3 Interesting Trends For Michigan State vs. Purdue
Michigan State football hosts the Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night at Spartan Stadium for its second-to-last game of the regular season. Let's take a look at three interesting trends going into the matchup.
Can Purdue play spoiler again?
Over the past decade, Purdue has earned the reputation of pulling off upsets to hinder the chances of their Big Ten foes making a championship run. This happened to No. 2 Ohio State in 2018 and, of course, to No. 3 Michigan State in 2021.
Despite the combined record of these two teams being 5-15, there are still stakes in this game. The Spartans have a chance to qualify for a bowl game if they win out in their final two games against Purdue and Rutgers.
The Spartans are hovering around two-touchdown favorites against the Boilermakers, their largest spread since week three against FCS opponent Prairie View A&M.
Luckily for the Spartans, Purdue isn’t the scrappy underdog they’ve been in the past. This season as an underdog, the Boilermakers are 0-8 outright in games where they catch points and have only covered the spread once out of those eight times.
Home field advantage
Three of the Spartans’ four wins have come at Spartan Stadium this season. Historically, Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith has coached well at home. Last season at Oregon State, Smith's Beavers were 5-1 at home.
The Boilermakers struggle to play on the road, going 0-4 in road games with an average defeat of 27.3 points.
Purdue’s best away performance was earlier this season when the Boilermakers took the Illinois Fighting Illini to overtime in a 50-49 loss. The same Fighting Illini team beat the Spartans by 22 points last week.
The Spartans have lost six of their last seven games, their only win being a home game against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The turnover battle
The Spartans' weakness on offense has been turnovers, committing a grand total of 18 turnovers through nine games.
Quarterback Aidan Chiles has thrown 11 interceptions this season, debilitating drives in losses against Boston College and Ohio State.
However, the Boilermakers' defense doesn’t create many turnovers ranking 132nd in the nation, only worse than Central Michigan and Florida State.
The Spartans can take advantage of the Boilermakers’ defense as they don’t have an effective pass rush, ranking in at124th in the country in sack percentage.
This will open up extra time for Chiles who has performed well when the Spartans’ offensive line has time to operate. When Chiles has time, he can make the right play instead of forcing a bad pass.
The Spartans are best when Chiles is completing passes, as they are 2-1 when he completes 20 or more passes.
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