Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from blowout loss to Indiana

2. The defense has actually been a bright spot

There’s only so much a defense can do when working with a short field for the entire first half. This unit was set up to fail from the beginning with three first-half turnovers by the Spartans but other than those three turnovers that led to points for Indiana, Michigan State’s defense wasn’t too shabby.

Yes, I understand that Michael Penix Jr. had a good game and Ty Fryfogle had a career day but other than that first half, the defense held its own.

In fact, it picked off Penix Jr. a couple of times and outside of one horrid play that led to a touchdown to make it 24-0 by Shakur Brown, I was impressed by the defense.

Sometimes you have to let one guy beat you in order to take care of the rest of the offense. The Spartans let Fryfogle have his game and didn’t let Penix get out of the pocket much. He threw for over 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns, but he wasn’t burning Michigan State defensive backs deep all game like everyone feared.

The defense didn’t get any help from the offense or special teams in this one. If Michigan State had an offense with a pulse, this may have been a game.