National semifinal vs Bama

[Sbee]

It also would have been nice to have someone with Trae Waynes speed to keep up with Ridley, we didn't press him enough at the line and it's impossible for a safety to stay with him once he gets a full head of steam.

 

[tomdalton22]

boy...that was an ass kicking! I was wrong about that...I thought it would be a close game.

 

[Sbee]

boy...that was an ass kicking! I was wrong about that...I thought it would be a close game.

Lame trolling attempt. Bama is good, much better that us. Our game was scoreless with 6 minutes left in the first half, a couple huge plays killed us. The cook interception and two hands to the face penalties on the first drive of second half were killers.

Jealous haters will make these kind of comments but it's a hell of a feat to make it here. Bama has kicked the shit out of the second best team in the country a number of times. I'd rather get shut out by bama in the playoffs than win the Rose Bowl.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

Defense gave up in the second half. I don't blame them I would too with the way the offense performed. That Cook INT right before half absolutely deflated the team. 10-0 and 10-7 is a huge difference at half.

 

[MSUMatt28]

one thing this game shows is how important it is to be able to get after the qb and stop the run without committing extra help. We stopped henry, 20 carries and 75 yards, but we had to commit a safety at times. we flushed coker out of the pocket but that was often with a linebacker or corner blitzing which created a hole somewhere else. they got after cook with four, stopped the run with 7, they always had two safeties deep. cook can look a safety off and throw to another but you can't look two safeties off. huge difference, not a lot of teams can do that. We can talk about QB play all we want, Coker missed a lot of open receivers against Auburn and Florida, threw at guys feet from 10 yards away, he made all of those throws last night. Coker outplayed cook but they were facing completely situations

It's a huge asset to have at least 1 unit on defense that is a major strength. Whether it's being able to generate pressure with 4 and/or stop the run without committing a safety, like Bama, or if it's goes the other way and you have corners that can lock people down, like we had with Dennard and Waynes, which then allows you to bring pressure in all kinds of creative ways.

Bama came in with a good plan. Dantonio had done well to somewhat disguise the team's weaknesses as the season went on, but they were still there and Bama exploited them. They knew we might make it tougher on Henry than most and also knew our secondary could be had, and I think they also knew we'd expect them to run Henry 40 times. But they also started somewhat conservatively. Tried Henry some to see what they could get and mixed in quite a few safe short throws early, and that seemed to set things up for them to beat us downfield later on. And credit to Coker who made the throws and showed a bit of escapability as well.

The lack of being able to get a push in the running game was also a killer. Our lack of playmakers at receiver outside of Burbridge (who they could safely devote a lot of attention to), then became more apparent too.

 

[tomdalton22]

Lame trolling attempt. Bama is good, much better that us. Our game was scoreless with 6 minutes left in the first half, a couple huge plays killed us. The cook interception and two hands to the face penalties on the first drive of second half were killers.

Jealous haters will make these kind of comments but it's a hell of a feat to make it here. Bama has kicked the shit out of the second best team in the country a number of times. I'd rather get shut out by bama in the playoffs than win the Rose Bowl.

It wasn't a troll. I said from day one that I thought Bama would win but MSU would cover. I was just surprised by the result.

As far as a choice between getting blown out in the first round of the playoffs or winning the Rose Bowl...I would rather win the Rose Bowl...go out on a winning note!

 

[Sbee]

It wasn't a troll. I said from day one that I thought Bama would win but MSU would cover. I was just surprised by the result.

As far as a choice between getting blown out in the first round of the playoffs or winning the Rose Bowl...I would rather win the Rose Bowl...go out on a winning note!

It's better to have a chance to play for a national title. This is the same feeling of msu losing in the final four to a duke or unc, it's still a huge accomplishment to make it. Every fbs team that didn't make the Playoff would trade places with us.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

MSU likes to jam at the line with their corners. With the bad play and inability to stop anyone Barnett and Dantonio were forced to give huge cushions all season. It's not the way the defense was built and Alabama took full advantage of it. Craig Evans showed up last night in the interior he is a big boy! With Malik (probably top 5-10 pick next year), and Evans anchoring the middle the Dline will be stout again. Our linebackers will probably be the best in the big ten with Reschke, bullough and Davis. Once again it will come down to the play of the corners/safeties...

 

[Sbee]

MSU likes to jam at the line with their corners. With the bad play and inability to stop anyone Barnett and Dantonio were forced to give huge cushions all season. It's not the way the defense was built and Alabama took full advantage of it. Craig Evans showed up last night in the interior he is a big boy! With Malik (probably top 5-10 pick next year), and Evans anchoring the middle the Dline will be stout again. Our linebackers will probably be the best in the big ten with Reschke, bullough and Davis. Once again it will come down to the play of the corners/safeties...

I think the defense will be solid, we need cooper to make the jump, I think Malik might move to de, play Knox and evans inside. I like a secondary with hicks copeland, Nicholson and cox with experienced depth behind them. Big question marks will be OL and wr, I think we can win with terry or toc.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

I think the defense will be solid, we need cooper to make the jump, I think Malik might move to de, play Knox and evans inside. I like a secondary with hicks copeland, Nicholson and cox with experienced depth behind them. Big question marks will be OL and wr, I think we can win with terry or toc.

