Vs wisconsin

[Michchamp]

...

The outcome here shouldn't be much of a surprise, unless I'm missing something.

...

Guess I wasn't missing anything.

 

[tomdalton22]

I think Wisconsin might be the best team in the Big 10.

 

[Spartanmack]

Serious man, we went 3 and out 4 of our 5 first half drives and had 7 minutes of possession in the entire first half. Only being down 17-0 at that point was very fortunate. Imo

maybe so but we were getting our asses kicked and it wasnt bc the defense was gassed.

This team sucks and changing qbs wont change that. the offensive line is the biggest on-field issue followed by the defensive secondary. the front 7 is clearly overrated (willikes didnt do himself any favors coming back) and our receivers are below average - we lead the nation in drops. they suck, plain and simple.

 

[gotime909]

Not debating that they suck. It's pretty obvious
Just dont get why you can't admit that Lewerke has been a big part of that problem.

 

[MSUMatt28]

Pretty discouraging effort yesterday. Wisconsin looked pretty beatable in their win 2 weeks ago vs Northwestern, but they just beat the snot out of us every which way yesterday. The front 7 is still mostly doing ok against the run (Taylor only averaged 3 ypc) but big running plays have been killers the past 2 weeks. And the pass rush seems to be lacking on top of the obvious problems in the secondary defending the pass. And yeah, the D is on the field way too much.

The O line - ugh. It's not a Big Ten O line by any measure and Lewerke was beyond terrible yesterday even though at times he's been good this season.

 

[tomdalton22]

back to back road games @ OSU and Wisconsin. That might be the toughest back to back games in all of college football this year.

 

[LuciousGameWinner]

Dantonio is the most stubborn person. I hope he retires this offseason

 

[Spartanmack]

Not debating that they suck. It's pretty obvious
Just dont get why you can't admit that Lewerke has been a big part of that problem.

because he hasn't. he has no time because we have a shit offensive line and his receivers lead the nation in drops. He doesn't throw every ball perfectly and he's missed open guys but frequently when he's getting chased down by a defender - it's not that easy to go through your progressions when you're running for your life. I've never said the guy is elite, he can't win games on his own but without having seen any of the freshman, he is by far our best option and if he had better tools, he's good enough for us to win football games.

This is Lewerke's last year so if we're ready to give up on this season and play a freshman to get him ready for next year I might be fine with that. But if we want to win games this year (don't forget we still have the state championship to play for!), unless one of these freshman is already our best option, which I doubt, it's got to be him because Lombardi sucks.

 

[Spartanmack]

Pretty discouraging effort yesterday. Wisconsin looked pretty beatable in their win 2 weeks ago vs Northwestern, but they just beat the snot out of us every which way yesterday. The front 7 is still mostly doing ok against the run (Taylor only averaged 3 ypc) but big running plays have been killers the past 2 weeks. And the pass rush seems to be lacking on top of the obvious problems in the secondary defending the pass. And yeah, the D is on the field way too much.

The O line - ugh. It's not a Big Ten O line by any measure and Lewerke was beyond terrible yesterday even though at times he's been good this season.

I didn't see the game but it's pretty obvious we didn't get pressure. Was that because Coan was getting rid of the ball right away while our corners were sitting back 12 yards or did we just get beat across the line - and down field?

 

[byco42]

Just as I predicted

 

[Spartanmack]

Just as I predicted

you and me both.

 

[Spartanmack]

Im hoping Day gets a shot. Lombardi is trash. Either way what are we playing for at this point? Might as well start preparing for next year. Try making it a little less of the shit show im expecting it to be

I missed this and didn't see it until after I made post #68. I don't know - I think it would be hard to build any young QBs confidence with this offensive line, the play calling, mediocre receivers, etc. And I would expect the coaches to really reign it in with a freshman QB. But, while I was being sarcastic about the state championship, that's really all that's left to play for at this point, unless we somehow pull off a miracle against PSU, so maybe grooming the future is the right move.

I think we're in a really tough spot with the schedule. If the locker room isn't lost and kids haven't given up, it's very possible we go 8-4, get an OK bowl game sometime between Christmas and New Year's. I think that result will carry more weight within the athletic department and probably even the program than the fact that every good team beat the living piss out of us. I can see the story this offseason being 'the coaches need more time in their new positions, Sparta wasn't build in a day...'

 

[SpartyNash]

you and me both.

If you told me pregame we hold Jonathan Taylor to 80 yards on 26 carries I?d say without seeing another stat we are probably in a dogfight/one score game. It just makes Saturday even more embarrassing.

 

[Spartanmack]

If you told me pregame we hold Jonathan Taylor to 80 yards on 26 carries I?d say without seeing another stat we are probably in a dogfight/one score game. It just makes Saturday even more embarrassing.

