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Michigan State Football: Report card for epic win over No. 6 Michigan

By Connor Muldowney

Michigan State's Kenneth Walker III avoids a tackle by Michigan's R.J. Moten during his touchdown run during the fourth quarter on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.211030 Msu Michigan 223a
Michigan State's Kenneth Walker III avoids a tackle by Michigan's R.J. Moten during his touchdown run during the fourth quarter on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.211030 Msu Michigan 223a /
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Michigan State football picked up its biggest win of the season on Saturday over No. 6 Michigan to improve to 8-0 on the year and there’s really no excuse that Wolverine fans can make about blowing a 16-point lead.

The “poor officiating” excuse is probably as mind-numbing to you as it is to me at this point and it’s time to move forward and really focus on the upcoming slate heading into bowl season.

Before we can do that, it’s always fun to grade the Spartans in their wins and Saturday’s victory over Michigan was a mixed bag. Parts of the offense looked great and others looked bad. Same goes for the defense.

Let’s see which position group received our highest grade from Saturday’s win.

Offensive Line: B

The offensive line pleasantly surprised me. The Spartans weren’t expected to hold up against a really good Michigan defensive line led by Aidan Hutchinson, but they did just that and even paved the way for Kenneth Walker III to have a huge day.

Walker III found big holes most of the game and was able to turn that into 197 yards and five touchdowns. The line really stepped up when it came to him needing room to run.

I would have liked to see Payton Thorne get more time to throw the ball, but Michigan drew up some solid blitz packages and Hutchinson is so good that he was living in the backfield for most of the day. There were also too many holding penalties that need to be addressed.

Michigan State’s offensive line held up outside of three sacks and three tackles for loss and Walker III has to be thankful for how well they blocked in the run game.

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