We've had depth at the Oline for a couple years now. I'm not too worried about them. Wide recievers will be a huge question mark. Sad to see Burbridge go but damnit Kings had some timely drops his senior year. I don't trust Shelton as the number 1 option. Maybe Corley or one of the freshmen can step up big time! I'd like to see LJ Scott get the bulk of the carries, I'm not a big fan of the switching backs every series. Terry and O'Conner scare me a bit, they look average.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

Lame trolling attempt. Bama is good, much better that us. Our game was scoreless with 6 minutes left in the first half, a couple huge plays killed us. The cook interception and two hands to the face penalties on the first drive of second half were killers.

Jealous haters will make these kind of comments but it's a hell of a feat to make it here. Bama has kicked the shit out of the second best team in the country a number of times. I'd rather get shut out by bama in the playoffs than win the Rose Bowl.

Its also a nice consolation to pick up and make a run in another sport, sometheing 95% of schools cant do. jealous trolls also cant stand that fact. Lots of things wrong with this game and you touched on several of them. They put a ton of pressure on cook, more than ive seen anyone do in years. Coker had some pressure on him but also escaped by a few inches every time. I feel we started to wave the white flag after 17-0. If you cant protect the pass youre going to struggle. Our backfield is atrocious and has been a chink in the armor all year. guys were routinely 10 yards open and they were catching the ball (not dropping like us)

We couldnt run due to alabamas D. We couldnt catch a break when we needed one. They played their game and after 5-6 years we finally just shit our pants. I think Michigan beats Florida today but Florida hung with them and they arent even that good. I watched Florida play a few times and they are really mediocore. It kind of reminds me of playing North Carolina in 2009, everything going their way and nothing going our way.We just had a really bad game and statistically thats bound to happen. We get to hang another Big 10 banner but it wasnt the one we ultimately wanted.

 

[tomdalton22]

We've had depth at the Oline for a couple years now. I'm not too worried about them. Wide recievers will be a huge question mark. Sad to see Burbridge go but damnit Kings had some timely drops his senior year. I don't trust Shelton as the number 1 option. Maybe Corley or one of the freshmen can step up big time! I'd like to see LJ Scott get the bulk of the carries, I'm not a big fan of the switching backs every series. Terry and O'Conner scare me a bit, they look average.

MSU should be one of the favorites again next year. OSU will likely lose 10-12 players to the draft...they will definitely take a step back. My guess is it will be a 3-4 team race again but no national title contenders.

 

[Spartan23MSU]

MSU should be one of the favorites again next year. OSU will likely lose 10-12 players to the draft...they will definitely take a step back. My guess is it will be a 3-4 team race again but no national title contenders.

OSU could be a title contender but thats about all.

 

[tomdalton22]

OSU could be a title contender but thats about all.

I don't know. I was just looking at a mock draft and it has OSU losing 5 guys in the first round and 4 more in rounds 2-4. IMO, You don't lose that kind of talent without taking a step back.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

MSU should be one of the favorites again next year. OSU will likely lose 10-12 players to the draft...they will definitely take a step back. My guess is it will be a 3-4 team race again but no national title contenders.

MSU, OSU, and maybe throw in Michigan. I don't see anyone from the west doing what Iowa did this year. Good chance big ten gets left out next year.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

Well looking at our schedule, only true road game is against Notre Dame. We play OSU and Michigan at home. I don't know how good notre dame will be next year but our schedule looks more than manageable.

 

[jwlcosu]

It's better to have a chance to play for a national title. Every fbs team that didn't make the Playoff would trade places with us.

Hopefully you were singing the same tune when OSU took their NCG beatings at the hands of Florida and LSU, respectively.

 

[MSUMatt28]

Well looking at our schedule, only true road game is against Notre Dame. We play OSU and Michigan at home. I don't know how good notre dame will be next year but our schedule looks more than manageable.

I think ND should be quite strong next year. I don't know how many starters they return, but they had a fair amount of injuries this year, but didn't see much dropoff even as they piled up. I think it has allowed a lot of young guys to get playing time for them.

 

[Spartanmack]

one thing this game shows is how important it is to be able to get after the qb and stop the run without committing extra help. We stopped henry, 20 carries and 75 yards, but we had to commit a safety at times. we flushed coker out of the pocket but that was often with a linebacker or corner blitzing which created a hole somewhere else. they got after cook with four, stopped the run with 7, they always had two safeties deep. cook can look a safety off and throw to another but you can't look two safeties off. huge difference, not a lot of teams can do that. We can talk about QB play all we want, Coker missed a lot of open receivers against Auburn and Florida, threw at guys feet from 10 yards away, he made all of those throws last night. Coker outplayed cook but they were facing completely situations

I though McDowell was chasing Coker down more than anybody last night but he was able to roll out and make the throws with the pressure. He's a better QB than a lot of people were/are saying.

 

[Sbee]

Hopefully you were singing the same tune when OSU took their NCG beatings at the hands of Florida and LSU, respectively.

Absolutely, it's better to make it and lose than to not make it at all