Michigan State Football: 5 complete overreactions from Arizona State loss

4. There’s no bright spot in the defensive backfield

If you weren’t able to stay up for the game and just looked at the box score the next morning, this overreaction might seem warranted. I’m here to tell you that the 380 yards through the air were not all bad.

That might seem crazy, I know. Michigan State allowed Manny Wilkins to complete 30 passes for nearly 400 yards, but there were actually a couple of bright spots in the defensive backfield.

One was safety Matt Morrissey. Though he looked lost at times, he finished with a crucial first-half interception and had some big hits, including a smack that lit up N’Keal Harry over the middle of the field. He still has some work to do if he wants to remain in that regular rotation.

Justin Layne was impressive actually. He was tasked with defending the best player on the Sun Devils’ offense: Harry. He held him under 70 yards through three-plus quarters, but a one-on-one jump ball to Harry in the fourth quarter put him over 100 on the game. Layne played well and deserves some credit for holding his own.

On the other side at cornerback, Josh Butler also looked solid. He wasn’t burned deep and made some nice plays in coverage. He proved himself worthy of starting snaps in place of Josiah Scott.

The two guys who fueled this overreaction were Khari Willis and David Dowell. They had arguably their worst career games at the same time and it turned into a disaster for the Spartans. They fell asleep a couple of times and failed at locating the ball, missing some easy interceptions from Wilkins. They need to wake up for Big Ten play in two weeks.