Michigan State Football: 5 takeaways from loss to Ohio State in Week 11

Michigan State football lost a tough one on Saturday at the hands of the Ohio State Buckeyes and here’s what we learned.

Is it time to move on from the Ohio State loss? Yes, but first, Michigan State must learn from what happened against the Buckeyes in Columbus. It was the worst loss in the Mark Dantonio era and it’s hard to believe those two teams were playing for a Big Ten East title with only one showing up.

The Spartans seemingly left their minds in East Lansing as the Buckeyes demolished them to the tune of 48-3. It wasn’t pretty and it was arguably a long trip home, but the Spartans will learn.

Michigan State gets Maryland in Week 12, but before we can even look at that one, it’s time to go over what we learned from the loss to the Buckeyes.

Here’s what we learned from Michigan State’s blowout loss to Ohio State in Week 11.

5. Can’t win without run game

It was one of those games you’d like to forget. Michigan State just couldn’t get anything going offensively and the defense was getting gashed on each and every play. In fact, Ohio State’s ground game rushed for over 330 yards and averaged 8.0 yards per touch on the day.

That’s how you win ball games.

For Michigan State, though, the ground game fell silent after the opening drive. LJ Scott had a 20-yard run early on which looked to set up a solid first drive, but that was the only run that worked all day long. He finished with 30 yards on just eight carries while the team accounted for 64 yards on 34 touches. Can’t win games like that.

Michigan State is finding it difficult to hang with teams, or even pull away, without a strong run game. We saw what an adequate rushing attack can do for the Spartans as they gashed Minnesota and held a 23-6 lead through the third quarter of that one before the defense fell apart.

Moral of the story is you can’t win big games without the run. Michigan State proved that Saturday.