Thoughts on Minnesota Game: Meh and Woohoo!

Well, that wasn't the prettiest victory, but it was a victory and MSU is now 11-1 -- quite the achievement for this coaching staff. I knew Minnesota would be tough. Thank goodness they don't have much of a passing game.

Offense

Not a great day. They put together 2 great drives, but they could not do much else against that tough Minnesota defense. Connor Cook missed some huge opportunities and the receivers made some terrible drops. They will need to be much sharper next week. Langford did his thing, but he did struggle for 3 quarters. That Minnesota run defense was tough.

Defense

They held the Gophers to 3 points, but they definitely struggled to stop Minnesota's running game. If not for some miscues, Minnesota could have put up more than 10 points and made this a much closer game. There were also several times where the defense struggled to generate a pass rush. The defense will have to step it up, if they want to stop Carlos Hyde next week.

Special Teams

Not their best performance, but no turnovers and no big mistakes.

Coaches

No complaints about the play calling. The game plan was working, but there were several bad plays that killed most of the drives.

Upshot

It was not a pretty victory, but Michigan State just won its 11th game of the season. That's special. Next week, this team has a chance to take this program to the next level, to elite status -- perhaps even into national championship discussion, if a lot of other things break their way. I am actually expecting MSU to bring it next week, I'm confident they will "unleash hell."