Saturday night was a pivotal moment for Spartan Football: it was incumbent upon the entire football team to make a statement if they were going to be Championship contenders, or a Championship pretender.
All eyes were on the Offense to determine if the coaching realignment was a meaningful organizational change, or merely window dressing. We knew the Spartans had an elite Defense, elite Punting and elite Field Goal units, but the big question was “what is the identity of the Offense and are they Championship caliber?”
That question was answered, and It appears the Spartans passed the test. While it’s early in the season, and while Western Michigan is not a Top 25 opponent, nevertheless the Spartans comported themselves as a Championship contender.
In the span of 4 plays and a minute and 34 seconds, the Offense went 73 Yards to score with 13:26 remaining in the 1st Qtr, and in that span the Offense went from pathetic to robust. The Spartans went on to score 6 Touchdowns and 51 points in an efficient Offensive display, by way of posting 21-10-6-and 14 points by Qtr.
Given the Offensive woes of 2018 and given the anemic production in the first game vs Tulsa, I offered up some Offensive measurables to track, such as 200 Yards Passing…150 Yards Rushing…and Zero Turnovers, and other than committing 2 Turnovers, the Spartans Offense blew out those numbers. They posted a total of 582 Yards of total Offense:
- 331 Yards Passing
- 251 Yards Rushing
Overall, it was a nice Offensive blend of Tempo, Balance, Ball Control, efficiency and minimum unforced errors: the Spartans only punted once and most importantly the Spartans were assessed just 2 penalties for 20 Yards, compared to an incredible 14 penalties for 122 Yards in their opening game! Clearly their heads were in the game.
There were plenty of contributors: 5 Running Backs and 7 Receivers were in the Offensive mix, and that doesn’t include Lewerke. Last week of course, Lewerke was forced into action as the 2nd leading ball carrier with 7 carries for 34 Yards when the Offensive Line broke down, yet Saturday night Lewerke only carried the football once for a single yard inasmuch as the Offensive Line was controlling the Line of Scrimmage and giving Running Backs plenty of gaps and daylight to run through. To put that into perspective, highly regarded yet little used Elijah Collins had 17 attempts for 192 Yards for an incredible 11.3 Yards per attempt.
As a reminder, last week the Offense posted just 108 Yards Rushing (a meager 68 Yards by Spartan Running Backs) and all in, 6 different players had Rushing attempts for just 2.7 Yards per carry. Yet last night, the Offense rolled up a robust 251 Yards Rushing for an average of 7.4 Yards per attempt.
In terms of efficiency, the Spartans converted an impressive 7 of 10, 3rd Down conversion attempts (70%).
And give Matt Coghlin his due for his Championship caliber Field Goal contributions. Last night he was perfect 3 for 3, and so far on the season, Matt Coghlin is a perfect 7 for 7. Needless to say, Coghlin’s skills will become more valuable as the Big Ten season commences and competition increases.
Defense keeps WMU in check:
The Defense continued their Championship caliber contributions by way of controlling the Line of Scrimmage. They yielded just 67 Yards Rushing to WMU, and limited WMU to 5 of 16, 3rd Down conversion attempts, of just 31% efficiency. Moreover, the Defense discombobulated WMU by posting 3 Sack’s, 3 Tackles for Loss and 3 Turnovers (including 2 Interceptions & 1 Fumble).
At the bottom line:
There is no certainty that all of the Offensive problems have been fixed, yet if we are measuring fundamentals and making assessments regarding Championship possibilities, then the Offense looked purposeful and efficient, and given the Elite contributions of the Defense, Punting and Field Goal units, the Spartans are in an enviable position to control their destiny!
Tomorrow we’ll look at Michigan, the great pretender:
Michigan had more points on the scoreboard than Army yesterday, but when it was all said and done it took Michigan two OT’s to beat the undersized Cadets, and by every measure, Army controlled the game and won the “street fight”. Give credit to the Cadets of West Point, but give Michigan credit for being the great Pretender! We’ll uncover more tomorrow!
