First, did you see that defense? O MAN, they looked good. The front four absolutely dominated Ohio State's offensive line. Yes, it did help having Braxton Miller in there, as he tended to run out of the pocket early. Mixing in blitzes and coverage kept OSU's offense off balance and our defensive backs were able to keep their men in check. I will be honest, the few replays they showed of the MSU secondary, showed OSU with wide open receivers. However, this could have been after Braxton broke off his pass drop back and tried to run it. The real Dennard had a monster interception and displayed athleticism I have not seen at MSU in a looong time. Special shout out to William Gholston, who up to this point had gone unnoticed. William was in the OSU backfield the entire game. I think he had something to prove. (take note ohio recruits...) MSU held OSU to 178 yards, keeping in tact the nations #1 ranked yards per game defense in the country. O yea, we had 9 sacks. 9.
BJ Cunningham is a beast. My counterpart here balked at the idea of MSU having the best receivers in the big ten. Well we have the best single receiver in the big ten. Cannot argue that. 9 catches 154 yards and the lone TD, and it was a beauty.
The running game was very solid. The total numbers were not lofty (85) but they seemed to get yards when we needed them. Including several 5+ yard rushes.
O hey, offensive line, that was good to see against a good defense. No sacks allowed.
The bad? Kirk, you weren't so much bad as not great. The two interceptions were thrown to the worst spots possible. There was one throw that was about one foot away from being a pick 6. However, I will add that had Cousins zoomed the pass to Sims in the end-zone instead of lofting it, it was a TD. Also, there was another pass that was about 3 feet too far and would have ended up as a BJ Cunningham TD. Complete those passes and its blow out city.
Some more bad would be some questionable play calling, but I am not going to complain when we left with a win in a game we dominated from beginning to end, even if the score board made it look closer.
(tbone says click the image to get a larger view!)
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A few thoughts...
ReplyDeleteHow bad is OSU's QB situation? Threet/Sheridamnit is actually a plausible comparison. Yikes.
How good is Michigan State's defense? The rankings are impressive. To me, they don't pass the eyeball test to be on the level of Alabama/LSU (no one does), but they are as good as anyone else in the country.
What is Cousins problem? I didn't think he would still be making those inexplicable throws this year...especially in spots where he should be satisfied to throw it away and punt the football for a sure victory. As Tbone says, BJ Cunningham is really good (I'm still not sold on the other receivers) but it seems like Cousins would have some issues if he didn't have Cunningham making constant plays for him.
I think calling 85 yards rushing "solid" is a bit of homerism. Obviously, 85 yards in that game seem like miles due to the inability of OSU to move the ball, but using relative terms comparing yourself to an inept team may allow for some misconception.
I could still easily be wrong, but I said all summer that the winner of the MSU/UM game in EL this year will determine who represents the Legends division in Indy...that is certainly looking more and more plausible.
i think solid is accurate. they made plays. it would have been nice to have a total closer to 120, but that would be downright good.
ReplyDeletegood question on cousins problem. he has not been spectacular by any means, and hasn't really stunk it up either. just kinda meh.