Down two touchdowns to Illinois in the second half, it looked like Michigan State was just going to roll over and lose but someone lit a fire under the Spartans in the fourth quarter.
Michigan State tied the game at 31-31 before getting the ball back one more time before overtime. Ultimately, Illinois was too much in overtime and scored on its first play before Michigan State scored shortly after and then lost on a poorly run 2-point conversion try to lose 38-37.
Great teams cover, right?
What’d we learn from Michigan State’s devastating loss to Illinois.
1. Alessio Milivojevic was never the problem
While Alessio Milivojevic has struggled a bit since the Eastern Michigan game, he was never the problem on the offensive side of the ball and that was pretty obvious on Saturday. He did get off to a really slow start but he figured things out and hit his stride right before halftime and that carried into the second half where he finished with 196 yards and two touchdowns.
Katin Houser did get hurt which really marred what would have been a great game from him but Milivojevic looked like he belonged on the same field. He was never the problem on offense.
That call on the final 2-point conversion was a problem, however.
2. Once again, not enough pressure
Zero sacks. Zero. That’s unacceptable at Michigan State, to say the least. There’s no way a program as proud as Michigan State which had some of the nation’s best defenses of the 2010s to generate zero pressure on opposing quarterbacks on what is starting to feel like a weekly basis. Zero sacks and one tackle for loss is going to beat exactly zero Big Ten teams.
I’m not sure what can fix this at this point seeing as there is talent up front in Kenny Soares Jr., Eli Coenen, and Ben Roberts, so it makes no sense that these guys can’t figure out how to generate pressure.
Something needs to be tweaked because whatever is happening isn’t working.
3. This team does not quit
There needed to be some sort of positive to take from this devastating loss and that’s the fact that Michigan State may not match up favorably with other Big Ten teams, but the Spartans don’t quit.
This team hung around and could’ve easily given up while down 31-17 late in the second half, but they scored a quick touchdown to make it 31-24 and then tied it up with about a minute left.
A no-quit attitude is a great thing to have, but you know what’s better? Winning games.
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