Michigan State University Athletics
MSU-Wisconsin Postgame Report
10/23/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 23, 1999
MADISON, Wis. -
Michigan State head football coach Nick Saban:
?I think we got beat by a good football team today. Wisconsin is probably the best team we?ve played this year. We certainly contributed to our own problems today, especially with five turnovers. Wisconsin scored 20 points off turnovers in this game. We certainly didn?t play well enough to win today, but turnovers are a big problem for our team right now. We?ve committed 11 turnovers the last two weeks.
?We?re not scoring a lot of points on offense and we?re not possessing the ball like we did earlier this year. We ran only three plays from scrimmage in the third quarter. Our turnovers contributed largely to the difference in the game. With the bye week coming up, we?ll try to regroup. We have a lot of things to straighten out on both sides of the football. We need to improve in a lot of areas for the stretch run.
?We certainly didn?t stop the run like we needed to against them. Wisconsin has an outstanding offensive line, a great running back in Ron Dayne and a young quarterback in Brooks Bollinger who adds another dimension to the offense. We didn?t execute like we needed to on defense but give Wisconsin?s offense credit for what it did today, especially in running the football.
?I thought that we were well prepared for the game and the team had a good mental attitude coming in. Four turnovers in the first half put us 20 points behind at the half and Wisconsin had the ball almost the entire third quarter.
?I thought our defense would play better. I didn?t think that we would stop Wisconsin cold because I don?t think anyone can do that, but I thought that we?d play better than we did today. On its first series, Wisconsin drove 87 yards in just four plays. That was a little bit shocking to me because I thought we were ready to play. We competed at times on defense but at other times, we didn?t execute very well. Against a team like Wisconsin, you have to execute almost perfectly and you have to get a lot of guys on the ball because Dayne is a hard guy to tackle. I was disappointed that we didn?t run to the ball better. You can?t tackle Dayne one up. You have to gang tackle him. We?d have a player take him on but without any other support, so he?d drag a guy 4, 5, 10 more yards. I was really impressed with Wisconsin?s ability to run the football.
?In his own way, Dayne is perhaps that best running back I?ve coached against. There have been some other backs that are a little more flashy because of their great speed or big-play ability. Flashy guys seem to impress you more but down in and down out, Dayne is a tough guy to deal with all day long and a tough guy to tackle. He?s about as good as anybody I?ve ever seen. You have to play to stop him almost every down.
?For the second straight week, we weren?t very productive on offense. We considered making a change at quarterback several times but decided to stay with Bill Burke. He made a couple of poor decisions and poor throws today. We thought it might help Bill?s confidence if we stayed with him. The wind was really swirling in the stadium today, probably from 20-30 miles per hour, and honestly Ryan Van Dyke struggled a little bit with the wind in pregame warmups. Certainly, we missed Gari Scott today because he?s been a productive player for us all year long. But when a key player is out of the lineup, it?s time for other guys to step up and make plays. Herb Haygood had some nice catches. T.J. Duckett played well and broke the long touchdown run in the fourth quarter. T.J. has been slowed by a sprained foot the last two weeks. In fact last week, we only used him in short-yardage situations.
?Overall, it just wasn?t a good day but we?re going to keep a positive attitude. We haven?t played well the last two weeks but we have three league games left after the bye week. We?re going to find out why we haven?t been playing well and get those things fixed for the November schedule. There?s a lot of football left.?
