Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from blowout win over Maryland

Defense was still an issue for Michigan State football on Saturday evening as Taulia Tagovailoa threw for over 350 yards, but the Spartans found a way to win behind the arm of Payton Thorne and a second-half surge from Kenneth Walker III, 40-21.

With the win, Michigan State improves to 9-1 on the season and Maryland is 5-5, needing to win one of its final two games to make the postseason.

Michigan State has proven that it can win shootouts and it was nice to see the Spartans come out on the right side of one after losing to Purdue the week prior.

What did we learn from this Michigan State win?

3. The defense did not take necessary steps forward

I already know that people are going to look at the 21 points Maryland scored and just say that the defense did its job because it bent but didn’t break, but that can’t be enough anymore.

Michigan State’s defense got gashed far too much on Saturday evening and that’s not a great sign heading into Ohio State week. Michigan State is about to face the best quarterback it has seen all year in CJ Stroud and he’s pretty much 400-500 yards waiting to happen against this defense.

The worst instance of getting gashed happened right before halftime when the Terrapins went down 27-7 and then scored less than a minute later, going 80 yards in a few plays. They had another drive for a touchdown that lasted less than a minute in the second half and Taulia Tagovailoa’s slow start didn’t much matter as he finished with 350 yards and two touchdowns.

The worst pass defense in college football didn’t look much improved from last week.