Michigan State Football: 5 takeaways from last-second loss to Arizona State

Michigan State football traveled to the desert on Saturday night, held the lead for three quarters and lost in the last second. What did we learn?

Just like last week’s victory over Utah State used the ‘a win’s a win’ mantra, this week’s close loss shouldn’t make anyone feel better as it still counts the same as a blowout defeat.

Michigan State didn’t play its best game, by any means, and the Spartans were out-scored 13-0 in the fourth quarter after holding Arizona State to just three points through the first three frames. It was a tough defeat, but one that could have been avoided if the coaching staff did what it was supposed to do and called timeouts at the right time as well as non-conservative play calls.

Mark Dantonio and the staff deserve plenty of blame for this loss because it was a victory in the Spartans’ hands heading into the fourth and they had to do everything in their power to lose — and they did.

Here are our five takeaways from the Spartans’ loss to the Sun Devils.

5. The safeties were lost all game long

There’s only so much a defense can do to keep a team in the game when the offense can’t seem to come away with touchdowns in the red zone, but the safeties were letting the entire unit down.

The defensive backfield as a whole played decent on Saturday, but like against Utah State, the backs were fine with allowing 5-10 yard passes from Manny Wilkins and he took full advantage all game long.

A positive had to be Justin Layne’s play on N’Keal Harry minus a pass interference call and the touchdown in one-on-one coverage in the fourth quarter, but the junior corner held his own. On the other side, Josh Butler also played well in place of Josiah Scott. He didn’t get beat and seemed to be step-for-step with his receiver for most of the game. Long balls were overthrown but rarely open.

The real problems were Khari Willis and David Dowell. They couldn’t seem to read the plays correctly and were both out of place on multiple occasions, failing to locate the ball.

A few times, Wilkins threw the ball into coverage which should have been an easy pick for the safeties, but they didn’t look up in time and it sailed by their domes. The safeties were the downfall of the defense.