The Spartans are underdogs on this one, and I think that would be a flawed assessment if MSU was fully healthy. I think the Spartan D is good enough to slow the Oregon offense down enough for a Spartan offense, at full strength, to score enough to win. The problem is that the O-line looks like it could struggle, at least enough to prevent the Spartan offense from keeping up with the Oregon offense.
The O-line is without Connor Kruse and likely Travis Jackson. That means Brian Allen will likely have to start, and he looked like a freshman on Saturday. He missed a couple of blocks and had a couple of penalties (or was it just one?) called against him. Hopefully, his performance was just the result of nerves, from playing in his first college game ever. Even if Allen plays well, the Spartans will have to hope the O-line does not suffer any more injuries, since there appears to be very little depth behind Allen.
Unfortunately, the O-line could turn out to be the Achilles heel of this mighty team. I really think this team is capable of winning the national championship. The defense is already good and will be at a championship level by the end of the season. And the offense is loaded everywhere but on the O-line. Connor Cook looks like a rare talent (he's gifted and will be the best quarterback to have played for MSU) that could lift this team to unimagined heights. But he's going to need a decent O-line.
So it all comes down to the O-line. Since I'm a Spartan slappy, I'll say that Allen will play much better this week, and Cook and the rest of the offense will get a chance to show their stuff. The other thing key is that elite defenses usually end up containing elite offenses - think of Oregon vs Auburn, and Oregon vs Stanford. So hopefully, the MSU defense is as elite as I think it is.
Final Score: MSU 36 Oregon 27
No comments:
Post a Comment