Michigan State Football: 5 overreactions from loss to Northwestern

After losing to Northwestern in Week 9, Michigan State football must bounce back to keep Big Ten title hopes alive. Let’s overreact accordingly.

It was a tough way to lose a game, as if there’s not tough ways to lose, as Michigan State fell to Northwestern in triple-overtime on Saturday night. It took a nice comeback drive late in the fourth quarter to tie things up, but ultimately, the Spartan defense didn’t have any stops left in them in overtime.

Moving forward, there’s plenty to learn from this defeat and the coaching staff will be working feverishly to get those mistakes corrected before Penn State comes to town Saturday afternoon.

Fans weren’t happy with the Spartans’ defensive showing, nor the offensive performance though three quarters, and they overreacted accordingly. Here are some major overreactions, some might be true, from Saturday’s loss.

5. Run game should be abandoned

Watching the run game crash and burn on Saturday was nothing short of infuriating for the coaching staff, players and fans. Just a couple games earlier, Michigan State had no problem picking up yardage on the ground and LJ Scott had 194 of his own in a win over Minnesota.

On Saturday, the Spartans could only muster 95 rushing yards on 30 carries which is about 3.2 per rush. That might not seem like enough to talk about completely abandoning the run (which won’t ever happen and obviously it shouldn’t), but Brian Lewerke accounted for 30 yards.

The running backs combined for 18 carries for 40 yards and no touchdowns. The team’s top two rushers were a quarterback and a receiver (Darrell Stewart Jr.). That’s unacceptable.

No, Michigan State should never abandon the run, but maybe make some changes in play-calling and mix things up to get the ground attack going. There’s too much talent being wasted back there.