Michigan State football should be concerned after Central Michigan win

Michigan State football should be slightly concerned after a dominating performance turned into a slim victory over Central Michigan.

It wasn’t pretty. I’m getting used to leading off post-game pieces with that exact phrase, but it continues to be true for Michigan State as the Spartans squandered a comfortable 31-3 second-half lead by allowing Central Michigan to end the game on a 17-0 run.

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Both the offense and the defense had mental lapses, but the latter had the better overall game. The Spartans held the Chips’ run game in check outside of quarterback Tommy Lazzaro, but a few lapses by the secondary led to some big throws by the starter in his second game under center.

Should we be concerned about this slim win for the Spartans?

In my opinion, yes. While I don’t think Michigan State is only 11 points better than Central as a late rally made this one look much closer than it really was, but the lack of a killer instinct as well as a lackluster run game should be more than concerning. This team seems to be OK with allowing teams to get back into games late in the second half, forcing MSU to sweat out the easiest of victories.

Michigan State has the talent, it has the players and it has one of the best head coaches in college football, but the execution and inability to close out games should be concerning heading into Big Ten play.

While this could just be another instance of Michigan State starting the season off slowly — it usually does — but the Spartans are just lacking that “put the foot on the throat” mentality, and that’s a problem.

Michigan State allowed just 245 total yards, but this game should have been much more comfortable, and it wasn’t. It’s time to dig deep and figure out an identity. What the Spartans are right now won’t work as potential Big Ten contenders.