Victory 4 MSU

Michigan State 24, Illinois 14

Michigan State left Chambana at 3-3 after a dominating performance against a struggling Illini team. For perhaps the first time this season, both the offensive and defensive lines took control of the game and ensured an easy Spartan victory. The win was costly, however, as both Glenn Winston and A.J. Jimmerson succumbed to the ‘turf monster’ and Keith Nichol and Larry Caper both got a little dinged up.

Injuries

Unfortunately, Winston will undergo season-ending knee surgery on Thursday to repair his torn ACL. Just when he was finally starting to put it all together. Prior to this game Glenn had mostly tried to run through tacklers, even if there was a gaping hole to the left or right; but in this game something clicked, and he finally started displaying the vision and patience required to be a feature back. Winston was gashing the Illinois defense and special teams, using not only his raw power, but an elusiveness that had previously been neglected.

If this had happened last week he may have qualified for a medical redshirt, but it is my understanding that if a player is active after the 5th game of the season they become ineligible. However Spartan fans should have hope that he will return next year to punish defenders, as I am sure he will.

I think our running game will be alright even with the absence of Winston, as true freshman Larry Caper has shown he has the ability to be a special back. Larry had already shown what Winston had been lacking prior to the Illinois game. Watching Caper in his first couple of games, you can see the improvement from game to game. At first he simply tried to barrel over opponents, and that sometimes works, but only against inferior competition. Gradually he began to wait for holes to develop and blockers to get out front before taking off. His strength and cutting ability is really something special, and I believe he can be one of the great Spartan running backs of our time.

The QB Situation

Keith Nichol had the start at quarterback due to a sore ankle for Kirk Cousins. This was the opportunity that supporters of Nichol were hoping for. They believed that Keith would be able to separate himself from Kirk if only he were able to start a game and play the entire game to keep in rhythm. What actually happened was Keith cemented himself as the backup to Kirk. His passes were less than ideal nearly every time he threw the ball. There were a few rare occasions where he had excellent placement, sure. But for the most part the receiver had to do some extra work to come down with the ball, which may have cost us some valuable yards. And besides his one pick, there were several passes which should have also been intercepted, and would have been by a competent defense. He consistently displayed poor decision making and poor technique by throwing jump balls into double or triple coverage and throwing off his back foot.

I’m not saying Keith is a horrible quarterback, he is an average-to-good QB, but we have a good-bordering-on-great QB in Kirk Cousins. Many people argue that Keith’s upside is somehow greater than Kirk’s, but I find that argument laughable. If Cousins is a redshirt sophomore displaying talent like he has, what would make you think his upside would be anything less than someone who has displayed less talent so far? The argument makes no sense.

The one positive to come out of Nichol’s first collegiate start is that Michigan State finally… finally has it’s starting quarterback. There is no more controversy.

Speaking of our starting QB, coach Mark Dantonio later stated that Kirk was available to play if necessary, but his ankle was only at about 85%. Cousins should be 100% for next week vs. Northwestern. I am excited to see what he can do playing a full game and staying in rhythm, instead of the usual QB switcharoo that has been taking place all season.

The receiving corps did a serviceable job with the notable exception of Mark Dell, who had a bad case of the drops on Saturday. It wasn’t too critical against Illinois, but against better competition that will really hurt. Especially considering at least two of his drops would have gone for drive-sustaining first downs. Hopefully he gets his stuff together for Northwestern.

Great Line Play

The running game really took off against Illinois, mostly due to the work of the offensive line. The past two games have shown that this line is capable of great things, and will only get better with more experience. Having Nitchman and Foreman healthy have been huge. D.J. Young has stepped up in a big way at right tackle.

The defensive line put pressure on the Illini quarterbacks all day. Jerel Worthy continues to emerge as a beast at DT as only a redshirt freshman. Blake Treadwell had a few quality minutes in the game as well. Trevor Anderson is just solid as always. Most sacks are because of his effort. If our lines continue to play the way they have the past two games, our team is going to be tough to stop.

In Conclusion…

Overall, it was a dominating performance even though it wasn’t reflected on the scoreboard. Our offense should have put up more points in the first half (Winston’s fumble at the 1 didn’t help), and was actually quite ineffective in the 2nd half due mostly to Winston and Caper being out of the game and Nichol having some problems getting the ball to receivers. Caper was held out as a precaution, but he will be fine for next week. The story of the game was the Spartan’s suffocating defense, as the Illini were only able to score after intercepting in our red zone; they also had one garbage time TD with less than 2 minutes in the game.

I think this team will get to 6 wins minimum, with 7 being more likely and 8 is certainly possible. Our upcoming games are Northwestern and Iowa at home, Minnesota on the road, Western home, Purdue on the road and the final game of the regular season at home against Penn State. I think NU, WMU and PU are likely victories, Iowa and Minnesota are toss-up games and the Spartans will be underdogs against PSU. I’ll call it 8-4 with a trip to another nice bowl. That would be a great end to a season that didn’t start out the way anyone expected.

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Tags: Illinois Fighting Illini

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Postgame Wraps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.