Thoughts on Nebraska Game

OK, i'm ecstatic about the victory, but I'm a little unsatisfied with the coaches' performance. MSU was the more talented team overall, and Nebraska turned the ball over 5 times. Yet this game turned out to be close, late into the game.

Coaches

So I'll start with my thoughts on the coaches. I think they spent too much time the last 2 weeks working on trick plays. OK, the fake field goal worked, but most of the trick plays did not work, and they tended to kill a lot of drives. Nebraska's coaches actually seemed better prepared, and as a result, they were able to do more with less. They identified weaknesses in MSU's elite defense and effectively exploited them, especially the match-up against Drummond. They also overloaded zones with receivers in ways that confused the Spartan secondary.

The MSU coaches also went away from what I thought was working pretty well: running between the tackles. The o-line was getting pretty good push up the middle, and yet the coaches kept trying trick plays, too many runs to the outside, and too many passes.

Ultimately, MSU won the game, so the coaches deserve much credit. But I do think the Nebraska coaches were able to do more with much less.

Offense

I was most impressed with the receivers today. Lippett is the third down stud. That's multiple weeks in row he's made big catches on third down. Fowler looks like an NFL wide receiver, and is making some plays. Of course, Mumphery caught the big touchdown pass.

The running game was pretty good and I think they would have been better if the coaches ran more power plays. In any case, the o-line looked pretty good, especially in the first half. They did struggle to deal with Gregory, but that's to be expected. Langford had another great game, but I'm worried that he's getting overworked.

Cook started slowly, missing a wide open Lippett in the end zone in the first quarter. But he did get better throughout the game and he made a lot of nice throws.

Defense

They finally looked human. They struggled to contain that superhuman Ameer Abdullah, who I hope leaves early for the NFL. The Nebraska coaches also found a weakness: Drummond struggles against elite receivers. So basically, elite players give MSU's defense troubles. Thank goodness their QB was a freshman.

I was also discouraged that Nebraska's decimated o-line was able to do quite well against the MSU front seven. That could be a problem that resurfaces against top-tier teams like OSU, and maybe even Minnesota.

Special teams

Solid. No great kick returns, as usual. But no fumbles, and Geiger hit his field goal attempts, and Sadler showed off his running abilities.

Upshot

MSU is now a strong enough team that even a well-prepared Nebraska team was not able to overcome. The talent gap was clear. This suggests that MSU should be able to overpower their next two opponents. Still, I think this team should get into the habit of firing on all cylinders, including coaching preparation, because they're going to need to be doing so if and when they face OSU in the B10 championship game.