In a not-so-flashy way, consistent with the attitude of MSU coach Mark Dantonio, the Spartans moved to 4-0 Saturday with a win over the hapless, helpless Fightin' Irish. It wasn't pretty, but it was a win, and MSU continued to impress in small ways.
The scoreboard read 31-14 at the close of the game. That's the majority of the good news. The bad news? ND scored 2 offensive touchdowns, their only 2 on the year, and ran for 117 yards. Coming into the game ND had -14 rushing yards on the season. Despite these low points, the defense again carried the team.
The first ND touchdown came on a 3 play, 9 yard drive. Spartan QB Brian Hoyer fumbled the first MSU play from scrimmage on a bad exchange with the center. ND recovered on the 9 yard line and scored soon after.
The second ND touchdown came after a series of long draw play gains to end the half. To be fair, the defense really only gave up one touchdown on the day. It was a bit distressing to see ND run 3-4 straight draw plays for 15 yards each. However, after halftime adjustments by MSU, ND was shutout in the second half and the running game (which Weiss decided would consist of running the same plays that were effective in the first half over, and over, and over again) was shutdown. MSU continued to pressure the QB as well, adding 4 sacks on the day to bring the season total to 21, or 5 more than last year's season total. This was all while missing a starting corner and a starting safety. Not too shabby. And again, halftime adjustments that actually related to the game and lead to a second half advantage, an idea someone should have mentioned to Bobby Williams and John L. Smith.
The offense, well, yeah, the offense. The highlight reel is going to be lacking this week from the offensive side of the ball. Brian Hoyer, you sir are (still) no Drew Stanton. He hasn't started nearly as many games and he's not a scrambler, but he was supposed to be the accurate drop back passer Stanton was not. Well, Hoyer's not all that accurate. He's also not all that great.
In his defense the offensive line, again this year, is banged up. The Spartans are missing two starting linemen and have shifted the line around to find a workable solution. The running game has suffered more from the moves than the passing game. Hoyer often takes too much time and takes bad sacks. Saturday he lobbed a throw downfield into double coverage that was intercepted. The turnover hurt more than most because it came after the Spartans had put together a strong drive and were poised to put points on the board. It also was intercepted in the end zone.
Earlier in the game Hoyer missed a wide open received in the endzone throwing approximately 15 yards wide of him. It was a sure touchdown if thrown even remotely in the right area. Hoyer also missed a streaking Devin Thomas in the first quarter that had beaten his man by 5 yards. That play, also, was a certain touchdown since the safeties were cheating up on the run fake. Again, a bad, bad throw. At the end of the day his stat line look strong: 4 TD's passing, a career high. However, he also finished the game just 11 of 24 for 135 yards, with an interception and a fumble lost. I've seen better lines at the DMV.
The run game looked just ok. It is likely a reflection of the offensive line being banged up. It's probably somewhat related to Hoyer's Suckiness at throwing to keep the defense honest. Dantonio's famous "run first" mentality also helped the defense key in on the run. However, runs that were going for 2-3 yards early in the game wore the defense down and, by the 4th quarter, were going for 4-5 yards.
The highlight of the game was probably a play late after halftime that, until reading the paper this morning, had me faked out (along with 99% of viewers I'm sure). It was 4th down 2 yards to go and MSU decided to go for it, knowing the Irish offense was being it's sucky self and the MSU defense had been stout. Why not go for it (again, as they had on the previous set of downs, converting on a 4th and 1 with a 5 yard wrecking ball effort)? Hoyer drops back, fumbles the ball as he's taking his drop, picks it up and throws a perfect pass to a streaking tight end that went 35+ yards for a score. It looked like a fumble. He never dropped the ball. The "fumble-rooskie" has been in the playbook for months and, knowing the defense would crowd the line, the coaches decided to send the talented (see: freakish) TE deep. The fake fumble made the linebacker in coverage hesitate, and even if he ever realized it was a fake (which is unlikely) it was too late. The TE was 10 yards deep, alone, and the pass was perfect.
Charlie Weiss is still fat. He didn't cry, so that's good. His team is 0-4 and their upcoming schedule includes: Purdue, UCLA, Boston College, and USC. It is likely the Irish will be 0-8.
Michigan won. It's unfortunate that the BigTen is so bad that they could still win the conference. Mike Hart ran the ball around 45 times. I hope they continue to wear him out by overusing him.
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