Michigan State Football: 3 things that went wrong in loss to Rutgers

1. Turnovers

Take away even half of Michigan State’s turnovers and you can probably wipe 14-17 points off the board for Rutgers.

Let’s look at what happened.

Rocky Lombardi threw a pick on a miscommunication in the first half which gave the Scarlet Knights great field position and that led to a Rutgers touchdown and a 21-7 lead. Before that, when Rutgers was up 7-0, the Spartans fumbled at their own 1-yard line and then the Scarlet Knights scored on a touchdown run which took all four downs. That’s 14 points that could have been avoided.

Down 21-7, Michigan State was driving and had a 55-yard drive on 11 plays but fumbled it to forfeit any momentum and a possible momentum-changing score.

And then Michigan State turned it over on downs down 28-20 with a chance to kick a field goal and pull within five which ended up leading to a Rutgers field goal.

Not only did all of these turnovers (including one on downs) lead to great field position for the Scarlet Knights, but they also led to 17 points.

Michigan State beat itself on Saturday afternoon.