The Michigan State football offensive line must build on Iowa performance

Michigan State's offensive line, from left, Ashton Lepo, Dallas Fincher, Tanner Miller, Luke Newman and Brandon Baldwin huddle up during the fourth quarter in the game against Prairie View A&M on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.
Michigan State's offensive line, from left, Ashton Lepo, Dallas Fincher, Tanner Miller, Luke Newman and Brandon Baldwin huddle up during the fourth quarter in the game against Prairie View A&M on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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For the first time in what feels like years, Michigan State football's offensive line dominated from start to finish in a Big Ten game.

Not only did Michigan State's line dominate, but it did so against one of the best defensive fronts in the conference: Iowa. The Spartans were able to rush for over 200 yards and pass for over 250 more against the Hawkeyes, accounting for very few negative plays.

For a unit that had been considered a disappointment through the first six games, it felt like the bye week fixed a lot of shortcomings. The line went from a weakness to begin the year to a strength during the Iowa game. And that's something that needs to be built on.

Everyone watched as the Spartans won the battle in the trenches really on both sides of the ball (they held one of the best running backs in the Big Ten in check) en route to a 32-20 win in East Lansing and that must continue if this team plans on making a run.

We saw a line of Tanner Miller, Ashton Lepo, Luke Newman, Stanton Ramil, and Brandon Baldwin throughout the game and while Pro Football Focus grades weren't very high on them, they more than passed the eye test with Aidan Chiles staying upright and clean for most of the game and huge holes in the run game accounting for 200-plus yards on the ground.

Newman graded the highest in that group followed by Lepo and Miller but Ramil and Baldwin received some bad grades from PFF and yet they still looked dominant.

Jim Michalczik's group needs to build on this because this was an intriguing bounce-back after the bye.