Michigan State RB Talks Turnovers In Loss to OSU
The Michigan State Spartans lost for the ninth-straight time to the Ohio State Buckeyes, 38-7, on Saturday night at Spartan Stadium. The team has locked back-to-back games after starting the season 3-0.
Junior running back Nate Carter spoke to the media after the loss and expressed his thoughts on the team's performance and missed opportunities.
“We left a lot of points on the board,” Carter said. “Early on, we were moving the ball successfully on the, in the run game, in the passing game, and we get into the red zone, we just shoot ourselves in the foot and we make mistakes. We had a lot of self-inflicted negatives and, especially with great teams like that, Ohio State, in order for us to compete with teams like that, we can't do that. So, it was tough, and it was hard, and like you were saying, we built a lot of confidence because we were running the ball, but it hurts our drives, and we keep going back because of turnovers and because of missed opportunities.”
Carter was kept fairly silent on Saturday night with just 27 rushing yards on six carries. The Spartans rushed for a grand total of 49 yards in a game where they just could not establish a rushing attack.
With just 59 points scored in the last six matchups against the Buckeyes, the Spartans struggled severely to find the end zone throughout the game. Three total turnovers, two of them coming on the first two drives of the game and the Spartans were in the red zone for both.
“I think first, we just have to be real with ourselves,” Carter said. “We have to hold ourselves accountable as far as the mistakes that we're making as an offense to put ourselves in the predicaments where we can't finish in the red zone like turning the ball over, not holding onto the football, things like that. Going from there, now the question is, 'OK, what are you going to do going into the next week for you to be able to change that?' It's been back-to-back games where you have the same problems: not being able to finish in the red zone, having a lot of turnovers in the red zone. So, what can we do going into this week so that doesn't happen come Friday night?”
The schedule continues to get tougher as one of the newest members of the Big Ten conference, Oregon Ducks, will host the Spartans in just six days in Week 6. If the Spartans can clean up the turnovers and find ways to score some early points, they will learn from Saturday night's mistakes.
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