MMMMM turkey. Sweet sweet turkey. Hard to run a blog when your traveling to Boston. Taking brewery tours, eating Indian food, and being about the laziest human possible. Yet here I am. Because I love all of the readers, Pat and I have cultivated. MSU has now played three lower level teams in basketball and has gone 3-0 in those games. Not much to say regarding that, these are teams we should beat 100% of the time, and did. The next major opponent is Gonzaga at Gonzaga. MSU football is taking on Northwestern on Saturday, and I am sure Pat will have plenty regarding his team, apparently, they're playing The Ohio State University.
But let us move on to the famous three things.
1. Avoiding the upset:
Can MSU avoid the upset? After clinching a birth to the B1G championship game, this game is not as important as it could have been. The players will need to remain strong mentally to avoid a let down. What this game does present is the opportunity to win the Legends division outright. Should MSU lose and UM win, UM will secure a share of the division, we cant have that.
2. Contain the offense:
That is, play good defense. MSU will need to contain Northwestern, from the start of the game, MSU will need to keep Northwestern's offense off the field. With Northwestern there are two very mobile quarterbacks in Persa and Colter. Persa is very accomplished and looks mostly rehabbed from his achilles injury last year. When throwing Persa will pass to Jeremy Ebert on most attempts. Occasionally Persa will run the option, where he remains effective. This is where Colter can be a huge threat. Colter also plays wide receiver for the wildcats but from time to time, Colter will line up at quarterback. When this happens, look for Colter to run the ball. His passes come out a little duck like, but his speed running the ball is without question a real threat. This will be a good prep game headed into B1G championship. Lots of blitzing from the linebackers and bull rushing with our ends will keep their quarterbacks on edge. Right now our secondary is playing at a level that they will be able to keep the Northwestern wide receivers in check with little underneath help.
3. Keep the scoring going:
I fully expect MSU to score and score often against Northwestern. After putting up 55 against the lowly Hoosiers, the MSU offense is firing on all cylinders. A lot of that can be attributed to the offensive line. I mentioned the offensive line in nearly every three things to start the year, but now they have gelled. Fou Fonoti and Dan France both look strong right now and have improved dramatically as the season has gone on. Travis Jackson looks as good as advertised and will be a four yeart starter for MSU at center, that is impressive. As such, Kirk Cousins has had an impressive year, even against Nebraska, the offensive line played well. Look for this to continue as the offense controls the ball on the ground. Just like against Indiana, MSU should run the ball effectively while gashing Northwestern for big scoring plays.
Prediction: MSU wins this game. Dantonio has already stated he is playing and preparing the players like nothing is different. Dantonio has also stated he does not want to share the division with Wolverines. Look for this one to be around 38-17. About a three score victory is what I am expecting.
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ReplyDeleteI don't think MSU will be able to line up and pound the ball the ball down the field in the running game. Northwestern is surprisingly decent at run defense. They are atrocious at pass defense, so I think Cousins to Cunningham is going to be a big fixture in this game.
ReplyDeleteNW has a pretty good offense, they are going to make it a tough game.
I'll say 35-31 MSU
Also, I'm in Texas so this whole posting thing is difficult. I'll try to make a couple before Saturday. Some things, they've been happening.
The middle linebacker for nu is good. He's the michelobe ultra version if his coach. But I think we're gonna steam roll them on the ground. Look at what Silas redd did to them. I see more of that. Posting from my phone.
ReplyDeleteReposting this with an edit or two. Feel free to delete the other if you deem it necessary
ReplyDeleteGood analysis Tbone. I'm with you on the O-line. They have gone from a glaring weakness against ND to at least solid. The pass protection has been pretty damn good for all of the conference season. Run blocking I think they still could use improvement. Still, their improvement from bad to at least average is probably why the offense has looked better recently. Well actually that's probably because we have played Minny, Iowa and Indiana. But still the offensive line has been better.
I also like us to finish strong against NW. Team seems to still have a bit of a chip on its shoulder. I think the possibility of having to share the title with UM helps, as well as all of the talk about MSU getting jumped for a 2nd BCS spot if they lose the conference championship.
Still, it's a road game so i think it might be a little closer than you do. 31-24 MSU.