Michigan State Football: 3 takeaways from pull-away win over WMU

It wasn’t pretty but Michigan State football came away with season-opening win over Western Michigan. What’d we learn from this one?

Taking the field for the first time since December 2021, Michigan State football reunited fans in Spartan Stadium once again for the season opener, looking for a 13th straight win to begin the year — a conference record. The Spartans have now won 23 of the last 24 season openers.

Getting the season kicked off on the right foot is huge for confidence, but it was a sloppy game that led to the opening win over Western Michigan.

Payton Thorne looked a little off, the defense struggled in the third quarter, and the play-calling was vanilla, at best.

What did we learn from the 35-13 pull-away win over WMU?

3. We learned very little about the defense

I wish I could say that the defense answered all the questions I had going into the game, but thanks to a really rough third and fourth quarter, it didn’t. At the end of the first and through the second quarter, it looked like the defense was gaining some momentum and gelling, but injuries really crashed the party.

Xavier Henderson was reportedly seen in a boot after halftime and Darius Snow was in a wheelchair so you can imagine just how bad that sounds.

All-in-all, there were some positives to take from the game on this side of the ball like the fact that Jacoby Windmon is going to be a dude and the secondary has the potential but it needs Henderson to be healthy for that to happen.

Still, the same questions have arisen after this opening win. Too many plays where Western’s quarterback looked like a Davey O’Brien candidate.