Missed Opportunities Continue to be Costly for Michigan State

Michigan State has lost two games in a row in which it failed to take advantage of opportunities to change the outcome of the game. Can it figure out how to do so before the Spartans travel west to face Oregon?

Starr Portice, Michigan State Spartans on SI

Michigan State is now 3-2 after losing in blowout fashion at home to Ohio State.

The Spartans put up a solid fight for as long as they could before the better team eventually pulled away in the second half. While Michigan State would have needed nearly everything to go right to beat Ohio State, they did not do themselves any favors by making numerous mistakes throughout the game. 

Michigan State linebacker Cal Haladay said the Spartans were fully aware of the challenges Ohio State presented but could not execute at a high enough rate to remain competitive with the Buckeyes.

“We knew it was going to be a challenge for sure, and we knew they had a lot of talent,” Haladay said after the game. “But we just need to focus on executing better, and that was the main focus of the week. We have consistently gotten better every week in and week out, and this week, we are going to do the same process after the game and go back and get better this week.”

Haladay noted that he felt like Michigan State was competitive the entire game against Ohio State, even though the score said otherwise. The veteran linebacker credited Ohio State with outplaying Michigan State but also felt Michigan State could have played a significantly better game than they did. 

“I thought we were in this game the whole time,” Haladay said. “I think we did what we needed to for the most part. I mean, we gave up some explosive plays and were still responding. But we need to execute better, finish drives and on third down, get off the field. But I felt for most of this game we were in it until the end.

“We just have to capitalize on opportunities. For the defense, I think we did what we wanted to do to make them drive the field and they just made too many plays and on defense, we need to make some of those plays too. We knew that they were a really explosive offense and that they have a lot of talent on their team. But their players made a lot good plays today.”

Don’t forget to follow the official Spartan Nation Page on Facebook Spartan Nation WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be a part of our vibrant community group Go Green Go White as well WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.