I thought the same watching the box score on my phone. Not to take anything away from the run defense which is clearly by far the best unit on this team but as a team Wisco rushed for 220 yds with an average of 5.4 per carry (4 YPC if you take out the 66 yard end around which is more on the secondary than the front 7). Again, I didn't see the game but it looked like wisco was killing clock in the 3rd qtr - they had a 10 min TD drive. Taylor did have some pretty big runs on the 1st 2 TD drives and got his 80 yards in the first 3 quarters hurting his average w/ 2 one yard TD runs.

And holy crap, we started the 2nd half with a 7.5 min 39 yard drive. That's pretty pathetic. Even before the 2 sacks Coglin's about 20% from the shortest spot of that drive.

The defense overall was pretty bad - Wisco had the ball almost 2x longer than we did and ran 67 offensive plays to our 51 but had fewer third downs than we did.

 

[jwlcosu]

I thought the same watching the box score on my phone. Not to take anything away from the run defense which is clearly by far the best unit on this team but as a team Wisco rushed for 220 yds with an average of 5.4 per carry (4 YPC if you take out the 66 yard end around which is more on the secondary than the front 7). Again, I didn't see the game but it looked like wisco was killing clock in the 3rd qtr - they had a 10 min TD drive. Taylor did have some pretty big runs on the 1st 2 TD drives and got his 80 yards in the first 3 quarters hurting his average w/ 2 one yard TD runs.

And holy crap, we started the 2nd half with a 7.5 min 39 yard drive. That's pretty pathetic. Even before the 2 sacks Coglin's about 20% from the shortest spot of that drive.

The defense overall was pretty bad - Wisco had the ball almost 2x longer than we did and ran 67 offensive plays to our 51 but had fewer third downs than we did.

After having observed the Spartans play both OSU and Wisconsin, do you have a take on that match-up?

 

[Spartanmack]

After having observed the Spartans play both OSU and Wisconsin, do you have a take on that match-up?

aren't you getting a little bit ahead of yourself? Both teams have to not stub their toes before they worry about that match up.

But since you ask, I didn't see the Spartans play wisco - just the highlights and the box score. It's pretty clear osu beat us up and down the field after the first quarter - they were just better across the board. The few drives where we did move the ball pretty well we shot ourselves in the foot w/ unforced turnovers and drive killing penalties. Even if you take those out of the game, we still weren't good enough to have a chance.

As much as I think osu is the dirtiest program in the B1G, I despise wisco more and as a result my view is definitely biased against them. With that on the table along with the fact that I haven't seen wisco play this year, I think osu is the best team in the conference, but I also thought we would beat Wisconsin and it would be pretty hard to be more wrong than I was there so take it with a grain of salt. Again, I fully acknowledge my anti-wisco bias but I wasn't buying them as a great team and I have to see them do more than beat up on a shit MSU team before I'm convinced otherwise.

OSU has 4 WRs w/ size and nfl speed, wisco doesn't, we couldn't stop your run game but it looks like we defended taylor fairly well. Coan threw effectively against us but I suspect he was getting rid of the ball quickly, osu has a much more dynamic offense w/ fields working RPOs and read options and they were killing us short, mid-range and deep as well as running over our front seven. Defensively, osu was all over lewerke most of the night but it sounds like wisco didn't have much trouble getting to him either.

 

[jwlcosu]

aren't you getting a little bit ahead of yourself? Both teams have to not stub their toes before they worry about that match up.

Fair point. See Iowa 2017 and Purdue 2018. But I don't think that's going to happen this year. Not this weekend anyway.

Your take on the OSU-MSU game is interesting because as an OSU guy, I can tell you that I and everyone I was watching with was pretty twisted up throughout the first quarter. For fifteen minutes it looked like a typical Spartan slugfest. Then the second quarter happened. I thought MSU played the Buckeyes tougher than you give them credit for.

 

[Spartanmack]

Fair point. See Iowa 2017 and Purdue 2018. But I don't think that's going to happen this year. Not this weekend anyway.

Your take on the OSU-MSU game is interesting because as an OSU guy, I can tell you that I and everyone I was watching with was pretty twisted up throughout the first quarter. For fifteen minutes it looked like a typical Spartan slugfest. Then the second quarter happened. I thought MSU played the Buckeyes tougher than you give them credit for.

I did say it all happened after the first quarter during which it looked like our defense was capable of keeping us in the game. Our offense had a lousy game including the first quarter where they turned the ball over on the first two possessions. And defensively we got gashed in the run game and abused in the passing game for the next 45 minutes.

To me, if both teams play their best, I expect osu to beat wisco and if they don't, with all the talent they have, particularly on offense I think osu has a much bigger margin of error than the badgers.

 

[jwlcosu]

aren't you getting a little bit ahead of yourself? Both teams have to not stub their toes before they worry about that match up.

Son of a gun, Spartanmack, you kinda called it. Well done.

 

[Spartanmack]

Son of a gun, Spartanmack, you kinda called it. Well done.

now you need to be asking how well you match up with Minnesota - LOL.