The Spartans got pounded by Ohio State yesterday 52-12 and it’s hard to find any bright spots, after all, Ohio State was missing 23 players, 3 starting Offensive Linemen as well as their Head Football Coach, and 3 assistant coaches.
And while the players are playing hard, yet this is the Big Ten and playing hard isn’t good enough.
Problematically, the Spartans aren’t playing clean, they are not playing error free. There is confusion on the football field and players are playing tentative and, good or bad, right or wrong, that falls upon coaching (or lack thereof).
Just one week ago, we thought the Spartans had discovered a recipe for success, including the fact the Spartans produced nearly 200 Rushing Yards vs Northwestern, and after the game, I posed the question, “…will the Spartans be able to handle success and sustain their new found success running the football?”.
The short answer is a resounding NO!!!
In the 1st Half vs Ohio State, the Spartans Rushing Offense produced a grand total of 12 Yards on 12 attempts, lost control of the Line of Scrimmage, while overall, the Offense had zero 3rd Down Conversions on 8 attempts, and committed two Turnovers by way of an Interception and a Fumble.
In turn, Ohio State rolled up 270 Yards of Offense in the 1st Half alone and the game was technically over at Half Time as Ohio State held a commanding 28-0 lead.
Overall, at the end of the day Ohio State posted a whopping 521 Yards Offensively, controlled the Line of Scrimmage and pounded out 322 Yards Rushing.
In turn, Defensively, Ohio State yielded a meager 81 Yards Rushing to the Spartans and the Spartans are now well on their way to compiling the worst Rushing statistics in the modern era of Spartan Football, dating back to 1950.
The players are playing hard, but in the Big Ten playing hard isn’t good enough, and most problematically the Coaching staff have no answers.
So, we have to ask the question: “why is this 2020 team failing to keep pace with the 2019 team that compiled a record of 7-6 including a bowl victory?”.
In every single “key” statistical category including Rushing Offense, Total Offense, Scoring Offense…Total Defense, Rushing Defense, Scoring Defense…and Turnovers, the 2020 team is statistically (and measurably) worse than the 2019 team and let’s be honest, attrition (ie graduation, transfer, etc) can’t account for the differential.
From another perspective, the Spartans are “dead last” in the Big Ten, Offensively, and #13 (out of 14) Defensively…and even the woeful teams of Muddy Water era performed better.
Now, one week prior to the final regular season game, the Spartans record is 2-4 and they will travel to State College to play a resurgent Penn State team, and that doesn’t bode well for the Spartans.
It would be fair to say, the Spartans are on a collision course to finish in a last place tie in the Big Ten East, and last place overall in the Big Ten.
At the bottom line…this isn’t working!
The Spartans Head Football Coach said after the game, “When I turn on the film, I’m gonna be sick,”…and let’s be truthful, Spartan stakeholders across the land will unanimously agree with the Head Coach, because the Spartans Coaching Staff needs to reassess every single aspect of their game plan Offensively, Defensively and Special Teams, because the current plan…isn’t working!
Thank you for reading, and I always welcome your comments and opinions.
