After a 3-0 start to the season, Michigan State football is now 3-4 after losing its fourth straight game on Saturday afternoon against No. 3 Indiana.
While a 38-13 loss wasn’t as lopsided as Vegas predicted, it was still never close after the first quarter. The Spartans fell behind 14-10 and Indiana never looked back. The Hoosiers scored 31 of the final 34 points on Saturday to run away with a blowout win.
It wasn’t all bad, though (most of it was bad). There were some positives to take from Saturday’s loss, and these three came to mind immediately.
1. Aidan Chiles
It’s hard to knock Aidan Chiles for anything negative on Saturday other than the fact that he checked out of a passing situation on third-and-7 in the first half while driving into Indiana territory for a run to the short-side of the field. It went about as well as you’d expect — horribly.
Chiles had one of his best games as a Spartan against an elite Indiana defense, completing 27-of-33 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown while leading the team with 48 rushing yards.
If anything good came from this game, it was Chiles getting his mojo back.
2. The receiving corps
On the same note as Chiles’ impressive performance was the receiving corps stepping up to help the junior quarterback out. Nick Marsh led the team in receiving again with seven catches for 64 yards and a touchdown and Omari Kelly had three receptions for 59 yards. Chrishon McCray completed the solid performance by the trio, catching four passes for 42 yards.
These three guys played really well and Evan Boyd even finished with 40 yards. The receivers seemed to always be open and it made Chiles’ job easier.
3. Changes will almost surely be made
While Michigan State did cover the spread and the Spartans looked much better offensively this week than they did against UCLA, they only scored 10 points and lost by four scores.
Is it going to be Jonathan Smith that goes first? That remains to be seen, but this loss will almost surely trigger some sort of change on the staff. If Smith does last past this season, he’ll be pressured to make changes (likely defensively) and this game was proof that they need to be made.
J Batt can’t love seeing Michigan State dominated by 25 in back-to-back Big Ten games after handing a win away at Nebraska and losing by two touchdowns at USC.
I’d be shocked if this loss didn’t trigger near-immediate changes.