Michigan State Football: 5 reasons Spartans will handle Central Michigan

Michigan State football hosts Central Michigan on Saturday afternoon and here’s why the Spartans will take down the Chippewas.

Ah, the first day game of the season and it comes against the team that pulled off the incredible upset of Michigan State in East Lansing back in 2009.

Mark Dantonio has made it his mission to credit the Chippewas for being an in-state “rival” by touting them as a tough team that always gives Michigan State a good battle. The Spartans won’t be overlooking any game against the Chippewas thanks to that 2009 shocker, but this should be a game in which Michigan State wins comfortably.

Will the Spartans take care of business against the Chippewas? I’m going with a resounding yes, and here are five reasons they’ll handle their business and gain momentum heading into Northwestern week.

5. Run defense will dominate CMU

What else can we say about the run defense? It’s clearly one of the best the nation has to offer, holding its first three opponents to under 100 yards — combined — but it’ll need to stay focused against Central even though the Chippewas have one of the nation’s worst rushing attacks.

In fact, the Chips have two rushers with over 100 yards, four with over 80 and none of them average more than 3.8 yards per touch. That’s something that will doom them against Michigan State as the Spartans have allowed a measly 0.9 yards per attempt on the season.

That incredible stat will be put to the test against the Chips as Jonathan Ward, Kumehnnu Gwilly and the two rushing quarterbacks will fail to break the 50-yard mark, proving the Spartan run defense worthy of that No. 1 national ranking.