Michigan State Football: 3 implications of gritty win at Indiana

For the second time in Big Ten play, Michigan State football won a tight game and needed all 60 minutes to take down Indiana. The Spartans beat the Hoosiers on Saturday, 20-15, to improve to 7-0 on the year, heading into a monster battle with Michigan after a bye.

Before we look ahead to Michigan week, however, let’s take a look at some of the implications of the win over Indiana. Some things went right while the rest of the performance was disappointing. The offense was not great while the defense stole the show.

Let’s dive into some implications of the win to improve to 7-0.

3. The defense played its best game of the year

I don’t think it can be stressed enough just how solid the defense was on Saturday. Early on, it was playing the “bend but don’t break” strategy, but then it realized that it could lock the Hoosiers down and it did just that, holding Jack Tuttle to 188 yards on 52 attempts.

The run defense was also solid despite not completely shutting the Hoosiers down. They finished with 134 yards and a touchdown on 36 carries — good for just 3.7 per attempt.

We finally saw the secondary play some press coverage and they did well enough all game long to hold Tuttle in check and force him into some bad throws which led to a couple of timely interceptions. The pass looked as good as it has all year, breaking up eight passes and picking off two passes.

The line also got after the quarterback which led to one of the picks and they also had three quarterback hurries and three sacks with five tackles for loss.

The defense deserves some props for its effort at Indiana.