Michigan State Football: 5 takeaways from rout of Maryland in Week 10

Michigan State football went on the road and took care of a distracted Maryland team on Saturday afternoon. What’d we learn from the 24-3 win?

Maryland didn’t stand much of a chance against Michigan State’s vaunted defense on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans dominated, holding the Terrapins to three points — only achieved because of a short drive with good field position — and just 100 total yards.

Mark Dantonio’s team is now bowl eligible for the 11th time in 12 years and Michigan State reached its 700th win as a program.

The Terrapins, on the other hand, remain reeling and looking for answers. They might be just one win away from a bowl berth, but if the home crowd continues to avoid College Park and the team looks distracted moving forward, this team, and program, could be in trouble.

What’d we learn from the Spartans’ dominant win over Maryland?

5. Field position battle will be a struggle from here on out

With Jake Hartbarger going down with an injury against Arizona State and backup Tyler Hunt suffering a season-ending injury prior to the Purdue game, the Spartans knew they’d have to rely on a kid who wasn’t even on the team to begin the season.

Bryce Baringer, a former Illinois commit who joined the team after Hartbarger’s injury, took the reins last week and got the start at punter yet again versus Maryland, and didn’t play well — to say the least. Sure, he had some decent punts, but he struggled to place the ball. He had two punts inside the 20, but another was a 52-yard punt out of the back of the end zone where it didn’t seem like he had awareness of the distance to the goal-line — he was just trying to boot it.

The walk-on had a punt of eight yards and another of 16, killing the Spartans in the battle for field position while Maryland’s Wade Lees was placing the ball perfectly each time.

The field position battle may be a struggle from this point on with the third-stringer struggling.