Michigan State Football: 3 goals and a prediction for Iowa matchup

3. Cover the spread

It’s a tall task for any team to win at Iowa at night — 69,251 farmers are so polluted on grain alcohol and need an outlet for their repressed anger that their ancestors settled in a place that only has 41 Wendy’s locations in the entire state. Poor fans. Iowa football is the only thing that matters to a lot of those people so they show up for their team.

A win would be great, but the Spartans cannot go three straight games without even covering the spread, let alone winning.

Harlon Barnett said earlier this week that his team was close to a breakthrough and if that’s true, this is the game to show it. This Iowa team is also at a crossroads with the turmoil on the offensive side of the ball and coming off a 31-0 drubbing against Penn State.

The Spartans showed life last week but made the same mistakes that bad teams make: Turnovers at critical times, bad penalties, and dropped passes. Clean those up and Spartan Nation’s resting heart rate is at 120 with a chance to steal a road win in Iowa City.

But that’s easier said than done for this year’s team.

Prediction: Michigan State 16, Iowa 17