Michigan State Football: Revisiting Week 7 goals at Rutgers

3. Cut down on penalties

The good news is that Michigan State only had five penalties for 38 yards whereas Rutgers had six penalties for 70 yards. The bad news is that the Spartan’s penalties were so much more costly than just yards and a symptom of more poor coaching all around (I know I keep mentioning bad coaching but it seriously is a masterclass in how coaching can lose games).

The team had yet another dumb penalty which is becoming a weekly occurrence. After the ball was intercepted, defensive linemen Derrick Harmon was called for a 15-yard blindside block because he didn’t have enough discipline to not hit a defender that can’t even see you. Instead of having the ball at the Rutgers 37-yard line, you’re now on your side of the field and then the offense can’t even get their crap together in time and causes a delay of game.

Rutgers didn’t have to do a thing and it pushed MSU back 20 yards, and more importantly, out of field goal range. The offense should have known what play they were running the second the ball was intercepted so any confusion comes from the players not being prepared which is another symptom of inept coaching.

I already mentioned the penalty that lead to MSU’s botched punt and my blood pressure is slowly going down so I don’t want to reiterate the mistakes. The mistakes that make it impossible to win football games, and if they keep making them, they will lose 10 straight games to finish the season.

Michigan State is -6 in turnover margin. Only 4 teams in all of college football are worse. It’s another lost season and once again, a hard truth is that Urban Meyer probably isn’t walking though the door and this team will need 3-4 more years to even come close to competing for the Big Ten. The rest of this season will be ugly, and especially so on Saturday.

My advice is to purchase a ticket for Back To The Future at your local theatre as it is showing, one night only, on Saturday, Oct. 21 (National Back to The Future Day). Maybe indulge in a drinkable vice beforehand and enjoy your night because anyone cheering for the team in green that day will suffer emotional damage for three hours.