Both Michigan State and Ohio State are being held to a high standard, and neither résumé is ideal.
Advertisement
No. 2 Michigan State (4-0) is coming from a 30-10 win over Central Michigan in last week. They have outgained their opponents by a miniscule 0.08 yards per play. With a win Saturday, Connor Cook would become Michigan State’s career leader with 28 victories as starting QB.
The bottom line is did you win or did you lose? “I thought it was going to work”. Michigan State’s offense didn’t show up in the second half, either – as the Spartans failed to break the 30-point mark for the first time in 13 games. “I’m very proud of their response after the first half”. Playing inferior teams closer than they should by getting outplayed in the second half of games is a bad trend that could lead to Sparty’s demise on the road. Shelton, after taking a flip pass from Cook behind the line of scrimmage, swept in for a 23-yard score with 11:39 remaining in the half.
Maybe the Spartans are just bored.
INJURIES: The Spartans lost OL Jack Conklin to a knee injury last week, and his status is unclear. Brandon Clemons and Miguel Machado also filled in. David Beedle is off to a promising start at left guard it appears, presuming Brian Allen stays at center. “There was a plan in place”. Madre London (275 yards, three scores), LJ Scott (230, two) and Gerald Holmes (three TDs) continue to provide ground support.EXTRA POINTS1.
But Colquhoun was vindicated four plays later when he blindly knocked down Blough’s fourth-and-9 pass from the 48 to Phillips. I can still see where MSU has the makings of a top defense. But it was good. Ezekiel Elliott had been consistent throughout September, but the star running back finally delivered a breakout performance to open October and keep the Buckeyes on top of the league in a hard-fought victory at Indiana. It’s nearly like the Spartans have forgotten what made them so good in the first place, at least the last two weeks.
“You can’t let anything like that get to you during the game”, Cook said. Drews was an All-Big Ten selection a year ago and was named as an honorable mention All-American.
The Michigan State Spartans take on the Purdue Boilermakers in one of the college football games on Saturday, start time at 12:00 PM ET, at Spartans Stadium, East Lansing, Michigan. I told them on Sunday – we talked about a lot of things on Sunday – one of the things I told them is I still think you can compete that much harder.
-CB Darian Hicks played as a true freshman in 2013 and was the starter for most of the 2014 season, but he struggled late in the year and a case of mononucleosis at the start of preseason camp put him behind in the battle at cornerback. But Purdue still just doesn’t seem to have the talent needed to get over the hump against the best in the Big Ten, and the climb to the postseason is now even steeper. That’s how it should be and that’s what we’re expecting.
“We’re No. 2 right now, and we want to be No. 1 by the end of the season, not the middle of the season”, fifth-year senior linebacker Darien Harris said.
“There definitely are a few corrections that need to be made”, Blough said, “We need to figure out how to finish a game”.
Advertisement
It only took one weekend of league games to shake up the Power Rankings, which, as usual, means they are highly subject to change in a week.
