Michigan State is fresh off its first loss of the season while Nebraska is 3-0 with a trio of victories over inferior opponents. Both teams are feeling pretty confident to start the season but the Big Ten opener on Saturday is going to teach us a lot about both teams.
Here’s what I want to see from Michigan State against Nebraska on Saturday.
1. Better tackling
The last time that Michigan State’s linebacking unit wasn’t at full strength, tackling was a serious issue. The Spartans were without Jordan Hall against Eastern Michigan and the Spartans really struggled with missed tackles. Now Brady Pretzlaff will be out for Saturday’s game against Nebraska and it’ll be up to Hall to make sure the tackling issue doesn’t pop up again.
Hall is one of the best linebackers in the Big Ten and it looks like he’s going to have Dion Crawford and Caleb Wheatland healthy enough to complement him.
This isn’t just limited to better tackling from the linebackers, but the defense as a whole. Missed tackles didn’t burn Michigan State against Eastern, but it’ll absolutely hurt against Nebraska.
2. The return of the run game
After rushing for over 250 yards against Eastern Michigan which was the highest number in years, Michigan State really struggled on the ground against Notre Dame. That needs to be corrected against Nebraska which is 3-0 on the year.
Nebraska has the No. 39 rushing defense in the country despite facing three inferior teams in Ohio, Bowling Green, and North Dakota. The Cornhuskers allow 112 yards per game on the ground which could work in the Spartans’ favor. Michigan State will have a healthy backfield and the normal starting offensive line wasn’t included on the injury report so the return of the run game would be nice to see.
Let’s see that run game again.
3. Forced turnovers
Michigan State hasn’t “won” the turnover battle since Week 1 when it picked off Toledo and didn’t turn the ball over itself. In Week 2, the Spartans and Eastern Michigan tied the turnover battle 1-1 and then in Week 3, Notre Dame picked Alessio Milivojevic off twice and didn’t force a single turnover.
So through three weeks, Michigan State has forced two turnovers.
That’s not good enough.
In order to win these toss-up games in the Big Ten, Michigan State is going to have to force some turnovers. Nebraska has been one of the better teams in the Big Ten through three weeks and the Cornhuskers don’t make a ton of mistakes, but it’d be nice to see Michigan State force some turnovers and win the battle on Saturday evening.
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