Michigan State Football: 3 hot takes from crushing loss at Iowa

Losing at Kinnick Stadium is nothing new for Michigan State football, but the fashion the Spartans lost on Saturday was disheartening.

Iowa scored first and then it scored again and again and it was 35-0 before the Spartans could even blink. The two teams were having opposite luck on Saturday as the Hawkeyes were catching tipped passes for first downs and picking off Rocky Lombardi throws left and right. Michigan State, on the other hand, needed a former punter-turned-tight end to score the lone touchdown.

Things were not pretty for Michigan State on Saturday afternoon in Iowa City and a lot of the blame can fall on the execution rather than the preparation. Or you could blame both.

Michigan State’s defense couldn’t stop anything early in the game as the Hawkeyes began play with back-to-back 70-plus yard drives for touchdowns to make it 14-0 easily while the Spartan defense was still trying to catch its breath. A few more bounces Iowa’s way before halftime and the game was out of reach in 30 minutes of play.

Rocky Lombardi had his worst game of the season, throwing three interceptions and zero touchdown passes. He completed under 50 percent of his throws and was hobbling around for the latter part of the contest.

The defense seemed to figure things out after the first couple of drives but it still wasn’t the same unit without a healthy Antjuan Simmons.

Not much went right for the Spartans, and now the hot takes come in to play.