V-Cast: Michigan State has to play a lot better than this to beat Rutgers and gain bowl eligibility
East Lansing, Mich. – It started as well as one could have hoped for Michigan State, which led by three touchdowns at halftime. But the way the second half played out made this 24-17 win over Purdue quite unsatisfying.
After Michigan State survived a scare from Purdue, SpartanMag staffers Jim Comparoni and Paul Konyndyk checked in from Spartan Stadium with the latest V-Cast.
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V-Cast Topics
Aidan Chiles: It was a story of two halves for Michigan State and the play of quarterback Aidan Chiles dictated the plot line. Chiles was effective in the first half, and that showed up in the fact that Michigan State scored 24 first-half points. In the second half, things took a dramatic turn for the worse as Chiles struggled to complete passes and the Spartans stalled out on offense as a result. While Chiles didn’t throw an interception in this game, his decision-making in the second half left a lot to be desired. One nearly costly instance was a third-down scramble where Chiles stepped out of bounds thinking he had picked up a first down. He hadn’t, and the Spartans were forced to go for it on fourth down. Luckily, the ball was spotted past the marker after a Chile sneak, allowing Michigan State to run out the clock.
Defensive Backfield: Michigan State is light in the defensive backfield due to injuries, and the Spartans struggled to get off the field on long passing downs in this game as a result. Purdue did a nice job of exploiting personnel issues in the Spartan secondary, picking on inexperienced junior Ade Willie throughout this game. Willie played a lot of snaps in this game with both Caleb Coley and Jeremiah Hughes unavailable due to injury. Willie was eventually replaced in this game by true freshman Andrew Brinson after giving up a deep ball completion on third-and-21. It is unclear whether Michigan State will get Coley or Hughes back for the regular season Big Ten finale against Rutgers next weekend. The Spartans were already playing without four starters in the defensive backfield with Charles Brantley, Chance Rucker, Malik Spencer, and Dillon Tatum all out for the season. Inexperienced players weren’t the only defensive backs that struggled in this game, veteran safety Angelo Grose also made some mistakes that shouldn’t be made by a player of his experience. Grose also made a handful of positive plays, however, tipping the ball on a interception by Jordan Turner and recording a sack early in the first half.
