Chiles: Michigan State Offense 'Too Close' to Where it Wants to Be
When you take away the turnovers, Michigan State could have very well been within a possession of Ohio State at halftime of last Saturday's game.
The Spartans also would have won the Boston College game the week before had turnovers not been a factor.
With all this considered, Michigan State'f offense is not far from where it wants to be. As the leader of the offense, the adjustments will start with quarterback Aidan Chiles.
"Too close," Chiles told reporters on Tuesday. " ... We see it. We see everything we need to do. We're driving the ball against the No. 3 team in the country. ... They're a good defense, and we're driving the ball. And we know we can drive the ball. Now, we just have to put it in the end zone. That's the biggest thing. Or just get points up on the board, in general. Can't leave the drive without points. That's our biggest thing. And still got things to work on, things to fix. People go down, that also hurts, but overall, we know what we can do, and we just got to figure it out."
On the bright side, the Spartans know what they have to fix. It isn't a mystery.
"We're learning so much week to week off the film," said Michigan State offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren. "And I think it was really good to show our guys that tape like, hey, they knew going in. This is a nationally ranked defense; I think was giving up 6 points a game, and to go out and feel that like, 'Hey, if we execute and we do our stuff, shoot, we can move the ball, we can do some stuff against a really high-quality defense.' So, it's really cool to show those guys on the film how it's there and how close we are. But the bottom line is we just got to be able to execute more consistently at a high level. We got to take care of the football when we get down there."
Michigan State now turns to another high-powered defense and one that will likely be more challenging to gain yards on given the hostile atmosphere the Spartans will be playing in on Friday when they face Oregon on the road.
But they know what they have to do.
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