Michigan State Football: 5 biggest questions facing defense in 2019

The offense has plenty of question marks heading into the season, but Michigan State football’s defense, too, may have some concerns.

When your offense ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten and as one of the worst in the country, you better hope you have an elite defense to avoid a disastrous season. For Michigan State, it was lucky enough to have just that even though a mediocre offense essentially led to six losses in 2018.

If Michigan State had even an average offense, you could argue that the Spartans would have won 10-11 games seeing as they were in each of them until the offense accounted for a crucial turnover or just couldn’t respond to a score at the end of any game.

Looking back, every single game — yes, including Michigan and Ohio State — was winnable for the Spartans in 2018, but the ugly offensive showing led to those losses. They accounted for 94 total yards against the Wolverines despite being tied late in the third quarter and even led Ohio State in the third before a couple of costly turnovers deep in their own territory.

While the offense has plenty of question marks surrounding it heading into the season, the defense isn’t exactly immune to concerns.

The Spartans are losing All-Big Ten defensive backs Justin Layne and Khari Willis — the latter being a captain — and also an All-Big Ten candidate at linebacker in Andrew Dowell. Returning eight starters isn’t so bad, but there are still some questions worth asking.

Which areas of concern are drawing the most questions for the defense in 2019?