Michigan State Snowflakes: The Defense

I'm not joining the crew overreacting calling the defense garbage, but I gotta say that 4th quarter was real, real rough. MSU got shut down in the 2nd and then all of a sudden in the 4th we couldn't do anything.

Hopefully it doesn't lay a blueprint for OSU. Either way, a win is a win! State sucks!

I thought the D mailed it in the second half. If we were playing a higher powered offense, the game may have been in danger. 

When they were playing hard, I didn't think MSU had much they could do. That's why we seen every QB they had.

Was this the Indiana moment for this team? Where we find out the defense really isn't all that great?

Rushing D concerned me today, especially knowing that the State QB's weren't that big a threat.   Things to clean up.  At least we won on the road while not playing perfectly.

Modest proposal: a Peppers snowflakes thread. I mean, he's a Heisman contender. Might as well talk about it. 

That was not the defense we had seen earlier this season... hope don brown can make the adjustments

MSU proved that a team can run the ball against our defense if they have a little bit of talent and put forth the right effort. We still have to improve, just when we thought we were near perfect.

...playing at Iowa at night then I was to start the day. Rivalry games are always tricky but the D was carved up a bit, especially in the running game. Charlton wasn't holding the edge, McCray was whiffin and even Jourdan was a bit off. Stiffened when we needed to though.I should be happier at 8andO and #2.

Really struggled against the run, tackling was poor, but I was most shocked with the lack of pass rush. 

Got stops when we needed to, some clutch red zone D, but not our best performance. Win and advance that's all that matters. 

poorly.  The holding on almost every play - some were egregious - certainly exacerbated the effect, but our DL could not disengage and really applied very little pressure.

If the MSU OL is garbage like the first 7 games and everyone's assessment leading into the game, then our DL just played a mediocre or worse game.

Also surprised at Brown's inability to speed them up, get pressure with blitzes or generate turnovers. 

Overall, the defense deserved maybe a C or C- grade today.

He had a great first half. Then in the second he was nowhere near the play on the arm-punt that extended MSU's drive to make it 30-17, then he got a PI call and got lost on the one throw to the end zone.

The defense on the whole was horrific today except in short yardage situations.

Every unit is going to have bad game - fortunately the offense bailed out the defense. The defense definitely bailed out the offense earlier in the year. Throw in the fact that all of the pressure to win this game was on us, I'm not surprised they looked a bit tight. We need to build a culture of expecting to win these rivalry games - step 1 just happened. Hopefully this lesson will help them against Iowa and OSU.

Lots of missed tackles, but that could be because LJ Scott is a grown @$$ man.

The first half wasn't great, but it was acceptable.

The second half was a steaming pile of manure.

There is no way... none... that they beat OSU playing like that unless the offense goes lights out.

like less rotation on d-line the usual.  Starter played a high proportion of the downs.

Why?  Especially when starter seemed a little gassed on the last two MSU drives?

The team who wins the rushing battle wins the game. Not today. 

We need to fix this or else OSU will gash UM's defense on the ground.

MSU OL was holding every single play. Any team can beat any team in the B1G. Blind refs are the great equalizer.

That sure didn't look like a number 1 defense in the country to me. I am absolutely furious with that 4th quarter effort. Definitely hope we got a bad game out of our system and can move forward.

Urban will pitch a ten with this film. Be interesting to see UFR. I saw a lack of want-to today. But, second road game; really first. And, it's a W. Move forward!

McCray just got exposed