Another Dissapointing Week #6

Once again the Spartans succeed in making me one of the angriest fan in sports. In case you’ve been lucky enough to be living in a cave during this season, MSU currently sits at 2-4 and hasn’t won a game since mid-September. In their most recent loss they surrendered 54 points to one of the lowest scoring offenses in the Big Ten. Oh, and they still have Michigan and Ohio State on the schedule. The Bowl hopes are slim, at best. This team has a shocking number of issues but many stem from an inability to rush or protect the passer. In football, that might as well be a death sentence. Any time a program loses one player the caliber of Shilique Calhoun, Jack Conklin or Cook, repercussions are felt up and down the roster — unless you’re Alabama, of course. MSU had to replace all three and unfortunately that was just the tip of the iceberg. There is a strange feeling amongst the MSU fan base that there has never been before. It isn’t the “resigned to failure” mood that came with the John L. and Bobby Williams eras. It sure isn’t the “us against the world” feeling that came with the first six years of Dantonio’s tenure. It most certainly isn’t the “Big Ten Champions or bust” mentality that defined the past three seasons. The feeling at Saturday’s game against Northwestern was one of disbelief. A stadium filled with people asking themselves “what happened to this program?” One week it’s dumb penalties, the next it’s suspect play calling and coverage break downs, the next it’s a back breaking special teams play. Most weeks, it’s all of the above. You can’t fix talent, but you can fix discipline. That is the starting point for any turnaround. That and letting the very talented group of true and redshirt freshmen linemen cut their teeth and there is no shortage of high profile talent on either side of the ball. As bleak as it may seem right now, this is not the end of the line for the Michigan State program. Far from it. There is a ton of talent up and down the roster that is just starting to hit the field and Dantonio is still one of the best coaches in the country. One bad season will not change that. Spartan fans have been down some dark roads before but, as they say, it’s always darkest before dawn. Let’s hope that sun starts rising again before too long.

Losing to B Y WHO..I mean BYU #5

I don’t even know what to say about Michigan State football this year…. Actually I do, were pathetic!!! We keep losing all these games that hands down there’s no reason for us to lose. First it was Wisconsin, then Indiana, then this week BYWho…. I mean BYU. I didn’t think that losing our starting quarterback (entered the NFL draft) would make such a big difference. Connor Cook was an outstanding quarterback for us that dominated the competition, leading us to conference championship games and even major bowl games. You would think our quarterback now O’Connor would have opened his eyes and learned a damn thing or two from him while he was a backup so he could be a reliable QB for us this year. He’s also a fifth year senior, but that don’t make a difference if you can’t learn during practice and succeed on the game field. In my opinion I would have canned him and have him riding the bench where he belongs. We have to realize that he is not our future, and with him gone next year we should put in one of our younger QBs in so they can at least gain some experience. We already know for a fact that were not making it to the football playoff, and in my opinion if we don’t at least make it there the season is a fail. So with putting in a younger quarterback it’s just preparing us for the future, we have nothing else to lose anyways, expect respect. The Spartans haven’t won since, dropping their first two Big Ten contests and Saturday’s final non-conference game to BYU. Seven games remain in the regular season, including increasingly difficult tests against Michigan and Ohio State, and MSU sits with a 2-3 record. Six wins are needed to qualify for a bowl game, and injuries and inconsistency on offense and defense make reaching that total appear a 50-50 proposition as the 31-14 loss to the Cougars. Mark Dantonio said in earlier weeks “I don’t want a quarterback controversy.” Well, Mark Dantonio has one now after he wouldn’t firmly stand behind Tyler O’Connor as his starter. His offense languished after a first-drive TD under the fifth-year senior, even if the issues once again weren’t all his fault. Damion Terry entered the game in the fourth quarter, threw an interception, then moved MSU to its second score. The junior finished 6 of 10 for 63 yards passing with a sack and the interception, while O’Connor was 7 of 11 for 58 yards and got sacked twice.

Dissapointing week 4

Disappointment is the first thing that comes to mind when Michigan state played this week. We came off an embarrassing loss to Wisconsin in week three, getting waxed 30-6. You would think that mark Dantonio and the other coaches would work the team to the ground during practice all week hoping that they would get motivated from the butt whooping the week before but nope. In week four we played against Indiana Hoosiers which had a 2-1 record going into the game, the same as us. Michigan state is a banged up football team in both physical and psychological sense. The Spartans game at Indiana was a tricky one sense the Hoosiers up tempo offense has given many other teams struggles before. In the first quarter state failed on their first drive to score points, but hit a big play on their second possession. Tyler O’Connor found R.J Shelton behind the Indiana defense catching an 86-yard touchdown putting them up early 7-0 in the first quarter.at halftime the score was also7-0 but penalties were killing us. MSU nearly had as many penalties as O’Connor had completions (7 penalties for 60 yards, while O’Connor was 9-20). In the third quarter it was a strange looking play but somehow it worked. Our quarterback hit a wide open Delton Williams for a 24-yard touchdown pass to give the Spartans a 14-0 cushion. Later on before the end of the quarter Indiana’s trickery worked out while they did a jet sweep hand off and then threw for a touchdown. Bringing the game that much closer (14-7) I was getting pretty nervous because we were looking sloppy and just not pushing the ball. Soon after that MSU had busted coverage while their QB pump faked the safety and converted on a game tying 22-yard touchdown pass. At this point I was on the verge of breaking something. With 4:38 left in the fourth quarter a tired Spartan defense has ANOTHER break down as they found an open wide receiver in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown to give Indiana their first lead of the game. What hurt us even more was our best defensive tackle got ejected for targeting the quarterback on the play. With valuable time running out in the fourth quarter we drove down the field and our running back had a 4-yard touchdown run that called back because of ANOTHER penalty. Right after that though with 11 seconds left we had a touchdown pass to our tight end to tie the game up 21-21. To overtime we went where we choked and their kicker made a 33-yard field goal to win the game 24-21. Words can’t describe how upset I am with the Spartans this year. I also gave up all faith in our quarterback because he is just straight garbage. Hopefully we can pull our heads out of our asses next week as we play BYU next.