Michigan State Football: 5 takeaways from Week 13 victory over Rutgers

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PISCATAWAY, NJ – NOVEMBER 25: K.J. Gray #17 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights takes down LJ Scott #3 of the Michigan State Spartans during their game on November 25, 2017 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images) /

3. Run game still not where it should be

It’s hard to find negatives from the Spartans’ performance against the Scarlet Knights on Saturday night, but the fact that the Spartans weren’t able to open holes for big gashes against Rutgers was slightly concerning. Sure, the offensive line is young and has plenty of room to grow, but needs to pave the way for LJ Scott, Gerald Holmes and Madre London.

This has been a recurring issue all season long as the Spartans haven’t been able to consistently run the ball. They did well against Maryland last week and the Minnesota game early on in Big Ten play was a phenomenal showing, but the Spartans have yet to put together two straight great running games.

You might look at the stats and think that the line did a great job in run blocking, but 209 yards on 58 attempts isn’t ideal. That’s just 3.6 yards per carry when you want to average about 4.0 or more as a team.

It’s tough to be mad at the line or the running backs, especially since the play-calling was relatively vanilla. Running up the middle twice every three or four plays isn’t going to move the ball consistently down the field since the defense knows what’s coming.

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