Michigan State football: Revisiting Week 9 goals vs. Minnesota

Four games left. That’s all we have to suffer through. The good news is that Michigan State football didn’t do anything super embarrassing, the Spartans actually completed two of the three goals from last week. But the one the didn’t complete made all the difference in the game.

Let’s take a look at how 66 percent wasn’t nearly good enough for the Spartans to come away with a win against the Golden Gophers.

1. Let Houser cook

Peyton Manning in his prime couldn’t cook in this offense. The scheme is so broken and unoriginal that anyone under center cannot possibly excel given the lack of blocking by the offensive line, the lack of separation by receivers, and the lack of ability to get your playmakers the ball by the offensive coordinator.

Any big gain by the Spartans was the result of a perfect pass deep down field which is fun, but it doesn’t work every time like it did when you had Jayden Reed and Keon Coleman, two legitimate NFL receivers. Their first two drives were inside Minnesota territory with gifts of fumbles and the Spartans turned it into a whopping 14 yards combined.

The first half didn’t go any better after that with the Spartans mustering up just two first downs, one of which came by penalty.

In Big Ten play, the Spartans are last in scoring. Yes, even worse than Iowa, whose offense is the butt of every joke online. Hopefully word doesn’t get out that the Spartans have been averaging two points less per game in their conference games than the Hawkeyes. The Spartans have six touchdowns in five games with their saving grace being the seven field goals Johnathan Kim has made in that same span. Even the 2019 Michigan State offense averaged 19.8 a game against Big Ten opponents.

It is, hands down, the worst offense I have ever seen.

They can’t run the ball for a myriad of reasons. The play takes way too long to develop, allowing defenders to penetrate the backfield (that’s both a scheme issue and a personnel issue). Receivers can’t get open (again, a scheme issue and a personnel issue). The quarterbacks make costly errors at the worst times, whether it’s an interception in the red zone or Sam Leavitt fumbling on a drive right after a touchdown.

Outside of 2021, Spartan fans have watched one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten, ranking as high as eighth (2022) and as low as 14th (2020). Mark Dantonio allowing Dave Warner to stay on staff resulted in the offense finishing 12th in 2016, 10th in 2017, 13th in 2018, and 12th in 2019. One (1) good year in the last eight has left us apathetic, self-deprecated and has made this product unwatchable. If a team is going to be bad, at least be entertaining. If we’re going to lose, at least score 30 points.

Actually, I’m not even asking for that much. If we’re going to lose, have an offense that can give the defense more than 2:30 of game time to rest and hydrate before going back on the field. Out of the eight games, Michigan State has won the time of possession battle three times.

Simply, horrendous.