My Thoughts.....MICHIGAN STATE

The Ohio State Buckeyes overcame cold, windy conditions, and a Michigan State defense as good as advertised, in posting a 26-6 victory in East Lansing.  

            The offense was hit-and-miss, but this could’ve been due to MSU’s defense as much as anything else.  This was a defense that would make it hard on anybody to find a balance on offense.  It seemed to me, the coaching staff adjusted well to the weather conditions and MSU’s defense by winning the battle for field position.  Thanks to punter Drue Chrisman, they accomplished that with aplaum.  On his first punt, Chrisman shanked the ball off the side of his foot and the ball sailed eight rows back in the stands, good for only a four-yard punt.  But, in the second half, all five of his punts were downed inside the six-yard line.  No doubt Chrisman deserved a game ball after this one.  It was always going to be a challenge running the ball against MSU’s top-ranked rush defense, but Mike Weber still managed over 100 yards and I noticed much of that came after first contact.  Haskins threw for 227 yards and his passes were still reasonably accurate considering the stiff breeze.  The only two bad throws was an overthrow to Terry McLaurin that could’ve gone the distance, and throwing one in the end zone that had no chance of being completed and which he was lucky it wasn’t intercepted.  For the first time, Tate Martell was inserted as the quarterback in the “red zone”.  The results were mixed.  On Ohio State’s first touchdown drive, he almost scored on a good executed read-option play, and then in the fourth quarter, he couldn’t handle a snap on a third-down play, which resulted in a turnover.

            The Ohio State defense dominated the line of scrimmage all day.  Granted, Michigan State’s offense is nothing to write home about, but I was encouraged to see the defense give up just one play longer than 15 yards and keep the Spartans out of the end zone.  There were very few missed tackles and they got some pressure on MSU QBs Brian Lewerke and Rocky Lombardi.  The Spartans managed only two offensive drives of over 30 yards (resulting in their two field goals) and the Ohio State defense recorded three take aways and held MSU to a paltry 2 of 16 third down attempts.

            Next up is a trip to College Park to play a noon game against the Maryland Terrapins ,so the Buckeyes have one more week to fine-tune things before it’s all on the line verses Michigan.