Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from blowout win over Youngstown State

Much like the start against Northwestern, it didn’t take long for Michigan State football to get on the board against Youngstown State.

For the second straight week, the Spartans’ first play from scrimmage was a 75-yard touchdown, but this time it was Payton Thorne hitting his buddy Jayden Reed on a flea-flicker. The sophomore quarterback had a heck of a day and he set the tone early with this long touchdown pass to put the Youngstown State defense on alert.

Everyone was focused on Kenneth Walker III and he had a solid day, but it was Thorne and Reed who stole the show on Saturday with two long touchdown passes, a 75-yarder on the first play, and then an 85-yarder later in the first half.

Michigan State was up 35-7 at halftime and cruised to a second win of the year.

What’d we learn from this one?

3. Third and fourth-down defense remains questionable

Let’s start with the bad takeaway from a blowout win over Youngstown State and that was the fact that the third and fourth-down defense was relatively non-existent for the Spartans.

Is this a minor thing to nitpick about? Sure, but this is also something that needs to be corrected if Michigan State plans on contending in the Big Ten East this season. I could also make a note about the penalties which showed that this team was a little too sloppy, but the third and fourth-down defense was just not great.

Michigan State needs to make those clutch stops and they weren’t able to do so on Saturday afternoon, leading to a couple of Youngstown State scores.