How Far Away are the Spartans From Competing with Top Teams?
The Michigan State Spartans once again struggled against the No.3 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes, falling 38-7 on Saturday night at Spartan Stadium.
It marks the second-straight loss for the Spartans and is an accurate baseline as to how far away this program is to competing once again with the nation's top teams and a Big Ten Championship.
“I did tell our team, I didn't feel like there were a bunch of snaps out there that we were just overwhelmed, ‘oh they got too much talent, they're too physical’,” said Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith following the loss. “That's a really good team, one of the best teams in the country so trying to encourage our guys that we can go toe-to-toe, if we can finish on some things and get back to some details on ball security and getting off the field.”
After Saturday night's loss, the Spartans have failed to beat the Buckeyes for the ninth year in a row. Since the 2015 Big Ten Title and College Football Playoff Berth, there has not been any expectations of hoisting another championship in East Lansing.
“I think we just need to execute better,” Senior linebacker Cal Haladay said postgame. “I mean I think today if we would have cleaned up some things, got off the field, giving the offense the ball back and instead of being on the field as long as we were, could have been a puncher's chance for this game. I think the game was a lot closer than the score dictated, but at the end of the day, they made more plays than we did, and that's just kind of what happened.”
As the Big Ten conference expands into 18 teams, it will only make it that much tougher to battle for a spot at the top. The conference currently has four teams in the top-10 rankings and seven teams in the top-25 which is a massive wake-up call as the Spartans are trying to re-enter that conversation.
The Spartans will have another opportunity this weekend to change the narrative of the program with a second-straight top-10 matchup as they hit the road to face the No. 6 Oregon Ducks, Friday night.
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