but he will be gone at the end of this year. The Spartans could have their 2 starting corners going in the top 2 rounds. That's bad for next year, but good for recruiting. Dantonio may need to recruit another standout corner for the 2013 class.

Coaches

They called a pretty good game. I mean, Nebraska basically won because they had 4 huge plays. Most of the time, MSU was in control.

They probably did get too conservative at the end. But I would have done the same thing, so I can't really complain.

Upshot

The Spartans should have a good chance to win their last 2 games, and they should end up in a bowl game, as long as the offense does not regress. Nonetheless, it's now easy to declare this season a near perfect failure. Things could not have gone much worse.

As for the longer term future, this game suggests a few things.  First, it shows you how hard it is to stop the spread. MSU has been as dominant on defense as any team can be, and they could not overcome Taylor Martinez. I think the Spartans should start moving towards more of a spread offense. Running quarterbacks add that extra element of advantage. When done correctly, it's impossible to stop. More importantly, spread offenses don't require elite O-line talent. If MSU can't recruit that kind of talent, they need to consider moving in that direction. Under Dantonio, I don't think MSU has ever had the O-line talent to properly run a pro-style offense. I'm not talking Oregon or Rich Rodriguez kind of spread. But MSU should start incorporating more spread elements. Shoot, even the NFL is moving towards more spread elements.

Next year, MSU will have their best O-line under Dantonio, if they still struggle on offense, then the writing is on the wall.