Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from nightmare loss at Iowa

Well, it wasn’t the outcome anyone wanted, but Michigan State football needs to burn the tape and move on. This Iowa loss was forgettable.

Well, that high from a win over Michigan didn’t last long, but not much is going to get Spartan fans down this season after beating their rivals on the road during a massive rebuild.

A blowout loss to Iowa wasn’t ideal, though.

Michigan State looked like it used all of its mojo last weekend against Michigan as it just didn’t have it against the Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium. Iowa controlled every aspect of the game from start to finish as the Spartans lost big to fall to 1-2.

What’d we learn from this nightmare?

3. Punt coverage is a massive liability

If you want to win games against decent teams or at least be competitive, you need good special teams play. On Saturday, Michigan State’s punt coverage unit was horrible. Actually, it’s been bad all season long as the field position battle has been a constant loss for the Spartans and Iowa really stuck it to the Spartans.

Iowa’s Charlie Jones had five punt returns in his career for 45 yards heading into Saturday’s game but he finished with five returns for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Right now, Bryce Baringer isn’t putting enough airtime under his punts and when he is, they’re awfully short. And when the coverage team does get down there, missed tackles were a major issue as Jones was shedding them left and right.

Special teams is a disaster right now, highlighted by the punt unit.