Is it time to panic about Michigan State football yet?

Michigan State football is off and running in their first season under Jonathan Smith, unfortunately they aren’t off to a fast start. Many fans were left wondering what’s going on after MSU only beat Florida Atalantic Friday night 16-10.

After such a rough first game where the offense failed to score in the final two and a half quarters, I can understand why some fans may want to hit the panic button already. But I’m here to tell you that there’s no need for that yet.

For starters, the Michigan State defense played extremely well on Friday. So much so that it already seems clear that this is the best Michigan State defense since Mark Dantonio was still roaming the sidelines. The defense only gave up 10 points and forced two timely turnovers after being put in bad position after bad position by the offense. The defense even scored the first points of the season with a safety.

We’ll have to wait and see how the defense fares against a Maryland team that just scored 50 points in their Week 1 game, but so far it looks like MSU may be able to rely on its defense this season.

Now let’s talk about the offense which is the reason most people have some reservations about this season. Aidan Chiles, the leader of this offense, struggled at times, but the things he struggled with I believe are easy to fix.

Chiles overthrew a lot of his receivers, especially on the deep ball, and I honestly think we can chalk that up to him being overly excited to start his first game. Then there were more than a handful of plays where he and the receiver were on different pages, most notably when Chiles expected his receiver to sit in the middle of the zone but the receiver kept running his route. That is something that will naturally be fixed with more reps.

I also think the Michigan State offense found their next star running back in Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams. He may have only had nine carries in the game, but he went for over 100 yards and one touchdown (should have been two). Expect KLA to get more carries going forward.

So while this first game was far from perfect, I think most of the things Michigan State struggled with are easy for them to fix. The only thing that has me very concerned that isn’t easy to fix is the offensive line play which struggled to get a push against FAU all night. But also consider that Michigan State had three scoreless red zone possessions against FAU as well. It’s highly unlikely we see that happen again all season.

We will however find out very soon what we should expect from Michigan State the rest of the season. The Spartans travel to Maryland on Saturday afternoon, and the Terps will be the favorite to win. If Michigan State continues to struggle with these aspects then they likely are going to lose, but if they can turn it around then they definitely can get the win on the road and show the country how good they can be.