Michigan State Football: What worked and what didn’t against Purdue

Oct 3, 2015; East Lansing, MI, USA; Michigan State Spartans linebacker Riley Bullough (30) looks to the sidelines during the 2nd half of a game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Spartan Stadium. MSU won 24-21. Mandatory Credit: Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

Linebackers

Purdue has been able to pick apart MSU’s outside linebackers in years past, but Darien Harris and Jon Reschke held up well in this game. Harris was victimized on a wheel route that led to Purdue’s last touchdown, but was generally sound in pass coverage.

Harris did a better job of getting off of blocks on screen plays and flares and was good against the run, as well. He led the team with eight tackles including a tackle for loss.

What went well: Blitzing

Michigan State’s coaches wanted to get more out of their blitzes coming into the game. Blitzes are high risk/high reward affairs where you send more than they can block, but cover fewer than they send out. The linebackers blitzed much more effectively in this game.

They didn’t necessarily get home every time, as Jon Reschke was the only linebacker to record a sack — though defensive back Arjen Colquhoun also got a sack on a blitz — but they were able to get pressure enough pressure on the quarterback to force errant throws or flush him from the pocket. Riley Bullough was credited with three quarterback hurries and Chris Frey’s quarterback hurry resulted in an interception.

What didn’t: Stopping the run

Purdue had the one big 68-yard run, but even without that they would have run for 120 yards. Purdue was getting too many chunk plays with Markell Jones running for 5-plus yards on eight separate plays and four those went for more than 10 yards. Most of those runs came on inside run plays where there was some misdirection.

And even though some of this was discussed earlier with the defensive tackles getting beat, the linebackers still need to shed blocks and keep the yardage under five.

Next: Secondary