Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from massive win over No. 6 Michigan

Have you caught your breath yet? Michigan State football played in one of the wildest games in the past decade as the Spartans overcame a 30-14 deficit in the second half to down No. 6 Michigan 37-33.

Kenneth Walker III had his best game of the season, rushing for 197 yards and five touchdowns as he had his Heisman moment in front of the loudest crowd he’s ever showed out for. He remained humble after the game, saying it was a team win and he didn’t feel like it was a Heisman moment.

Mel Tucker, too, deserves a ton of credit for keeping his team calm and collected while down 16 in the second half and they out-toughed the Wolverines down the stretch.

What did we learn from Tucker’s second win over Michigan?

3. Defense forced timely turnovers

Say what you want about the defense, but it stepped up when it really mattered. Cade McNamara had a huge game and was arguably the reason Michigan was in the game but the defense shut him down on the final two drives to secure the win.

On his second to last drive, McNamara made a bad throw into traffic on fourth down and when he got the ball back, Charles Brantley picked him off on a beautiful play to end the game.

Before that, the defense jumped on a fumble by JJ McCarthy on a botched handoff. Jacub Panasiuk was in the right place at the right time and changed the momentum of the game with the recover just a drive or two after Quavaris Crouch failed to jump on a McCarthy fumble.

The defense gave up a ton of yards and that needs to be addressed before the Purdue game, but the timely turnovers made up for it.