Grinz on Green Blog: Spartans Make Another Defensive Stand
10/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Grinczel, MSUSpartans.com Online Columnist
For the second straight week, undefeated Michigan State had to make a defensive stand to preserve a win.
On Saturday night at Rutgers, in Piscataway, New Jersey, the No. 4 Spartans were 43 seconds away from victory after 3-yard touchdown run by freshman tailback LJ Scott capped a 10-play, 76-yard drive that took 3:33 off the clock.
After the ensuing kickoff sailed out of bounds, the Scarlet Knights moved the ball from their own 35-yard line to the MSU 40 on a 25-yard pass from Chris Laviano to Andre Patton. On first down, Laviano spiked the ball to stop the clock, and his next pass was broken up by MSU linebacker Darien Harris.
On third down, Spartan defensive tackle Malik McDowell sacked Laviano for a 10-yard loss. Laviano lost track of the downs and "clocked" the ball again on fourth down, giving back to the Spartans with three seconds remaining in their 31-24 victory.
A week earlier, Purdue trailed 24-21 when it got the ball back on a Jake Hartbarger punt into the end zone with 2:58 remaining. The Boilermakers advanced the ball from their 20 to the MSU 47 with the help of a Spartan holding penalty. But, the possession fizzled after they committed a false start penalty and failed to complete any of their final three passes.
"We pulled it off, but we made it exciting as usual," said co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel. Injuries that have sidelined linebacker Ed Davis and defensive backs Vayante Copeland and RJ Williamson have wreaked havoc on the MSU defense's cohesiveness.
Consequently, Tressel was happy with the way the Spartans allowed Rutgers to convert just 3 of 12 third-down situations. However, they gave up another long run, a 72-yarder by tailback Paul James to set up the Knights' first touchdown. Meanwhile, wide receiver Leonte Carroo, who was reinstated after a two-game suspension on Wednesday, burned the Michigan State secondary with seven catches for 134 yards and three touchdowns.
The Spartans were barely out of their uniforms and showered before Tressel was already turning his attention to getting the defense ready for next Saturday's game at Michigan.
"In general, we did a pretty good job of getting off the field on third down, so we've been improving in that area," Tressel said. "(The Knights) were able to run on us a little bit in the second half, so we'll make sure we'll crank that up because we know that's something that Michigan's going to try to attack as well.
"But, we got it done in the long run. We got some pressure (on Rutgers) and didn't allow them to execute in the end."
Carroo, a highly rated NFL draft prospect, proved to be a wild card while giving Rutgers a 14-7 lead with two second-quarter touchdowns, and his score in the third cut MSU's lead to three points.
"He added speed to the receiving corps," Tressel said. "They had not thrown the ball down the field very much at all when he wasn't in the game. All of the sudden he's back and they a little bit more of a vertical passing game and in the end, when we knew they had to throw the ball, we were able to do some coverages that put a couple guys in his area and we made sure we identified where he was.
"We were not going to let him beat us in the long run."
Tressel remains hopeful that the injuries that have ravaged the secondary will subside.
"We'd sure like to get it a little more even where we're not having to bounce personnel around so much," he said. "We have good players. We just need to be more consistent. That's what we've been talking about: don't try to do too much, try to do your job at the highest level, don't try to do anybody else's, don't try to do more.
"If we have 11 guys doing their best, we have a chance to be very good. But, we haven't been there yet." Middle linebacker Riley Bullough can only imagine how good the Spartans would be if they could pair their stubborn streak with a healthy lineup that's had time to work together.
"I just think our team is resilient on offense and defense," Bullough said. "Obviously, we've got a lot of guys banged up right now, but we're staying competitive and we always want to win no matter what's going on. We've had a few guys step in and help us, but we've got to try our best to keep our guys in there.
"We're a bend-but-don't-break kind of team right now. Especially in a close game, you need to stop people on third downs and for the most part I think we did that. We've just got to build on some other things and keep getting better."
The defense has shown Bullough enough to let him know that it can be much more effective.
"It's just about being consistent on every play," he said. "I think that's the big problem we have right now. We do good for a lot of plays in a row, but then we slip up on one and it's huge gain. The great teams don't do that, or they limit them as best they can, so that's one area we need to work on.
"If we can just get our guys in there and jell as a unit, not just in games but in the week of practice so you have guys in there who understand how their teammates are going to play when they're out there, is important. Injuries make that much tougher to have that chemistry, but it's something we have to keep working on."
While giving up big plays has been troubling, junior safety Demetrious Cox believes it's more a matter of what the Spartans are doing wrong than what offenses are doing right.
"We made little technical mistakes and they took advantage of it and made plays," said Cox, who led MSU with eight tackles. "We don't make excuses. We come out every week with a No. 1-defensive-in-the-country mindset. We talk about playing Spartan dog defense, but everybody's got to be locked in on every single play. In the end, we just played with better technique."
