Michigan State Football: 5 takeaways from road win vs. Indiana in Week 4

Michigan State football knew it’d be tough, but the Spartans took care of business against Indiana in Bloomington on Saturday night.

A Week 4 road game in Bloomington had an eerily similar feel to the 2016 matchup between Michigan State and Indiana. In that one, the Hoosiers pulled off an upset over the Spartans in overtime, knocking the green and white out of the Top 25 for good.

Michigan State didn’t let that happen this time around as it went on to cover the spread, and then some. The Spartans were able to escape Bloomington with a 35-21 win and it probably could have been an even wider margin had they kept their foot on the gas instead of letting up in the fourth quarter — along with having costly turnovers.

Winning on the road in the Big Ten isn’t an easy task, though, but the Spartans got the job done and improved to 2-1 on the season and 1-0 in conference play.

What’d we learn about this team from the Week 4 win?

5. Pass rush is improving by the week

One major positive that may have been lost in the talk of the poor offensive performance was the push from the defensive line. The front-seven, actually, were on fire all game long against the run and in blitz packages against the pass.

Raequan Williams was a monster all game long as well as Mike Panasiuk, Kenny Willekes and Jacub Panasiuk. Jack Camper found himself in on some plays and Naquan Jones and Gerald Owens both looked strong, blowing up the middle of the offensive line.

Brandon Bouyer-Randle had a strong game getting after the quarterback, recording his first sack of the season and Andrew Dowell, too, looked like a menace in the pass rush.

It was one of those positive momentum games for the defensive line and the only way Peyton Ramsey was able to burn the Spartans was on quick 5-10 yard passes.

The line wasn’t allowing him to get set up for long throws down the field.