Thoughts on Michigan Game

Yes, this is a rivalry game, but MSU showed today that it has the ability to do much better than it has up to this point. This is not a 2-6 team. This team was not going to beat Michigan. Too many youngsters making mistakes at inopportune times. But this team has the talent to win the rest of their games this season, save against OSU. If they are not able to do so, there need to be several changes in the coaching staff.

The coaches did much better this week than they have all year, but they still got outcoached, overall. You would think UM was the underdog, the way they ran trick plays and creative play calls on offense. That's what I thought MSU would be doing, but they stayed pretty conservative until the fourth quarter. One big difference was the use of the long pass. MSU hardly tried any, while UM hit several long passes and benefited from several pass interference calls. The few times MSU went downfield, their QBs threw the ball to the inside of the receiver. They gotta go outside shoulder to give themselves a shot at the PI calls.

The QBs were OK, but they were outplayed by Speight. That's the bottom line. We saw the 3 QBs out there, but I wish they would have had more specific plans for each. It seems to me that every time a team puts in a new QB, that QB is able to move the ball for at least one drive -- perhaps because it takes defenses a bit of time to adjust to them. MSU may be in a position to take advantage of that, but they probably won't.

The running game showed promise. The O-line blocked well and the running backs ran hard. There is potential, but they have to do it every week.

The defense remains soft, but at least they held UM to a field goal in the second half. Ed Davis makes a difference out there. Hopefully, his presence will take this defense to the next level the remainder of the season.

The poor tackling continues to hurt this team. If you can't tackle Speight on an open run to the QB, you can't tackle any quarterback.

The youth in the secondary cost this team too many big plays.

To conclude, this team showed that it has the talent to win the rest of it's games, except against OSU. If they lose the rest of their games, it's on the coaches. Period. And Dantonio will need to strongly consider hiring coaches that are as passionate and obsessed as Harbaugh, and the rest of the B1G for that matter -- nobody is coasting. I do think that many of MSU's problems are the result of a coaching staff that decided to coast this year.