Michigan State’s offense wasn’t pretty, even when it worked Saturday.
EAST LANSING — Michigan State’s offense wasn’t pretty, even when it worked Saturday.
Missed assignments and miscommunication by the offensive line. Wrong routes and drops by the wide receivers. Struggles at running back and quarterback. Faulty play-calling and stalled drives.
Even Tyler O’Connor’s touchdown pass to Delton Williams came off glitchy, with the shotgun snap nearly hitting an in-motion R.J. Shelton and turning into a loose ball situation.
The timing is off, no question. But beyond the naked eye, the DVR rewinding and slow-motion video/still-photo analysis, the Spartans’ struggles simply do not rest solely on O’Connor’s head and shoulders.
No doubt, mistakes were made offensively in the 24-21 overtime loss to Indiana, MSU’s second straight to start Big Ten play. They came from young players like Donnie Corley and veterans like Brandon Clemons.
And, yes, they came from O’Connor, too.
The Spartans produced 438 yards of offense, including 234 from O’Connor’s arm and 36 more from his legs. However, he failed to get the offense on the same page and needed to burn a timeout on second down in overtime, with his teammates confused and frustrated.
Then came two sacks of the fifth-year senior on the next two snaps. O’Connor admitted afterward that he probably should have handed off the ball on the first play to LJ Scott on the run-pass option. But sophomore left tackle David Beedle’s man beat him off the edge and dropped the quarterback. On the next play, Beedle missed a “twist exchange” with junior Brian Allen, and O’Connor didn’t have a chance to even get rid of the ball.
Beedle also had a pair of false starts, part of why MSU is shuffling its offensive line for this week’s game against BYU (3:30 p.m./ABC).
“I always talk about the thumb,” offensive line coach Mark Staten said Wednesday as he pointed to his own chest. “I always talk about, ‘Hey, what’s Mark Staten doing?’ and the O-line trying to take that, ‘Hey, what am I doing?’ philosophy.
Three freshmen receivers are now in the six-man rotation, but Corley dropped a deep O’Connor pass from the end zone in the third quarter, which landed on his hands in stride. It could have been a touchdown, or at least a big third-down conversion. Add that in and O’Connor eclipses 300 yards and might have four TD passes.
Mark Dantonio said those young wideouts also struggled with their assignments.
“What you also don't recognize is that a route needs to be run at 18 (yards) and it’s run at 13 – big difference for the quarterback,” Dantonio said. “You've got some drops out there. You've got a guy running a route or not running a route when it's a pass route and he's out there blocking. I mean, that causes a problem for the quarterback.
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Even the players who returned with experience this season hadn’t played the same significant roles during the past three years. There’s an adjustment period when you lose players to the pros such as Connor Cook, Aaron Burbridge, Jack Allen, Jack Conklin and Donavon Clark.
Perhaps the surprising reality is MSU’s offense is actually producing more yardage than it was a year ago at this time (406.2 per game in 2016 through four games, 372.2 in 2015). It has four more first downs as well.
One of the problems has come in finishing drives – the Spartans had five more touchdowns last season and six fewer turnovers. MSU also is converting just 38% of its 56 third-down chances compared to 49% of just 49 third downs a year ago.
O’Connor is throwing for 20 more yards per game than Cook did a year ago as a fifth-year senior and has eight TD passes to Cook’s nine. The five interceptions and lost fumble this season, though, are a big difference in the quarterback spot. So, too, are the eight sacks O’Connor has absorbed compared to the three times Cook was dropped in last year’s first four games.
The Scott-Gerald Holmes-Madre London trio has run for 30 more yards this season. They also have just four TDs to eight at this time a year ago, and Scott’s costly fumble swung momentum in the loss to Wisconsin.
And that doesn’t even get into the ongoing issue with penalties.
Yet there are two major differences in a year: the Spartans are scoring 10.4 fewer points, and they are 2-2 instead of 4-0.
And those are the stats that matter most. As Dantonio has said, it’s a collective failure on that front. Fixing those smaller issues are the only way to correct the larger ones.