Michigan State Football: Offensive outburst vs. WMU is just what Spartans needed

After an offensive nightmare in the season opener, Michigan State football turned things around and put up 51 points on Western Michigan.

After a dreaded Week 1 showing, the Spartans went into the Western Michigan contest looking to improve in many facets of the game. Their defense looked good but the offense did not. They needed to re-evaluate their offense and look at how they could improve.

They did just this and the Spartan offense shined the brightest in Week 2.

Mark Dantonio in his press conference last week said, “I can say this, football is a game of effort, toughness and knowing what to do. Half of our team figured that out, half of them didn’t. We will make sure that other half gets it figured out this week.”

When Dantonio said this, he was sending a message to his players involving their lack of effort and toughness. The offense took this message and ran with it which is exactly what fans wanted to see.

Starting with the offensive line, they did much better up front. They won the battle at the line. They were able to create open holes for the running back, Eli Collins. They were able to keep Brian Lewerke safe and give him time in order to find the open receivers down the field. These guys can always continue to improve but they got better this week which shows they have potential in making the Spartans a Big Ten contender which they were made to be.

Lewerke is next. He improved so much this week as well. Last week, he was throwing some wild passes over-throwing and under-throwing his receivers. This week, he dialed it in, stepped into his passes and put many of them on the money and left it up to his receivers. Lewerke was also able sense when the pocket was collapsing and was mobile enough to keep the play alive with his feet. He had some impressive stats with completing 23-for-32 with 314 yards and three touchdowns but did have an interception.

The senior captain was carrying out his fakes nicely and waiting for the defense to crash to the running back before pulling back and slinging it down the field. One mistake Lewerke had is a rushed throw resulting in an interception. The biggest weakness in this game is thinking he has to make something out of nothing on every rushed play. He can just throw those balls out of bounds and regrouping next play.

Overall, Lewerke showed what he was capable of and will continue to get better throughout the season as they Spartans continue to have a balanced attack and a line of protection.

Collins has taken over the backfield. It is safe to say that Eli’s performance showed the coaches that he is capable of being the lead back for the time being. He’s a redshirt freshman and showed the vision of finding the holes and he showed the patience of waiting for the lanes to develop and keeping his feet moving — he carried the ball 17 times for 192 yards. Watching the tandem of Collins and Jefferson on Saturday took me back to when Javon Ringer and Jehuu Caulcrick back in 2007 when the former slashed everyone for yards and the latter came in to bang into the endzone.

Collins has a high ceiling and will continue to develop into one of the best running backs in the Big Ten this season and one of the best in the nation in future seasons.

Wide receivers were getting involved all around the field; Lewerke spread the ball around to seven different receivers. Even getting the ball to seven different guys, it appears that the connection between Lewerke and Darrell Stewart Jr. is growing into a go-to type relationship. Stewart had 10 receptions for 182 yards and a touchdown. He was looked at for when the Spartans needed a third down conversion and also long gains down the field.

Cody White was next in line as he had five receptions for 63 yards. If Stewart is having an off game then White will be there to step up and take over the bulk of the receptions. He appeared to have the connection last year, so he has the ability to bring that back and be the 1B receiver to Stewart’s 1A.

The offense was rolling for the Spartans on Saturday. Will they be able to maintain this throughout the season as the opponents getting tougher? The Western Michigan defenders were letting the wide outs do whatever they wanted. This won’t happen when MSU starts to play opponents like Michigan or Penn State. The receivers will get jammed early so how will they fight through that contact is something to look for in these next couple of weeks.

For now, though, we celebrate for the great game the Spartan offense had on Saturday.

Next up: MSU plays Arizona St at 4:00 p.m. ET at Spartan Stadium on Sept. 14.