Michigan State Football: 5 overreactions from upset win over Penn State

Michigan State football hosted Penn State in Week 10 and came away with an major upset. Now it’s time to completely overreact.

When do we stop doubting Mark Dantonio and Michigan State? Every season, it seems, the Spartans exceed expectations and prove just why Dantonio is one of the best coaches out there. He keeps a calm demeanor no matter what kind of doubt creeps in and just keeps winning.

The Spartans are now 7-2 in 2017 after going just 3-9 last year, with wins over No. 7 Penn State and No. 7 Michigan. Two big wins over teams that were considered Big Ten East favorites in 2017 have gone a long way as the Spartans are now tied for first in the conference with the Buckeyes before a showdown Saturday.

A win for Michigan State over Ohio State would put the Spartans in the driver’s seat in the division while a loss would likely make them second-place finishers — depending on the Buckeyes’ final two games.

Before we get into that, let’s take a look at five major overreactions from Saturday’s upset win over the Nittany Lions.

5. Secondary can’t hang with the big boys

For the second straight game, Michigan State’s secondary struggled. They couldn’t figure out how to slow down Trace McSorley as he went for 381 yards and three touchdowns. He was able to do what Northwestern did against the Spartans, outside of one 70-yard pass on a Josiah Scott slip, and that was dink and dunk them.

McSorley hit the flats and the crossing routes early and often. What made matters even worse was the fact that Michigan State wasn’t able to make tackles in open space as the Spartans looked like a fourth grade football team at times, just trying to wrap up, but failing miserably.

This is two bad games out of nine, so this is a complete overreaction. Penn State’s McSorley is one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten, if not the best. He’s been able to torch plenty of top defenses and Saturday was his third 300-yard game of the year.

Sure, the secondary has a ton of work to do after the past two showings, but there’s enough talent with guys like Khari Willis, David Dowell, Justin Layne and Josiah Scott to turn things around.