Monday, October 15, 2018

Michigan Monday: The Mystery of Michigan State


Vegas prides itself on knowing teams better then maybe they know themselves.  Michigan State for example hasn't played good football at any point this season.  They struggled against the likes of Utah State, Central Michigan, and Indiana.   They lost to Northwestern and Arizona State who are both .500 teams.   To add salt to the wound, MSU has been hit with a number of injuries and barley has enough WR's to put on the field. 

That is why MSU was a two TD underdog on Saturday when they travelled to Happy Valley to play the #8 team in the nation coming off a bye week.  This game was expected to be so one sided, Fox, ESPN, and ABC passed on it.  The game was shown on BTN.

The one thing that MSU does well, is stop the run with the #1 ranked rushing defense in the country.   But they gave up 205 yards rushing on Saturday.   They also lost another WR and after an X-Ray came up negative, MSU puts him in the game with one hand bandaged up like a cast.   They throw one ball to him and it bounces off the cast for an interception.  Lewerke is hitting less then 50% of his passes and has a 5.0 yard pass completion average.   MSU's top RB finishes with 60 yards.   Dantonio was so desperate he ran a fake punt and a fake field goal.  The punt worked the field goal didn't.  MSU fumbles 4 times but doesn't lose any.  

From a Vegas standpoint, this looks like a sucker bet and an easy win for Penn State.  

MSU hits a late TD pass and wins 21-17.  James Franklin has now lost two home games in a row and the Penn State faithful are starting to remember what life was like before Barkley.  

They say football is a game of inches.  It's also a game of little mistakes.   Penn State made a bunch of little mistakes on Saturday that turned out to be the difference in the game.   A dropped interception on the last drive and McSorely tripping over his own feet on a 4th down.  Those were a couple examples of little mistakes that kept MSU in the game.   Still this was a shocking result. 

MSU:

Record 4-2.  Best Win: PSU   Worst Loss: Arizona State 

#1 ranked rushing defense in the country 62 yards a game 

Passing offense: 271 yards per #34
Rushing offense: 123 yards per #115

Offense scores: 26 points per #89
Defense gives up: 22 points per #41

MSU is ranked #24 in the AP 

Lets hope the magic or voodoo that Dantonio usually uses on Michigan was spent last weekend.  

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