Spartan Football Essentials: Northwestern Noisemaker
OFFENSE
If you’ve been around Spartan Nation for a while you know that it all starts up front in the Big Ten East. Mel Tucker knows there’s no way around that, and placed a big emphasis on getting better at the point of attack immediately after taking the job. From the opening snap (Kenneth Walker to the house) to Walker’s fourth and final Touchdown, Michigan State Football took major first steps to rebuilding a competitive Offensive Line. This was only one game, with Northwestern looking headed for a long season ahead, but the statement this Offense pounded out loud was that this rebuild is running ahead of schedule.
The running game explosion was the biggest thing to happen to the Spartan Offense since it briefly shifted (for the better) on that same Ryan Field back in 2017. If you thought you were watching Spartan great Rock Baker, as Kenneth Walker ran up and down the field with power and speed, you were not alone. His numbers speak for themselves, and his line up front. He and starting Quarterback Payton Thorne led a unit that put up 38-points on the road, and made it look pretty easy. Better days appear imminent for this Offense as a whole.
Thorne didn’t have to win this game for MSU, his O-Line and Kenneth Walker pretty much took great care of that, but Thorne did play a key role. He plainly did little to put his team in jeopardy. From the 1st Quarter when he threw balls away rather than trying to force it, to steadily navigating the ship to close out his first Big Ten road win, the Spartans new starter looked a lot more experienced than his career stat sheet says he is. Thorne’s poise, pace, and precision are just starting to carve out.
What a difference a competent Offensive Line makes. Walker ran the ball from start to finish behind a better looking line than we’ve seen since the Holiday Bowl blowout that ended 2017. Thorne took the starting job with command, and had the critical time needed to do some pretty good work. Five different receivers caught the ball for positive yards, all of that was made possible by the revamped Offensive Line. Ground gained.
DEFENSE
The MSU Defense starts with stopping the run. Regardless of whether MSU lines up in a 4-2-5 or some new exotic numerical scheme we haven’t even dreamed of yet, all good Defenses start with that fundamental. Tonight this Defense did that out of the gate and sent a little message around the league that the Spartan Defense is on the way back to strength sooner than later.
Northwestern doesn’t look like they will have a great Offense anytime soon, but their “dink and dunk” style attack remains a pest to deal with over sixty full minutes. Make no mistake, this Defense came to play a Big Ten opener on the road and delivered. MSU blanked the Wildcats until the final minute of the first half, giving up only 23-yards on the ground, to help stretch the lead to 21-7. The second half was strong early, with a timely sack stopping an NU drive that would’ve cut the lead to one-score. Then the Defense shifted to keep the ball in front of them to prevent a big play. It worked. Holding NU to just 21-points is almost exactly the kind of footing Mel Tucker wanted his Defense to lay in week one.
The Defense’s speed and resilience will be tested at a much higher level in a few weeks at Miami, but next week they have a chance to display good focus, and firm things up a bit at home against Youngstown St. There were a few deep balls that beat MSU in the first half, for example, that are sure to get some attention next week. Not bad at all for a Defense still climbing the learning curve that comes with running a new system.
SPECIAL TEAMS
This unit looked more polished and in control than they did most of last year. The Punt inside the 1-yard line was an early highlight, so was the relative lack of mistakes from a playing group that wants to be more effective than they were in 2020. There’s work to do on kick coverage, of course, but overall a solid start for a unit that wants to be dependable in a hurry.
The basic goal for this unit in 2021 should be something like execute first, make a splash second. Spartan Special Teams will do more for the 2021 team by taking good care of the business at hand than they will trying too hard to do something above and beyond.
Matt Coghlin, to no surprise, did his part well. Coghlin’s 60-yard try at the end of the first half was a nice bonus, but his Field Goal with 6:04 left in the 4th Quarter extended MSU’s lead beyond two-scores (16-points) to provide good assurance that MSU was getting out of Evanston 1-0.
INTANGIBLES
Spartan Football usually has a distinct physical edge in games against Northwestern. That was not the case in recent years, but tonight it was pretty clear which team was bigger, stronger, and had better athletes from the go. That’s a great result for a program that asked so much of its players in the off season in that area. Mel Tucker knew they needed to gain good ground in strength and conditioning, and Spartan Football had immediate gains on national display tonight.
EXTRA POINTS
Before this season began too many speculators around the country had Michigan State slotted to win somewhere between four and six games. If you consider how accurate most preseason predictions are by Turkey Day, there isn’t much of a reason to take them all too seriously. After what we saw from Spartan Football tonight, look for many of those predictions to be updated quickly to seven or more wins. There is enough talent on this team to win at that level
