3 takeaways from Michigan State football’s scary 16-10 win over FAU

There you have it folks, the first game of the Jonathan Smith era with Michigan State football is in the books and I did not prepare myself to have to sweat this game out that much.

Michigan State held on to defeat Florida Atlantic 16-10, but that game could have quite easily ended in a loss.

There are countless takeaways from this game with many areas that need drastic improvement, but here are the three biggest things that stood out to me.

1. Defense deserves all the credit

One of the only bright spots from this game was Michigan State’s defense. After countless years in which the defense was one of the worst in the country, the unit looked solid on Friday night.

Sure it was against Florida Atlantic, but every time MSU needed a big play the defense got it for them.

It started with the defense setting the tone with an early safety to take a 2-0 lead. Then they forced two timely turnovers which helped set the offense up to score some points. The defense also got some massive sacks late in the game when they stopped the Owls on a few possessions in the fourth quarter when they had a chance to take the lead.

Defensive lineman Khris Bogle was one of the stars of the defense on Friday with 1.5 sacks, and his fellow lineman Ken Talley made some big plays as well. Angelo Grose also pleasantly surprised me in the secondary as well. I could list countless other guys as well, but overall the defense was solid.

Now they weren’t perfect as they had about a million penalties, but the defense looks to be much improved through the first game of the season.