Michigan State football: 3 things to work on before facing No. 6 Michigan

3. Penalties should be the top focus

Michigan State is tied for 108th in FBS in penalties per game. Mel Tucker can talk about how he has these guys playing for a lot like they’re part of a team, but it hasn’t been clean football.

Indiana isn’t a bad team. Its schedule has been brutal with four losses, each to a ranked opponent. Michigan State was still able to walk out with a win, despite having a rough first half and relying on defense. They had 12 penalties in this game.

Payton Thorne, Kenneth Walker III, and the rest of Michigan State’s offense weren’t able to rely on explosive plays simply because they made too many mistakes and committed too many penalties.

This wasn’t an outlier either. In each game, an undisciplined Spartan team has taken the field. It stops here. The first half was filled with penalties. Without the interception touchdown by Cal Halladay, Michigan State would’ve lost.

On the Spartans’ third drive against Indiana, they had -14 yards: a false start by Connor Heyward, Thorne was sacked for a loss of 11 yards, and a holding call. Drive over. On the next drive, they committed an illegal formation penalty on fourth down, giving Indiana valuable field position in a game where Michigan State was only up by one.

The types of penalties that Michigan State is committing are embarrassing. Most of them are holding, offsides, or false starts. Or illegal formation. Not pass interference. Their corners and secondary have been able to keep it clean.

This should not be acceptable. If we are going to hang Jim Harbaugh for penalties in previous years, we should hold Sparty to the same standard. They kill drives and will lose games.