Instant Recap: Michigan State gets embarrassed by Wisconsin

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If you thought it couldn’t get worse after the Nebraska game, well, it did.

The Badgers embarrassed the Spartans today with a 31-3 beatdown. Cam Fancher and Caleb Wheatland went down with injuries. Things got so bad that even freshman QB Kayd Coffman saw playing time before the clock hit zero.

The defense continues to give up explosive plays as all four Wisconsin touchdowns were from at least 15 yards out, and two of those were essentially from midfield. Badgers QB Colton Joseph almost had as many rushing yards (141) as passing yards (145), and was responsible for contributing to all four Wisconsin touchdowns. The Michigan State defense hasn’t forced an interception since their Week 1 win against Toledo.

For as bad as the defense was, the offense was even worse. Alessio Milivojevic threw for a measly 103 yards on a whopping 32 attempts. At 3.2 yards per attempt, Offensive Coordinator Nick Sheridan is severely limiting Milivojevic’s ability to throw the ball down the field. I lost track of the number of short curl routes I saw throughout the game. As MSU looks to replace Cam Edwards’ production, Jaz Patterson ran for 62 yards (3.4 avg), Marvis Parrish ran for 36 yards (3.3 avg), and Brandon Tullis ran for 10 yards (2.0 avg). Right now, nobody in the RB room can eclipse more than four yards per carry. Their leading receiver was Jayden Savoury who only had 26 yards on four catches.

Don’t think all the poor play falls on the players, though. Wisconsin’s first touchdown was a bobbled catch in the endzone after the ball went through Kenny Soares Jr’s hands. Why was your best pass rusher playing deep man coverage in the redzone, you ask? That’s a great question.

Michigan State’s following drive resulted in a 4th-and-8 from Wisconsin’s 41-yard line. I love the aggressiveness that Coach Fitzgerald has shown so far this season, but even I couldn’t get behind the idea of going for it on that one. Instead of punting it deep to help your depleted defense, they failed to convert, and it led to the Badgers’ second touchdown shortly after.

That wasn’t the only time MSU failed a 4th-down conversion. They went 1-for-6 on their 4th-down attempts, and the only one that they converted was due to a pass interference call on the Wisconsin defense. The Spartans won the time of possession battle, but every drive seemed to fail by the time they moved the ball onto the Badgers’ side of the field.

Things have not bounced Michigan State’s way. They’ve dealt with major injuries to some of their best players, but that resilience that seemed to be there early in the season is starting to fade. They’ve now been outscored 89-26 in their last three games. I fear it may be a while before we see this offense score more than 14 points again.

Coach Fitz is building and shaping his culture for the future – that’s the most important thing. They’re not as talented to compete at the top of the B1G, but there’s no excuse to get blown out of their first two games of conference play. This team needs a jolt of energy and passion to remain competitive this season, and it’s up to Fitz and his staff to make sure things don’t get worse. This type of play should be unacceptable at Michigan State.

There will be no Player of the Game survey for a team that could only muster three points in 60 minutes.

Michigan State can hopefully correct course in their next game when they take on Illinois back home in Spartan Stadium at 3:30 PM next Saturday.

Go Green!

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