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Michigan State Football: 3 not-so-quick takes after re-watching win over CMU

By Scott Tolonen

Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker celebrates and claps after the Spartans scored a touchdown against Central Michigan during the first half at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023.
Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker celebrates and claps after the Spartans scored a touchdown against Central Michigan during the first half at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. /
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I think Connor does a fantastic job with the quick takeaways right after the Michigan State football game ends, so as not to step on his toes, I wait to post my takeaways until after I re-watch the game.

I said some things about Mel Tucker and the Spartans that I would not like to repeat in print and might even be a little too spicy for Twitter. So I take a breath, sleep it off, and watch the game a little closer so as to not have too harsh of a knee-jerk reaction.

So here are three takes after really diving into the Spartans’ 31-7 victory over the Central Michigan Chippewas.

1. Little mistakes by one player can ruin the entire play

Football is the ultimate team game. One weak link on the chain and the entire thing breaks. Same as in football. On both 4th-and-1 plays, JD Duplain did not block his man correctly and his man made the tackle behind the line of scrimmage. While the formation was questioned by a lot of people (including me), both plays should have worked except for one offensive lineman not doing his job.

On another popular play, Maliq Carr was running open down the sideline and flat-out dropped a pass. Everyone executed their job to perfection except for one player and it doomed the rest of the drive.

Tre Mosley dropped an easy first-down pass, Noah Kim overthrew open receivers, and just about everyone made first-game jitters-related mistakes.

The defense had quite a few mistakes early in the game as well. Whether it was missed tackles, blown coverage, or stupid stupid penalties, these small mistakes by one player led to huge gains through the air and on the ground.

The second half was an improvement for both sides of the ball.

The Chippewas’ touchdown drive was aided by back-to-back 15-yard penalties. The tackling was sound, defenders were set in their zones and Bert Emanuel Jr. was contained as well as he could be. Even Hank Pepper made a rookie mistake trying to field a punt inside the 5-yard line.

These can all be chalked up to nerves as a lot of these players are seeing real game action for the first time and once the nerves settled, the Spartans dominated the Chippewas.

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