Michigan State Football: 3 key players for Spartans against Minnesota

2. Jalen Berger and Jarek Broussard, RBs

Since Michigan State has adopted a more running back-by-committee deal, I am combining Jalen Berger and Jarek Broussard together.

In the Washington game, the pair combined for 17 carries that gained only 30 yards. Now, this isn’t all on Berger and Broussard as the offensive line didn’t really do them any favors. Broussard dropped a wide-open two-point conversion pass, had a miscommunication with Payton Thorne on a key third-down play, and also slipped on Matt Carrick on Michigan State’s goal-line that resulted in a safety.

Nonetheless, it was a night to forget for the Michigan State backfield last weekend. Right now Minnesota is sitting pretty at ninth in the country in rushing yards against per game. Since it is quite unlikely Jay Johnson will let Thorne drop back and try and pick apart the Gopher defense, the run game will need to be sharp to avoid third-and-long situations and allow to Thorne to set up the play-action deep ball game.

Mitigating the damage on stuffed run plays will be crucial. The Berger and Broussard combo will need to hit the open holes when available on their inside zone plays and will need to fight for every extra yard.