Haven't read a single post here since the game because I was away and laid up with a back spasm yesterday, so these are my thoughts, not viewed through someone else's prism. I'll be brief.
First, the game was a real stinker. I can't remember a more disheartening loss in several years, for me probably going back to sometime before the sanction years, but in any event, it's been a while since I've been this perplexed by a defeat.
It's interesting that many were concerned about the defense coming into the season, but overall the defense hasn't been terrible, some missed tackles notwithstanding. The defense sure didn't lose the MSU game. The offense did and that's what's so perplexing about it. A very strong case can be made that the offense lost the OSU game as well, despite the last 8 minutes when the defense was gassed.
We hear a lot these days about complimentary football, and I think rightly so. Well, we are NOT playing good complimentary football right now. For the offense to continually put the defense back on the field time after time because it can't get a single first down (think 3rd quarter and late 4th quarter) and you'll know why the team lost. MSU is not a great team, but if your offense can't give your defense a break then you're playing with fire even against so so teams. Throughout the game, I kept looking at the yards versus plays run for both teams and for most of the game, MSU was averaging somewhere around 4 yards per play. That's not what I'd call explosive by any stretch. In fact, it's not good. But our offense kept giving them the ball back. And again, when we had a chance to get the lead to 21 - 14 with 1st and goal from the 6, we settled for 3 points. You MUST punch it in in that situation. Those 3 points were really a 4 point win for MSU, which wow, shockingly was the difference in the game. Note my sarcasm.
I'm not going to blame play calling. That's too easy and usually not the issue. The issue is execution. I'm no X's and O's guy, but it seems to me that too many times there is someone not executing. A missed block, an overthrown ball that would have been an easy first down, a dropped pass, a penalty. Seems that in key situations, the offense shoots itself in the foot the last couple of games, both of which could have, should have, been victories.
Instead, the rest of the season is going to be a struggle. Except for Rutgers, the team will need to fight for every win. And maybe that's a good thing. Maybe to prepare for 2019, this team needs to learn to fight for every point, every yard, every thing it gets. I don't want to be trite and cliche, but it seems that both OSU and MSU fought just a little bit harder than PSU did and that needs to change and change quickly.
All that said, this is still a young team and probably that's the reason for the lapses we've seen. We could win the rest or we could lose 2 or 3 of them. I think it depends on what this team and coaching staff decides it wants to do. If they want to become a good team, then they need to learn to fight and gut games out. I don't like MSU, but give them credit. They just gutted that damn game out and won it. I hope our players and coaches were watching and learn from our opponents that sometimes winning is just wanting it more. Everyone likes to tell me how important stars are and to an extent they are. You need good players. But talent will only take you so far. MSU has guys on football scholarships too that can play. In the old days, games like this one were called gut checks. MSU passed. PSU failed. For Coach Franklin to get to elite status, he needs to get the program to learn how to pass these gut checks.
I believe he will get us there, but no doubt, this was a setback.
First, the game was a real stinker. I can't remember a more disheartening loss in several years, for me probably going back to sometime before the sanction years, but in any event, it's been a while since I've been this perplexed by a defeat.
It's interesting that many were concerned about the defense coming into the season, but overall the defense hasn't been terrible, some missed tackles notwithstanding. The defense sure didn't lose the MSU game. The offense did and that's what's so perplexing about it. A very strong case can be made that the offense lost the OSU game as well, despite the last 8 minutes when the defense was gassed.
We hear a lot these days about complimentary football, and I think rightly so. Well, we are NOT playing good complimentary football right now. For the offense to continually put the defense back on the field time after time because it can't get a single first down (think 3rd quarter and late 4th quarter) and you'll know why the team lost. MSU is not a great team, but if your offense can't give your defense a break then you're playing with fire even against so so teams. Throughout the game, I kept looking at the yards versus plays run for both teams and for most of the game, MSU was averaging somewhere around 4 yards per play. That's not what I'd call explosive by any stretch. In fact, it's not good. But our offense kept giving them the ball back. And again, when we had a chance to get the lead to 21 - 14 with 1st and goal from the 6, we settled for 3 points. You MUST punch it in in that situation. Those 3 points were really a 4 point win for MSU, which wow, shockingly was the difference in the game. Note my sarcasm.
I'm not going to blame play calling. That's too easy and usually not the issue. The issue is execution. I'm no X's and O's guy, but it seems to me that too many times there is someone not executing. A missed block, an overthrown ball that would have been an easy first down, a dropped pass, a penalty. Seems that in key situations, the offense shoots itself in the foot the last couple of games, both of which could have, should have, been victories.
Instead, the rest of the season is going to be a struggle. Except for Rutgers, the team will need to fight for every win. And maybe that's a good thing. Maybe to prepare for 2019, this team needs to learn to fight for every point, every yard, every thing it gets. I don't want to be trite and cliche, but it seems that both OSU and MSU fought just a little bit harder than PSU did and that needs to change and change quickly.
All that said, this is still a young team and probably that's the reason for the lapses we've seen. We could win the rest or we could lose 2 or 3 of them. I think it depends on what this team and coaching staff decides it wants to do. If they want to become a good team, then they need to learn to fight and gut games out. I don't like MSU, but give them credit. They just gutted that damn game out and won it. I hope our players and coaches were watching and learn from our opponents that sometimes winning is just wanting it more. Everyone likes to tell me how important stars are and to an extent they are. You need good players. But talent will only take you so far. MSU has guys on football scholarships too that can play. In the old days, games like this one were called gut checks. MSU passed. PSU failed. For Coach Franklin to get to elite status, he needs to get the program to learn how to pass these gut checks.
I believe he will get us there, but no doubt, this was a setback.
