Michigan State Football: 3 hot takes from win over Western Kentucky

Bend but don’t break. That’s been the theme of Michigan State football’s defense through five games and it paid major dividends against Western Kentucky’s vaunted passing offense on Saturday night.

The secondary allowed 488 passing yards but it didn’t matter because the Spartans were in control from start to finish, winning 48-31.

Michigan State is now 5-0 on the season and a lot of people who bet the over of 4.5 projected wins won some money on Saturday night.

Let’s dive into some hot takes from the win.

3. The defense actually followed the game plan

I know this is going to sound crazy, but Michigan State’s defense actually followed the game plan on Saturday night.

Going into the game, Scottie Hazelton knew his guys were going to be tested. He knew Michigan State was facing the top passing offense it’d see all year and Bailey Zappe was probably going to throw the ball 60-70 times and his guys did their job.

It may not seem like they did a great job because, well, they didn’t but they did enough to make sure the Hilltoppers didn’t cross the goal-line on multiple occasions, holding them to some field goals which allowed the Spartans to go down and score some touchdowns to take a commanding lead. This is what the defense was set out to do.

No one expected or planned for Michigan State to hold Western Kentucky under 200 passing yards, but making sure Zappe worked for his yardage and needed a ton of throws and took a ton of hits to get there was part of the plan.