Michigan State Football: Report card from Week 6 road win against Rutgers

Another big win is in the books for Michigan State football as the Spartans bounced back from a rough start to take a 21-13 lead into halftime.

After that, it was all Spartans, shutting the door on the Scarlet Knights in the second half, leading to a 31-13 road win and exacting revenge after last year’s forgettable loss. Mel Tucker recorded his first win over Greg Schiano and his offense put up nearly 600 yards, but it still wasn’t a complete performance.

Which position group received the highest grade in the win?

Offensive Line: B-

I continue to be impressed with Michigan State’s pass-blocking as the offensive line kept Payton Thorne upright for the third time in the last five games.

In fact, this was the second straight game that the Spartans didn’t allow a single sack.

But pass-blocking is only half the battle. The run-blocking has been pretty poor this year and Kenneth Walker III has had to manufacture a lot of yards on his own. He did break 200 yards for the second time this season and averaged 8.0 yards per carry, so the run-blocking wasn’t awful, but there were too many instances where he was hit in the backfield. Rutgers finished with seven tackles for loss on the day.

If the pass-blocking catches up to the run-blocking, this offensive line is going to be dangerous and Walker III is going to run away with the Heisman Trophy.