Michigan State football out-coached in heartbreaking Arizona State loss
Michigan State football suffered a tough loss at the hands of Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz., on Saturday night thanks to being out-coached.
The score was 13-3. Michigan State was in control of the game through three quarters and all it needed to do was score maybe one more touchdown in the fourth quarter against an average defense to steal a win from Arizona State on the road, but the Spartans couldn’t muster anything.
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Not only did Michigan State completely implode in the final 15 minutes, it did so in avoidable fashion.
The coaching staff refused to take risks like it did at the end of the third quarter to give the Spartans their first touchdown of the game and that led to an ugly last-second defeat in the desert against a rebuilding Arizona State team.
Connor Heyward looked like an x-factor early in the game and was making strong run after strong run, but the staff veered away from getting him the ball.
Jet-sweeps to the short side of the field took over in the fourth quarter along with quarterback keepers and short passes for little to no gain. It was safe play-calling with a 10-point lead which led to a few punts and Arizona State getting three opportunities to score and taking advantage of each of them.
The lead was trimmed to 13-6 and the Spartans still had to feel good about the offense going down and scoring again to extend it to two scores. It didn’t happen.
With the score tied and Arizona State driving with under five minutes left, the staff completely mismanaged the clock. Part of it was a missed call on a ruled first down which cost the Spartans big time off the clock, but it was also Mark Dantonio calling a timeout instead of saving it.
Give it up to Arizona State, it played well and made the correct adjustments as the players bought into Herm Edwards’ system, but Michigan State’s staff needed this wake-up call.
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The Spartans were out-coached on Saturday night and the Big Ten is now 0-10 in Tempe.