MSU Red Cedar Message Board

Our front 4 will dominate, thus minimizing our need to blitz. 3rd and long situations will make me nervous if we switch packages. Id still be more worried about his legs than his arm.

I get the impression most MSU fans have no idea how bad OSU was offensively. Stay tuned

And yet they put up 24 on a Nebraska defense that was said to be arguably one of the best in the Big Ten, with potential All-Americans on all 3 levels of their defense and 2 potential 2012 first round draft picks.

Agree. Really like Gholstons play against OSU. He's getting better.

Also think Bullough will make some key plays. I recognize that if Shoelace gets a head of steam, he'll whiz on by Bullough. But Bullough is smart, strong, and deceptively fast. And he can deliver a solid hit. I'll go on record predicting Bullough will have at least one, maybe two sacks this game.

I assume you're a Nebraska fan?

I can totally understand why people would discount our pass D against tOSU. True frosh dual threats are not good options, and Bauserman may be the worst passer in the conference. On the season, MSU really limited Notre Dame's passing attack, which is among the best in the nation. They were averaging 353 yards/game through the air and over 8 yards a completion. They got out of our game with 161 yards passing and 6.2 yards per attempt. I think our pass D is pretty legit.

What I can't understand is how people can discount our run defense against Ohio State. That was a team that came in averaging around 184 yards/game on the ground. MSU held them to 35 yards.

On 39 carries.

That's 0.9 yards per attempt.

That's legit run defense right there.

If I recall last year, UM actually ran the ball very well... until they got into the red zone where shoelaces made some bad decisions. MSU's run D is better this year but what I worry about is the quickness of shoelaces. I think he can out-quick and get away from most DLinemen and most LBs.

Plus, remember, MSU's LBs are young too and scUM runs those misdirection plays where laces reads the reaction to a possible hand off to a RB and then squirts (yes I said squirts.... ) the other way. Will MSU's young LBs over pursue on the fake ? Last year, Greg and Eric did not and laces was held in check. I think Allen and Bullough grew up a lot against O$U.

As far as MSU's offense, 100+ yards and 1-2 TDs for both Baker and Bell and scUM's DL is totally worn out by the end of the 3rd quarter. BJ catches 9 balls and a TD. scUM's defense actually does appear to be better. It looks like they actually know what a tackle is whereas last year I'm sure they thought they'd catch the clap if they made a tackle. I'm disregarding the shutout against Minny because that just shows what a train wreck Minny is this year.

Nebraska has proven to be weak on defense. They have not stopped anyone, so I wouldnt base much on the points OSU scored against them. You are reaching a bit.

I agree that we're not the #1 overall D in the nation, but if we're not the #1 overall D in the nation, than UM isn't "really" the #39 D either. I'm fine with MSU dropping from #1 to #10 or something like that (not from 1 game), but can UM really afford to drop for 39th nationally?

You allow 348 yards/game against the weakest portion of your schedule. As I've said before, you're going either going to start giving up more points, or fewer yards. You have a yard/point given up stat of 26.77, which is better than any team has ever been since 2004. The closest was Nebraska in 2009 with Suh (26.1), and 2nd best in the Big 10 is around 22.5 yards/point. We're talking defenses that allowed under 15 points/game on the year here, and under 300 yards/game as well. I doubt UM approaches those #s.

In short, your defense cannot continue to give up yards at its current rate without a corresponding increase in points allowed. I find your red zone defense is mostly predicated off of turnovers; you allow opponents into the RZ a bit over 3 times a game, but opponents are only converting on 56% of those opportunities (9/16). The biggest culprit was Notre Dame going 1/5 in the RZ, with 4 RZ TOs.

MSU, in contrast is giving up 80% RZ conversion, but that's because we've given up 4 scores in 5 total RZ opportunities allowed. Think about that, MSU allows opponents in the RZ just 1 once a game.

I'll gladly take UofM having 1 RZ opportunity and converting into points, if it means that MSU gets at least 3 such opportunities in return.

Michigan has played W. Michigan, SDSU, ND and NW which all have good offenses, in fact I would say all have better offenses than MSU. MSU's failure to run the ball with talented running backs is uncomfortable for you guys but why so you think all of a sudden the running game will click? Its easy to gloss over what has been a huge weakness on the offensive line.
I agree MSU has a good defense, just not great.

scum is all about big plays - we stopped them last year. We do it again - we win.

And my point is that a mediocre run defense can breath life into a mediocre running offense.

Also, the offensive line play this season has not been static. It's not as though the same mistakes that were made in the first few games have been present in the last 2, especially the holding and false start penalties.

Before MSU went "turtle" against tOSU, our RBs were averaging over 4 yards/carry against them. That's not "awesome", but it's respectable.

My issue with UofM fans talking about our run game is that you're talking a lot more about how bad our run game is instead of how good your D is. You're right that MSU has talented RBs, and if your front 7 isn't up to snuff, who's to say that they can't break a big one through one of the few holes that the OL will open up?

As I said, our OL started out at its floor (3 new starters, injury to one of them in game 3). Essentially, I have a hard time believing that the O-line will regress. They played a solid game against tOSU; not dominant, but I'd say they held their own. The same effort should produce better results against UofM, agree? And if the O-line has improved between tOSU game and the UofM game, shouldn't that amplify the effect?

I'm not saying MSU will run for 250 yards on 36 carries. I'm saying that we have a very good chance at a respectable showing on the ground.

Fair enough.
UM =257/game and 6.3 YPC
As a football fan I place a huge emphasis on running the football and if the numbers were reversed I would be very concerned. Enough talk though, im ready for some football!

Considering you run neither a pass-based spread, or a 3-4, I'd say both teams results against ND are irrelevant.

And for the record, I'd call 4 red zone turnovers by ND, along with a hail mary completion with 30 seconds to go "lucky".

When an opponent coughs the ball up 5 times in game and you only win because of a busted coverage at the very end of the 4th Q, do you REALLY want to brag about that game?