Michigan State Football: 5 reasons the Spartans can beat Michigan

By Adam Zdroik | Oct 5, 2017

EAST LANSING, MI - OCTOBER 25: Marcus Rush #44 of the Michigan State Spartans and teammate Connor Kruse #54 celebrate a win over the Michigan Wolverines and carry off the Paul Paul Bunyan trophy at Spartan Stadium on October 25 , 2014 in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans defeated the Wolverines 35-11 (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) /

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EAST LANSING, MI – SEPTEMBER 30: Linebacker Chris Frey #23 of the Michigan State Spartans celebrates after recovering a fumble by wide receiver Brandon Smith of the Iowa Hawkeyes and returning it 11 yards during the third quarter at Spartan Stadium on September 30, 2017 in East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State defeated Iowa 17-7. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images) /

3. Michigan State’s defense is pretty good

Michigan State may not have as good of defense as Michigan’s, but it’s not far behind and this will be the toughest group that the Wolverines’ offense has faced this season. It can be argued that Florida has a better defense than MSU’s, but the Gators have since given up at least 20 points to three mediocre offenses.

The numbers speak for themselves for the Spartans. They’ve clamped down on three teams (Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Iowa) that all have similar capabilities to the Michigan offense. The Hawkeyes had success running the ball on Penn State a couple weeks ago, but then managed only 19 yards on 25 carries against the Spartans.

And while Michigan State allowed 38 points to Notre Dame, a lot of that was due to offensive turnovers. Michigan State held the Irish to their fewest amount of yards thus far in the season, limiting them to 4.6 yards per carry and Brandon Wimbush only had 173 yards through the air.

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