Spartans Must Improve in This Crucial Area to Win
The Michigan State Spartans have a serious issue on its hands that has led to three straight losses. Turnovers have been the red flag all season and it has been elevated over the past several games.
The Spartans rank 128th in FBS in turnovers lost with 14 through six games. Nine of those coming in the past three games from the hands of quarterback Aidan Chiles. Seven interceptions and a pair of lost fumbles in the red zone played a part in each loss.
Fumbling the football has been equally detrimental to the Spartans' offense as Chiles has three while tight end Jack Velling, wide receiver Montorie Foster Jr. and running back Kay'ron Lynch-Adams have all put the ball on the turf. Multiple of those came in the red zone while trailing.
Coughing up the football will happen, but averaging 0.5 fumbles per game make it much tougher to win. Ball security technique has to be a major point of emphasis this week in practice.
It would have been a tall task to win the past two games against top ten ranked teams, but losing both by 20+ points was due to giving the ball away when points needed to be scored. The Week 4 loss to Boston College was a very winnable game and three interceptions from Chiles did not help the cause.
There are going to some growing pains for the young quarterback as Chiles is in his sophomore season, his first as a starter after sitting behind Dj Uiageleia last year at Oregon State. The expectation for him to come in and dominate immediately was unrealistic and he will make mistakes.
Spartans coach Jonathan Smith continues to have faith in the guy that he brought over with him from Corvallis and is well aware that the first several games will be a learning experience.
“What we specifically talked about after he put it on the ground, there's a long game in front of us man, we got to be able to learn from it and move forward, that's what we talked about.”Smith said last week regarding Chiles fumbling against Oregon on the team’s opening drive.
However, there is something to be said regarding the expectation of the program as a whole and being a contender in the Big Ten. Schematic adjustments will need to be made over the bye week to lower the turnover frequency and find ways for this offense to minimize the chances to do so.
The Spartans next test will be against the Iowa Hawkeyes (3-2) on Homecoming at Spartan Stadium. The Hawkeyes are just outside the top-25 in turnovers gained (9) and will be looking to take advantage. A very winnable game for the Green and White if turnovers are held to a minimum.
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