All football losses aren’t the same. All L’s on the scoreboard aren’t even losses. Some are lessons with long-term payoffs.
Saturday night’s 42-34 whipping by Minnesota was more than a setback for Michigan State. It was a statement of gross inadequacy - in many ways, the most alarming defeat in Mark Dantonio’s three seasons as head coach of the Spartans.
His team was in a fog from the opening kickoff. It was outplayed and outcoached. Badly. And with an opportunity to show that it should have been better than 4-4 in the standings, it looked like a program that’s lucky to be 4-5 on Nov. 1 (3-3 in a down Big Ten).
Perhaps it was asking too much to think that MSU could play as if a spleen-splitting 15-13 loss to Iowa hadn’t occurred seven nights earlier. But if that matchup was a defensive struggle that two teams deserved to win, this week’s misadventures were almost too painful to watch.
The not-so-Golden Gophers were flagged 17 times for 157 yards in walkoffs. That tied the Big Ten record for infractions in one game, set by MSU a half-century ago. It was more penalties than Minnesota has had in most hockey wins and more fouls than in several basketball triumphs.
Amazingly, Tim Brewster’s team won. He declined to talk about the officiating after the game. And he won’t get much sympathy from the Spartans, who got two tough calls on defense, trailing 35-34 _ including an obvious catch and fumble that was ruled an incomplete pass on review.
Instead of MSU being in striking range on Chris L. Rucker’s scoop and runback, the Gophers got a third-and-17 snap that turned into a bizarre, 59-yard touchdown for the game’s final points with 6:04 left. But that wasn’t where the game was lost.
The Spartans were still on a tour of new TCF Bank Stadium when Minnesota led 14-0 in the first 1:47. And it’s hard to tell which was worse, being down by two scores before MSU’s first snap or being outscored 14-3 in the fourth quarter after battling back to lead 31-28.
Perhaps the worst parts of a Halloween nightmare were the Spartans’ glaring deficiencies in running the ball and stopping the pass, their biggest problems way back in September. I guess that shoots down the theory that a team’s greatest improvement comes between Weeks 1 and 2.
Excluding Keshawn Martin’s 84-yard, third-quarter reverse, MSU rushed for 40 yards on 19 tries. And that wasn’t due to sack subtractions. Larry Caper, prior to a concussion, and fumble-prone fellow freshman Edwin Baker had 1 yard till the next-to-last snap of the third quarter.
The Spartans had zero success on the ground near the goal line, a familiar problem this season. Caper, Baker and fullback Andrew Hawken were lucky to get back to the line of scrimmage and redefined the term “short-yardage plays.”
MSU greatest shortcoming was its pass defense. Again. Coming in, the talk was all about injured wideout Eric Decker and how his absence would cripple the Gophers. Apparently, someone forgot to tell Minnesota QB Adam Weber and five receivers who had catches of at least 33 yards.
It wasn’t a case of one player filling in with incredible motivation and a career day. It was a game when Weber sat back and said, “Who needs a big play? Who haven’t I thrown to in a while? Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about (fill in the blank).”
When you move the ball around and hit touchdown passes for 62 and 37 yards in the first four snaps, you know you’re going to have a good evening. Completions for 48, 33, 53 and 59 yards finished the fun, as Weber threw for 416 yards and five scores.
That was 180 more yards than Kirk Cousins and the Big Ten’s top passing attack managed in a so-so performance. Cousins’ problems included a botched snap for a turnover and an overthrow to wide-open B.J. Cunningham that turned an easy 79-yard score into a leaping 49-yard reception. It also turned a TD into a field goal.
Just when Cousins seemed to be finding his rhythm with a scrambling, 26-yard toss to Brian Linthicum that cut the deficit to 14-10, the Spartans switched to backup Keith Nichol for one ill-advised series. It ended with a third-down incompletion, a play Cousins likely would have made, and set up the Gophers’ final drive of the half for a 21-10 lead.
But it was only a matter of time when Weber had the ball. And he had plenty of time to carve up MSU’s secondary and do his best Brett Favre impression. A soft, sad shove attempt by Marcus Hyde gave the Gophers their first score. And an obliterated blitz assured another easy TD before everyone was seated.
Let’s see what else we saw: 1. Poor kick coverage – again - to open the game, 2. Baker’s fumble at his 28 on the Spartans’ first return, 3. Bad decisions and worse throws from Cousins in the first quarter, 4. Two illegal blocks on the same MSU runback, 5. An ability to reach the end zone despite back-to-back personal fouls on Minnesota.
Oh, we’re not done! Try: 6. A horrible hold by Mark Dell on Baker’s 20-yard run to try to tie it at 42, 7. A false start on Cunningham on the following snap, a second-and-1 situation, 8. A dropped swing pass by Baker on second-and-6, 9. A delay-of-game penalty on fourth-and-9 (huh?), and 10. A drop by Linthicum on his team’s last try for a first down.
If that wasn’t enough, if our Big 10 of additional blunders didn’t guarantee defeat when an impotent ground game, abysmal pass defense and a blown call couldn’t, there was one more sin of commission.
After his team forced a punt from midfield on the Gophers’ last prolonged possession, Kendall Davis-Clark ran into the kicker. First down, Minnesota. And the first time a lot of Spartan followers have questioned, “Is the program making progress? Or is it walking up a down escalator instead of running the stairs?” Clearly, at MSU, the elevator is out of the question.
We’ll get that answer in the next three weeks. Dantonio’s staff and players have work to do just to become bowl-eligible. Forget about a share of the Big Ten title and a Rose Bowl berth that seemed within their grasp last Saturday. They’ll need at least two wins against Western Michigan, at Purdue and against Penn State to have a shot at a trip to Ford Field.
That was a much more appealing destination in basketball last spring. By the way, and appropriately so, it’s time for the first men’s basketball exhibition.
Jack Ebling, Spartan Tailgate Columnist
Nov. 1, 2009
