Michigan State football: What went wrong in first 2021 loss at Purdue?

Well, Michigan State football was handed its first loss. The Spartans are 8-1 on the season and in a tie for second place in the Big Ten East.

All week, Michigan State wasn’t playing into Purdue’s upset narrative. The Boilermakers have the most top-five wins in FBS history, with 17. This is their second top-five upset this season, with their first against No. 2 Iowa back in October.

If Michigan State played as it did against Michigan last week, no chance Purdue pulls off the upset. From the first second of the game, the Spartans did everything they said they weren’t going to do.

Where did it go wrong for Michigan State football?

Michigan State’s struggles can be summed up into three areas: a broken defense, bad playcalling, and too many penalties. The contrast from previous weeks is that the Spartans did not struggle with playcalling before. This was also the first time this year that anyone has seen Michigan State be “out” of a game. From the third quarter on, this game didn’t seem manageable.

Several factors contributed to lost momentum, such as a controversial targeting call against defensive tackle Simeon Barrow, that got him ejected from the game. Michigan State’s first targeting penalty of the year was against linebacker Cal Halladay. This was the second.

Since the call against Barrow occurred in the second half of today’s game against Purdue, he’ll be out for the first half of the game against Maryland next week.

Let’s go over the obvious issues for Michigan State. Starting with their penalty situation.