Michigan State's bowl chances spiraling from bad to 'worse'
EAST LANSING – Numbers can lie, but these ones are historic and horrific.
One week, Michigan State’s offense barely cracks 200 total yards, the Spartans’ fewest since 2011.
The next, the defense gives up its most points of Mark Dantonio’s 10 seasons as coach.
“Like I tell our players,” Dantonio said after the Sept. 24 loss to Wisconsin that began the current mess, “you can always, always get worse.”
Welcome to worse.
Couch: Spartans find new low in Dantonio era, as hope is extinguished
And prepare for worst-case scenarios.
Forget about who the quarterback is, MSU is a severely flawed team all around. The Spartans are 2-4 for the first time since 1994, the year George Perles was fired. They are on their first four-game losing streak since 2006, the second of which ended the tenure of John L. Smith and opened the job up for Dantonio.
Unlike those two coaches, Dantonio’s job is safe. The same can’t be said for his nine-year streak of making a bowl game.
Looking at the next couple weeks, things could turn even uglier. The Spartans need to win four of its final six games to qualify for the postseason. Their schedule isn’t exactly favorable the rest of the way. And there is a legitimate chance MSU could lose every game the rest of the way.
Yes, even Rutgers is no longer a sure thing. It’s that bad.
“We’ve probably never been in a situation as desperate as this in the middle of the season,” senior captain Tyler O’Connor said after Saturday’s 54-40 homecoming loss to Northwestern. “But what can you do? We gotta keep moving forward.”
Grading the Spartans' loss to Northwestern
Michigan State’s once-staunch defense continues to melt after halftime. Northwestern scored five touchdowns in the final 30 minutes of football Saturday, and the Spartans have now been outscored 135-79 in the second half and overtime this season.
In the past four games, opponents are outscoring MSU 105-44 after halftime. They also have converted 36 of 67 third-down attempts (53.7%). That’s a sign that this defense is getting fatigued at critical moments.
“We gotta finish,” senior linebacker Riley Bullough said. “That’s what it is.”
Offensively, the Spartans couldn’t run the ball again and at times took an almost sandlot, try-anything approach that looked chaotic but seemed to work after O’Connor spelled redshirt freshman Brian Lewerke at quarterback.
But be clear: this type of performance would have been even more calamitous if the opponent wasn’t the same Northwestern team that lost 9-7 to lower-division Illinois State earlier in the season.
“When you're 2-4, you're always worried about the future,” co-offensive coordinator Dave Warner said. “Immediate future is the most important thing right now. We're halfway through a football season, we're not where we want to be or where we expected to be.”
Games against rivals Michigan and Ohio State are looming, with both teams waiting to exact revenge after last-play losses a year ago. Those upcoming matchups in East Lansing rapidly have devolved from must-see TV to brace-for-blowout preparation. Jim Harbaugh and Urban Meyer will have no problem running up the score if given a chance.
The Spartans travel to Maryland on Saturday (7:30 p.m./Big Ten Network) and have already witnessed how a night game against the reigning – albeit wounded – Big Ten champs brought out the best in Indiana. The same will hold true for the Terrapins.
Games at Illinois, at home against Rutgers and at Penn State are absolute must-win situations. So, too, is the Maryland game. A case can be made for each one being a victory for MSU.
Then again, the same was said about Indiana. And BYU. And Northwestern. Those are three of the past four losses.
“We have to have pride in every game,” senior safety Demetrious Cox said. “Every game still means something. We’re fighting for a bowl game at this point.”
It’s an uphill battle from here.
Contact Chris Solari:csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@chrissolari.
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